Bolivian Adventures

we've got the movies, you bring the popcorn!

2008-03-03T04:37:00.000-08:00

hello friends,
after our sweat and our smoking computers we thought we would share some of our hard work with you guys before we touch the states soil. we hope you like them! we are packing some heavy suitcases and camera bags this morning and then we are off to santa cruz. it's a sad day for us trying to leave bolivia and the people we have come to love, but don't worry we are still excited to see all of you so we hope you're excited to see us! well i better be off to packing! see some of you soon!

this is a video of the radio station for the quechua communities

this is a video of the sete ministry - a ministry that trains pastors.

this is a video of the story of pastor greggario, a local pastor in cochabamba.

what? did someone say march?

2008-03-01T09:22:00.000-08:00

hi friends,

honestly it's march today, how crazy. sometimes when i look back on the past two months it flew by and other times when i look at everything we saw, photographed and are now attempting to communicate through videos, design and writing it feels like forever! so that is basically what we have been up to this week. it has been a flurry of editing, making videos, writing and of course the souvenir shopping, which i must say went very well! but friends its time to put this trip to a close.

we have just two more days here in cochabamba. on monday morning we will fly out to santa cruz where we need to spend the night and then we fly back to the states on tuesday and spend a day in charlotte for debriefing and then fly home to good old cold iowa on wednesday evening. so its a full schedule. but these next two days are critical in attempting to do as much work as we can while its all still fresh in our memories. God is working in bolivia so powerfully as i have said before and we are just two kids trying to record that. it feels like a huge job to be honest with you.

one story from yesterday will stick in my mind forever. we were going with the ministry called "la red." la red is a ministry that works with the youth leaders of bolivia. they train, support and encourage them as almost all of them are unpaid, untrained, volunteer positions. the ministry also works at reaching out in the community by working with the people who live at the dump. thats right friends, the dump. so we drove to the outskirts of town to the cochabamba landfill. it was this HUGE pile of garbage standing at the base of a small mountain. and when we looked closer we could see people climbing on top of it. we got out of the car in a very small community and began to walk closer to the pile of trash. we got to the opening of the gate that surrounded it when a man stopped us and talked with us for a bit and asked if we would please not take any photographs because so many people had come and photographed this community and really put these people on display. we came to know later that this whole community works on this huge trash pile everyday sorting out things that can be recycled. from plastic to aluminum to electronics, they search it all and sell it to the recycling companies in the city for around $3 per kilo. we also learned that these people are ashamed of themselves. if you reach out to shake their hand they will give you their wrist because they feel their hands are too dirty and they will never lift their heads to look you in the eye because they feel they are not worthy. so there i stood watching these two women dig through a small pile of trash in front of me. reeking of everything nasty and flies buzzing all around me. its an image i wasn't able to photograph, but an image i will never forget. and behind me stood this huge pile covered with people sorting. it was something so hard i couldn't wrap my mind around it. this was their life. they woke up everyday and dug through other people's garbage. so what la red is doing here is trying to change their lives with really small things. the first thing they did was put a water tank in the community because they are unable to use the water from the area because of all the contamination. the second thing they want to do is build showers so that the workers can come off the pile of trash and wash themselves before going home. the homes there were about 8ft x 10ft for an entire family but contained no running water. also the homes used to be built out of trash but the local university donated money for them to build their homes from brick. so all around the landfill you saw these tiny little brick houses. friends, its hard to imagine but God is working here even in this community. it was amazing and left me speechless for a good part of the rest of the day.

it is stories like these that we desire to tell in these next few days and when we get home. we would love your prayers that we finish strong here and continue to spread God's stories from bolivia as long as we can. your support through this journey has made it all possible, i wish we could show you that. all the emails, msn conversations, phone calls and everything else is what kept us going. well i better be off to some more editing and tackle this huge list of videos i need to make as well. and don't worry we promise to have a little fun before we leave too. we will check-in with you guys if we can. otherwise we will see some of you very soon! adios!

last week already?!

