Lost in the Andes
No.30 February 2003Realities of the Campo I write this letter to you today with a somewhat sad heart, but a hopeful spirit. We had to make an emergency trip into the city yesterday afternoon to bring our friend Dionesia to a hospital. She is 51 years old and has been having pains in her uterus and hemorrhaging for six months. A few days ago there was a knock at our door at 6am by Dionesia's son asking us to come and pray for his mom. He told us the night before she was in extreme pain all through the night and her family thought she was going to die. We went over to her house to see her lying on the floor groaning and crying because of her pain. We immediately prayed with her and talked with her about the Lord and the hope found in Him. She seemed comforted and she prayed with us. We fervently prayed for His healing touch on Dionesia's body, and we asked the Lord to show His power to this family. We have seen the Lord work through healing in the campo to bring glory to Himself and to bring people to Himself. The Lord had other plans in mind, however, and we don't fully understand them, but we are hopeful in this situation. Dionesia's husband Victor had not been convinced in the past that her problem was serious enough to seek medical attention and spend money. We prayed that Victor would take responsibility for his wife's life and be willing to take her to the city. When we talked to him later that morning to see if he wanted to take his wife to Sucre he immediately broke down in tears and said yes he wanted to get help for her. We were thankful to see the love and care in his eyes that he has for Dionesia. We can see the Lord working in Victor's heart, as well as Dionesia's, especially when she had faith to ask us to come and pray for her. We have been able to talk to the family about Jesus and His love for them and today as we sat in the hospital waiting with Victor, Pete was able to talk to him more about knowing God and trusting in Him This family is so close to knowing the peace of God and we ask you now to pray for them. Please pray that the Lord would reveal His power and His love through this situation. Please pray that the Lord would have mercy on Dionesia and allow her to live longer here on this earth with her family. At the time of this writing, the doctors have not found out what is wrong with Dionesia, and we are returning to Sorocoto. A friend from the office will continue to visit and help them. We will update you on her condition next month. Thank you for your prayers. It is an extreme privilege for us to be Jesus' hands and feet where we live and to show the people love and compassion. We pray that the family will see Jesus in our actions and in the way we want to serve them.
Another medical emergency that happened two weeks ago involved a young single mother who had given birth to her first baby, but the placenta would not come out. The girl's brother came to Pete to ask him to take her to the nearest hospital, which is in a small campo city called Potolo, a two-hour drive away. Pete drove the girl to Potolo and when they arrived, the doctor was not even there. They continued on and drove to Sucre, only to find the road was blocked for 300 meters by boulders and campesinos, who were participating in the national protest against the government. Praise God there was another old road that went to the city that was not blocked off and Pete was finally able to make it to the city and to the hospital where the girl had the operation and is now doing all right. The doctor said she would have died if she had not gotten help that day because she had lost so much blood. These are the realities of the campo. The people live by the grace of God and when an emergency arises they do not have many choices. To get to the city to receive medical help is not an easy thing and once in the city they do not have much money to pay for the care they need.
Mouse Attack On a lighter note, but still looking at another reality of the campo is the issue of mice. Most of you probably do not have problems with mice in your homes with the exception of people who live in the country. We first had mice in our home two years ago when we moved into our house, but after putting poison around we cleared them out. Last month, however, we were attacked once more. After coming back from our visit in the States we traveled back to our home in Sorocoto after being away from it for a month. We soon discovered that mice had found their way inside the house while we were gone. There were mouse droppings everywhere and a few holes that revealed where they had chewed their way inside. It was a disappointing discovery, but we bucked up and decided to make a full on attack to rid them from our home. Within the next 5 days Pete had killed 4 mice, either by whacking them with our whiffle ball bat, or in the various traps he had set. Finally the house was silent again without the pitter-patter of little mouse feet running around and we were thankful for a mouse clean home once again. The story, however, did not end there. Three weeks later Lori was pulling out a t-shirt from her cubby where she keeps all her clothes and she noticed that one of her shirts had been torn. She pulled it out and there was a huge hole in it and she immediately blamed it on the mice. She then went through all of her clothes to inspect for any further damage. She found another t-shirt ruined and 2 pairs of underwear also chewed up. While she was folding her clothes on the bed to put back into her cubby, she was horrified to see what was laying on the bed…three dead baby mice. Yes, a mouse had given birth to babies right in her clothes! Pete had to take care of the babies as Lori was on the verge of throwing up. This story might sound gross to you and it was a horrible thing to see, but once again, we were reminded of the realities that our neighbors live with. They have mice running all around their homes and they do not have high tech mousetraps to kill them. They simply live with them and hope that they won't eat too much of their stored up food.
