A Trip To The Campo

On August 20th a group of about 35 people traveled 3 hours outside of Cochabamba to a small Quechua village for a 1 day mission trip.  The project included a small dental clinic, sharing of the gospel though making salvation bracelets, a time of sharing the Word and playing soccer with the kids. 

This woman lives in the village and is 100 years old.

A stop on the way up Mount Tunari

Some of the village houses

Some of the village ladies hearing the story of salvation while making salvation bracelets

This pit was used for cooking.  

They would put the food into pots with some of the hot rocks from the fire pit.

The pots then went back into the fire pit.

They covered the pit completely and an hour later we had lunch...

A few of us hiked to the top of a nearby mountain to check out an altar.  This is where they would offer sacrifices to  Pachamama, or Mother Earth the fertility god who presides over planting and harvesting.

The kids playing soccer

Toro Toro

I recently got to spend 2 days in Toro Toro National Park.  Toro Toro is about 150 kms from Cochabamba and home to some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen.  Although it was the most intense hiking I've ever done, it was an awesome time of renewal.  It was great to be able to be away and relax.  The pictures below don't even begin to show the beauty of the mountains.

Yes, we had to climb up a broken tree branch to get to where we were going.  What you can't see is that the ledge I'm standing on is very, very small and on the other side was nothing...You fall, you die!  Yikes!

Very narrow passage way

Dinosaur foot prints...they are scattered throughout Toro Toro

Found a great swimming spot at the bottom of the canyon...

Amazing waterfalls

Yep, we had to climb through that to get down...

Amazing!

Birthday Time!!!

We recently celebrated C's 3rd birthday with a small gathering at our home.  The celebration, which I'm sure was the first of her life, was filled with cake, gifts and lots of love.  We even had the privilege of having Abbey, our special guest from Texas, here to celebrate with us.

FBC McKinney Team Visits Cochabamba!

We spent a week with an awesome group of friends from FBC McKinney.  The Simpson and Montgomery families came to Bolivia to experience our everyday lives. Their mission was simple: to uplift, encourage, support and love on our family. It is impossible to put into words how much of a blessing they were to us.

A few highlights of the trip:

1)  Jim doing magic tricks for the kids at house 2

                 Bubbles that don't pop when you catch them...Amazing!

Brock and Callan the esteemed magician assistants

                                                 
                                                      Card Trick

2)  Presenting a donation to CDA on behalf of FBC McKinney

And then playing with the kids at house 1

3)  New Clothes!!!!  The boys are still excited about their new pajamas!

4) The team experiencing the awesome ministry of baby washing on the plaza

5)  Supplies Supplies Supplies!!!

Six of those huge bags were filled with items for our family!  Needless to say we were as excited as children on Christmas morning!

Yep...that's right...a bunch of velveeta!

6)  The team hanging out with the kids at our house so that we could sneak away for a family day and a date night!

What an amazing time!  We are so blessed to have been able to spend time with these 6 wonderful people.  Their love for these children and our family was evident from the moment they got here.