2008-02-26T18:55:00.000-08:00

we have arrived safely back in Cochabamba! Our time in LaPaz was a whirlwind, but it was wonderful. The team is much smaller there in LaPaz, but God is doing some incredible things for sure! There are two church plants, one that on Sunday morning was running out of space with over 200 people in attendance, and the other, a brand new (4 month) old church where in the last month, three cubans have come to Christ! God is just doing amazing things through this team, through the Bolivians who have been raised up to lead their church and youth groups, and who are reaching out to those in their communities, regardless of what other people think of them. (a large number of Cubans have been sent by Fidel Castro to Bolivia, to encourage the Communism movement) One particular Bolivian woman involved in this new church plant stepped out when everyone else was leary, and welcomed the Cubans with open arms, and this past week another man accepted Christ at church! Praise God!

One of our favorite things while being in LaPaz was the time we were able to spend getting to know team members, and hear their stories. To be able to sit and listen to how God stirred their hearts to take the next step to serving overseas, to hear their joys and their struggles. To once again be reminded of what our God can do through ordinary people! We serve a big God, a God who delights in using US to fulfill His plan, no matter what our gift may be.

Thanks for praying us through our Sucre and LaPaz trips- there was no altitude sickness for either of us, just a lot of heavy breathing after climbing stairs! :)

Hard to believe we have only a week left here in Bolivia! You can be praying for us as we attempt to finish off our to-do list before we head back to the States. We will be spending most of our time up in our apartment hammering the list out! (and some last minute souvenir shopping, of course) :)

out of shape...or just the altitude? you be the judge!

2008-02-20T12:20:00.000-08:00

hi friends,

we promise we didn't fall off the face of the earth because it has been so long since we have updated. we have been too busy trying to fill our lungs with oxygen that it has left little energy for typing. just kidding. well to give you the latest joni and tbone bolivia buzz here it is. we are currently in la paz, which sits at about 12,000 feet where we are staying. and its the coolest city because its just like a huge bowl. the roads here are insane though i must say.....going up and down like crazy! you want to make sure you get your brakes checked regularly here that is for certain. there is a fairly small team in la paz and so we are going to work closely with the missionaries here in the next five days. the team is looking for us to really record them and what their lives are like. it is a different misison for us thus far on our trip, but we are pretty pumped about it! so we are going to be doing some interviewing and photos and all that fun stuff at the same time. they also would really like us to write a lot so its time to dust off the pen and paper and see what we can do. so you guys can pray for us as we do this job for the missionaries here. we also are trying to have some fun too! :) yesterday we went to lake titicaca which is the highest, deepest navigable lake in the world! while we were there we went to what is called the island of the sun which is full of inca ruins! one of the ruins happens to be a HUGE flight of stairs. so up we climbed without much oxygen, and we get winded from just climbling like ten stairs at our apartment. but no worries we made it. it was a fantastic day of fun! other than that its down to the work desk for the rest of our trip.

and friends let me tell you about sucre as well. we were in sucre from february 13-18. we LOVED sucre. not that we don't like the other cities here in bolivia, but sucre has got such character from the people to the architecture to the chocolate shop which was our favorite. :) we also did a lot of photo shoots while we were there to help the missionaries on their home assignment presentations and also to help fill the need for people to come and work with the quechua people. we were able to take a trip up into the countryside once again and were blessed like crazy once again. a quechua community let us in and we were able to photograph their life. friends, the world is big and so diverse, God has got quite the creativity! that trip to the countryside was also where we had the "opportunity" to hike a mile and a half straight up a mountain in ohhhhh about ZERO oxygen! we now know what the tortoises pace was in his race with the hare! us iowans being the tortoise and the bolivians being the hare! oh funny stuff! alrighty well life has been good getting busier by the second as we only have about two weeks left here in bolivia and a to do list as long as that hike up that mountain! so i better run and get to some editing and writing. we love hearing from all of you when you get the chance. we hear that iowa is freezing today so we promise to send as much warmth from here as we can. i hope you all are doing great! thanks for all your support, this trip and these photos wouldn't happen without you guys! hasta luego!

ps-we'll post photos as soon as we can and as this internet speed allows! :)

venturing off to the lands of higher altitude!