Thank you for your prayers for the people, as well as for us.
Pete & Lori
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Lost in the Andes
No.31 March 2003Phase Out If you can remember way back when we first came to Bolivia, we committed to a three year contract. We are now in the last half of our third year, and it's hard to believe that our contract is coming to an end. In November of last year, FH asked us to consider extending our contract, but after our trip home this past Christmas we both felt the Lord giving us confirmation about going back to the States in August when our contract ends. Our longing to be with family again is the main reason for not extending, also we feel like our work here in Sorocoto is coming to an end. We wanted to explain to you what our plans are for these last six months. First, we want to pass on the ministries that we have begun here specifically the Sunday school and the Saturday night Bible study. Pete wants to finish discipling Simon, the main church leader, by working through the main doctrines of our faith. Our plan is to stay here in Sorocoto for the next three months in order to train up leaders to take over the ministries. The last three months of our time in Bolivia will be spent in Sucre. FH has asked us to put together training material that will teach others how to live and work full time in the campo, as we have. In the past, FH has never placed their workers full time in the campo, instead they would travel back and forth to the city and the impact on the community lessened because of the inconsistency. We were the first for FH-Bolivia to live full time in a community and from our example they see the importance of this model. Therefore, their desire is to have more of their workers living full time in the campo and they want us to assist in the training of these workers. We have already begun this process of putting together training materials and in the months of June, July, and August our focus will be on this alone. During those months we will be visiting Sorocoto and our friends to see how the ministries are doing, but most of our time will be spent in the city. Please pray for us during these next months as we begin to phase out and especially that the Lord would raise up workers here in Sorocoto to take over the ministries.
River Crossing “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.” Isaiah 42: 2a Our lives here in Bolivia have never been without adventure. The Lord continues to place us in situations that strengthen our faith. Last month when we came into the city to bring our friend Dionesia (see update below) to the hospital we stayed in the city for 2 days before we headed back out to the campo. The day we traveled was a rainy day and as we got closer to our valley we wondered if the river would be too high to cross. There are four places in the river that you have to cross and the first part was very low and easy to cross, but the second part was more questionable. Pete, however, had confidence in the truck and plunged into the water. The water was deeper than he expected and when we were almost to the other side, the river began to push the vehicle as water began pouring into truck. Immediately Pete said, “We need to get out, now!” Pete was able to jump out his door, and Lori climbed out the window since the river had already pushed the truck onto its side. Luckily we did not have many things in the truck and Pete was able to retrieve most of it through the window. The initial shock was hard to take as we watched our beloved jeep lay in the river with water rushing through it. There was nothing we could do that evening to get the jeep out since there was not another truck willing to help. We spent the night nearby in the community health post and at 9 pm, 8 of our friends from Sorocoto showed up to help. They heard what had happened and immediately left Sorocoto running (1 ½ hour walk) the whole way down to the river. They spent the night with us and in the morning we began working to get the jeep out. The sight was unbelievable. During the night, the river had grown even more and pushed the jeep onto its top. We had called the FH office the night before and they sent out a truck to help pull us out. After a couple of hours of the men pushing, and the truck pulling, the truck came out with no roof, all the windows gone, and the main cabin all bent out of shape. Pete traveled back to Sucre with the truck and Lori walked to Sorocoto with our friends. This has definitely been a hard experience to go through, but we have been encouraged. First, we were thankful that the Lord spared us from any injuries and we are both alive. Second, we were overwhelmed by the love and care shown to us by our friends. They said that their hearts hurt when they heard what had happened to us. They were there for us when we needed them and they were willing to do whatever to help. We have been shown great love and support from our church at home and FH, here in Bolivia and in the US. God has shown us His faithfulness in that our truck is being fixed and we will be driving it to the campo in a few weeks.Dionesia Thank you to those who have been praying for our friends Dionesia and her husband Victor as they go through this hard time. After two weeks of tests, the doctors found that Dionesia has cervical cancer. The cancer has advanced and cannot be treated through surgery. The doctors in Sucre believe that the cancer can be treated through chemotherapy and cobalt therapy. She is now entering her second week of cobalt therapy and first week of chemotherapy. The Lord is working in their lives through all of this. One significant praise is they have both decided to trust the Lord and claim Him as their Savior. Please pray that the Lord would heal Dionesia through the treatment, and for both of them as they begin to grow in their faith.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support.
God's blessings,
Pete & Lori
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