2008-02-12T13:39:00.000-08:00

Hello friends-

We are glad to announce that we have been water balloon free since Saturday! :) what a relief!
Tomorrow morning we start some more traveling! Our flight leaves at 8:50 am to head to the city of Sucre, where we will be for 4-5 days, really focusing on the needs they have for more people to come and work among the Quechua. Then after that we will be heading to the city of LaPaz, where the altitude at the lowest point is 11,000 ft and rising! It is the home of the highest commercial airport in the world... where planes don't land, they just stop! So you can pray that the altitude sickness we will experience won't last very long! I stopped at the pharmacy today and bought us some pills for it, so lets hope they work!

We will be returning back to Cochabamba on the 25th of February. We are really excited to be able to see other parts of Bolivia.. not that we haven't enjoyed Cochabamba, but we keep hearing great things about Sucre and La Paz,- we are ready to experience it for ourselves!

Thanks for praying!

carnaval.......check that one off the list

2008-02-10T07:42:00.000-08:00

friends have we got a story for you,

ok so we thought carnaval was only on monday and tuesday as i had mentioned in our previous entry. but we were informed that no, carnaval goes until today, Sunday. so our dear friend amalia asked if we wanted to go and see the parade. we looked at her and said, "are we gonna get wet?" she assured us we would get a little wet but we thought, "why not this will totally be worth it because we heard the costumes and dancers would be unbelievable." so yesterday afternoon we headed out. and the next part really is just a blur. but first let me back up.... as you may remember the belief here is that water symbolizes fertility thus causing boys to throw water balloons at any young woman. ok so back to the blur. so we get to the bridge that leads into the plaza of the city where the parade is taking place. and we look ahead to see all these boys with BAGS and BAGS and BAGS of water balloons about the size a baseball, water guns, and buckets. and not only are we looking at them but they are most certainly looking at us, like we are the next kill in the hunt for young white woman. we kept walking and we don't know how to describe it except for maybe like a war zone. within about 30 seconds we were soaked from head to toe and had about 15 welts all over our backs and faces, because nowhere in this belief does it say that you must throw the water balloons gently. in the middle of the bridge i looked back and couldn't find joni. later i found out someone had thrown a water balloon so hard that it caused her shades to go flying. so there she was like a sitting duck in the middle of a war zone on almost all fours looking for her shades. when she finally found them she realized one of the lenses was gone. she thought i need to get out of here and decided to leave the missing lens behind. but a good samaritan found her lens and came running to her with it. i think that might have been the only good samaritan there was. :)

so we made it over the bridge and in my mind i thought, holy smokes at least thats over. but little did we know it would continue our whole walk down the plaza, which was about an eight to nine block walk. it was a blur of being hit by water balloons from head to toe, being sprayed with white foam from head to toe and trying to keep track of each other in what was the biggest mob of people i have ever seen. at one point my face was completely covered with white foam that a gentleman had so kindly sprayed on me and i went to wipe my face with my hand only to discover they both were covered. so i moved on to my shirt only that was covered as well. i looked ahead and saw that joni's shirt was pretty clean, wet but clean. so i went to grab her shirt to wipe my face but she assumed i was some crazy man trying to feel her up. so took a swat at me. good thing i had one clean eye that i saw her hand with. finally after what seemed like hours we reached a spot where we could see the parade and also i had a good view of incoming balloons so i could at least prepare us for the incoming bomb shells. and let me tell this parade, once we got to see it, really was cool. there are groups that come from all over bolivia and dress up in amazing costumes and do a native dance. the parade is non-stop starting around 9:00 am, and we still heard them last night when we went to bed around 11:00 pm.

but soon our wet clothes started to chill our bodies. so we decided to make the journey home. luckily we only had to walk about two blocks out of the plaza and catch a taxi. once safely in the taxi we were able to see all the craziness clearer. its indescribable. they must go through a million balloons every hour, i swear. the ground is just covered. after a small traffic jam we finally found ourselves at home. soaked and cultured for sure, but laughing about every moment. its a day we won't forget for a long time. joni had taken her small camera and wrapped it about 7 times in a plastic bag so here are some of the images she grabbed! hope you enjoy!!!!!!!

this was a common costume style for the ladies. and check out those high heels - crazy ladies but at least they are dry

some of the men's costumes were really elaborate - costing up to $1,000

a boy still trying to get us wetter while we were inside the taxi

this was the first war zone - the bridge

and give it up for the carnaval survivors!

where did january go......

2008-02-07T04:51:00.000-08:00

friends,

i can't hardly believe as i sit here in our apartment that january has flown by and also that we haven't updated this blog since last week tuesday. so let me give all you guys a brief window into the lives of tbone and joni here. as some of you know and some of you don't, joni and i decided to make some friends with some amoebas and parasites who made residence in our stomachs. not really the kind of friends we were looking to make, but man did they want to be friends with us. therefore joni and i became good friends with our bathroom as well. it lasted about 5 days for both of us. first i got it and then it moved on to joni. but after two doses of medication and a lot of rest we are feeling back on top of things again. thanks to so many of you who prayed us through that.

meanwhile bolivia has been rockin out. the past three days there has been a festival happening all over the city of cochabamba. it isn't a great festival to be honest with you. the holiday is known as a pagan holiday where the catholics believe that they can commit any sin for those three days. so the air has been filled with fireworks and the sounds of bands and partying. they also believe that water is a symbol of fertility. thus the boys feel the need to hurl water balloons and buckets of water at young women (aka-joni and i). we only had two water balloons actually hit us so we were thankful for that.

so whats next for me and joni????? well, we about 5 days left here in cochabamba before we travel out to la paz and sucre (two other cities here in bolivia where SIM works.) so in those 5 days we are taking what we have photographed and seen and trying to produce the products requested for each ministry. so honestly guys we covet your prayers. its a big time for us to take all the work we have done in the last month and put it into a message that will touch the hearts of everyone who comes in contact with it. because let me tell ya guys, God is working here and it is sooooooo clear to us. we just pray that we can communicate that in everything we do in the next few days.

ok so that is us in a nutshell from the past week. we hope this message finds all of you staying warm and living life to its limits. talk to you soon...... adios!

Camp Kewina II

2008-01-29T16:27:00.000-08:00

Last week we had ventured out into the mountainside to Camp Kewina. Here are a few images from that trip!

La Red

2008-01-29T16:21:00.000-08:00

La Red Juvenil is another ministry here in Cochabamba, that primarily works with training up and encouraging youth leaders.

There is a statistic saying that by the year 2012, 75% of all Bolivia will be under the age of 25. That calls for a major uprising in youth ministry!

We were able to attend some youth events, and later this week we will be shadowing a youth leader, to see what it is like to be a youth leader in Bolivia.

Apoyo (support)

2008-01-29T16:11:00.000-08:00

One of the SIM ministries here is Apoyo. Apoyo is all about helping the pastors of Bolivia, and will do all that they can to help them. One thing that is drastically different for pastors here, is that most of them do not get paid for their ministry. They spend their lives moving from here to there, in whatever is available for them to live in. There are even some pastors who are paid in potatoes and rice!

One of the many facets of this ministry includes three year interest free loans given to pastors for one of either three things: to buy land, construct a house, or rent a house.
Since pastors are always moving, this helps those who are ready for retirement and provides a place for them to live. Pastors are unable to loan money from the banks here because of their low salaries and the high interest loans. Bolivian pastors are paid $30-40 per month.

Through this ministry we met Pastor Gregario. We were able to spend all morning with him on Friday morning, and we were definitely blessed by it. He had such an incredible story from being given up by his parents, to running away, to being found by his family, to entering the military, becoming a Marxist, to being invited to church and the rest is history. He has been a Christian since 1964, and a pastor shortly after. He has planted several churches, and is planning on retiring after next year.

On Sunday morning we were able to go to Pastor Greg’s church. We just loved it. The people were incredibly warm and welcoming, and didn’t mind as we wandered around taking photos, which always helps.

Towards the end of his teaching, I heard my name being called. Now SIM prepares us in training to be ready to “preach, pray or die at any moment.” Well the pastor was asking me to share about my time in Africa and share how the church is doing there. They were looking at missions and persecution in the sermon. So I went to the front and spoke for about 10-15 minutes on the church in Ghana, Liberia and Niger. And then my favorite
thing happened since being here... All of the Bolivian church members stood
up, bowed their heads and prayed for the Christians and churches in
Ghana, Liberia and Niger. It was quite a moment for me... To see the world
and Christians coming together not only from my home country to Africa, or
home country to Bolivia... But Bolivia to Africa. It was the natives that I wasn’t expecting to pray for these other countries, yet it was one of the biggest blessings to be a part of.

La Cristo de la Concordia

2008-01-29T15:57:00.000-08:00

One of the things that stands out most in Cochabamba is the large statue of Christ, which overlooks the city. It is roughly 100 feet tall, and stands with arms outstretched.. It really is a beautiful sight. We decided to venture up to the top of the mountain to see the Cristo up close and personal.

There are three options when visiting the Cristo: take a taxi for $2 to the top, take a cable car for 40 cents to the top, or walk the 1,399 steps. We opted for the cable car. Once to the top there are some stairs to get to the statue… enough for us to be thankful we did not walk the other 1,369 steps!

Once to the top there is an option where you can climb inside Christ and go all the way up to his armpits to a look out section… a once in a life time chance- to climb up to Christ’s armpits! Unfortunately he was closed that day. Bummer.

But you cannot help but notice the incredible view from up there. At that level you are at about 8,500 feet above sea level, looking at the incredible valley all around you filled with more houses and buildings than you can imagine. The weird thing for me was looking down at the airport, and seeing an airplane take off BELOW me.

Since the view is so spectacular, its pretty easy to see the rain coming in, so we decided it was time to take our 40 cent ride back down to the bottom before we get poured on!

jamming with the quechua

2008-01-29T15:44:00.000-08:00

Early Sunday morning we were able to go to Radio Mosoj Chaski, where we have been photographing different aspects of their ministry. Sunday morning is a special morning for the radio because musical groups from the countryside and city make their way to the studio to play live on the radio. We woke up on Sunday morning to pouring rain, which meant probably no groups traveling to the station, because they don’t want to get their instruments wet. But after a quick phone call, we found out there were two groups waiting for us! So we hurried down just in time to photograph them.

The group Teresa photographed had a baby on the back of the woman. When they were almost done with their last song the baby started screaming! It was quite humourous to those of us outside the studio, but T said with all the instruments and singing they could hardly hear it from inside the room.

anyone up for a tour?

2008-01-27T04:21:00.001-08:00

hi friends,
so its been three weeks since we first arrived here. how crazy! well after three weeks we decided to give you guys a little tour of the day to day life of me and jones in bolivia. and we all know you have been dying to see our place :) so we thought we would give you a small tour. so here we go:

here is our friend joni walking to market on a saturday

here is the crazy saturday market. full of every kind of fruit and veggie you can imagine.

here we are returning with our splendid purchases. our apartment is just up these stairs. we won't say how winded we are when we climb them. but if we were to get winded its because of the altitude right??????

and here is our lovely kitchen.

and here is the living room with joni taking a tiny little snooze.

bedroom one

bedroom two

and the room you have been dying to see - the bathroom

so there you are friends. that's the grand tour. to give you guys a small update on the rest of our lives... we had a great week and weekend here in bolivia. our week was packed full of powerful stories, great photo shoots and some good relaxation. we hope to post some of our work later on so stay tuned. as for today which is sunday, we already went to the radio station this morning and photographed some quechua music groups. those quechuas can really jam out, it was fun. and now we are going to photograph a pastor at a church service and then we have prayer day today with the SIM gang. so its a busy day for us today, keeping us hopping. we hope you all had a great weekend wherever you may be. adios from bolivia!

rainy season is definitely here!

2008-01-23T11:07:00.000-08:00

We have safely made it back home from another mountain adventure! This time the road was much a much better one, and the trip only took 2 hours. We spent our time at a place called "Camp Kewina", an SIM run camp for youth. This particular camp was for Quechua country kids, ages 6-10. Camp Kewina operates with 5 staff members, and the rest are volunteers. There were about 200 kids for this camp... so kids were running around everywhere! I was photographing the cabin with the 6 year old girls, and the counselor had to leave to get some things, so thru a game of charades I figured out that she wanted me to watch them and make sure they didn't run outside. Well that is all fine and dandy, but these girls are speaking Quechua, not Spanish... so anything they said to me I had no hope of understanding! I could figure out most things they were asking just by the direction they were heading or what they had in their hand, but needless to say i'm sure the only word I said while the counselor was gone was "no." What a fun counselor I am, huh?

World Vision has quite a few projects in the countryside of Bolivia, where kids are sponsored by lovely people like yourself, and then are given the opportunity to attend camp.
So this happened to be one of those World Vision camps, which happens about ten times a year. And to achieve the full effect of camp, the rainy season proved faithful in providing us with non-stop showers while we were there. They told us that this has been the rainiest rainy season they have had for the last ten years.

The camp is set perfectly on the mountain ranges with a lake out front, where I'm sure if it were America, would be packed full of huge houses, seeing its prime real estate property! The seventy acres include 12 cabins, dining halls, meeting rooms, a gym complete with a rock climbing wall, trails throughout the mountain, and a challenge course. Plenty of things for these kids to do!

We are now back in Cochabamba, busy editing and preparing for our next photo shoots this week. Thank you once again for your prayers, and continue to pray for us as we start to pull things together project wise, and that our desire to tell their story meets their needs for their ministry.

hi ho, hi ho its up the mountain we go....

2008-01-21T04:25:00.000-08:00

hello friends,
well its monday morning here in bolivia and its going to be a busy week for these two iowa girls. a week that is packed full of trips, photo shoots, interviews, and hopefully some time to sleep! but we start today with a trip up the mountain again. and from what we are told we are going even higher than we did the last time we went. crazy, i thought we were on top of the mountain last time, but i guess not. as for the purpose of our trip we are going to photograph a camp called camp kewina. its a camp that ministers to children of all ages. but this weeks camp is for the kids of the countryside, one of their strongest camps. so we are pretty excited. it did rain yesterday so we are hoping the trip goes well. we also will be spending the night so you can pray that all goes well for these two kids for the next two days. well friends we better run and get packed and what not. we hope this message finds all of you doing well! we appreciate every one of you who reads this blog. you guys are the best!

from the mountain tops...

2008-01-19T11:31:00.000-08:00

we're not in iowa anymore....

2008-01-18T13:51:00.000-08:00

hi friends,

can i just tell you we had the most amazing day yesterday. it started at 5:00 for us when we were ready but little did we know we wouldn't leave until 6:15. oh well we got to see the sunrise in bolivia, not by choice. jk! and the journey started up the mountain. man there was beauty up there that is hard to describe on a blog page. the huge mountains covered in green with horses, sheep and llamas grazing all over with the sweet sound of rushing water in the background. the trip was long, no lies from these two girls. but it was totally worth it.

the purpose of our trip was to photograph the quechua people who live up in the mountains: the people group who is reached with the mosoj chaski radio station. this radio station broadcasts in the quechua language from 4-8 AM and 6-10 PM. they broadcast things like the news, weather and such but also broadcast bible studies, bible readings and ministries for all ages and groups. most of these quechua communities are so remote that they don't have a church or a pastor to help lead them in their faith. so this radio station and visits is all that they have. we arrived in the first community around 9 and people just came out of the rocks man. but so friendly once they understood we were with the radio station. we sat with them then and had a small church service. so get this picture, here we are me and jones in the middle of nowhere mountains of bolivia and a few small voices raise a hymn to God in quechua. unbelievable. then they open up Gods word which was translated into quechua just a few years ago and they preach. Gods word is reaching the ends of the earth friends. and these people were hungry for the word too as they sat for hours and listened to the teaching these folks brought. it was sooooo good and on top of it all we got to photograph it. these people are beautiful from the inside out. after the service they would make us a little snack and one community even gave us a fresh lamb head so that we could make that lovely soup. but reluctantly we gave the lamb head to one of the workers from the radio.

so after two visits, two meals, a ton of images photographed, and two sunburned iowa faces we made our way down the mountain. granted we arrived at our apartment exhausted we were truly blessed. we thank you all so much for the prayers for good weather and a good trip. both of the requests were granted. i wish we could have taken you all up that mountain but i promise we will post photos soon but here isalso an image of us with amalia from our trip. amalia has been our surviving tool here in bolivia. showin us how to talk, how to eat, how to hail a taxi and how to have a lot of fun while we are here in bolivia. she is a little rockstar to us and a blessing from God. so we hope this message finds you all doing well. chow!

its raining, its pouring, hopefully no one is snoring

2008-01-15T09:36:00.000-08:00

oh friends,

its been awhile since we last wrote. so here i go with letting you in on a little bit of tbone and jones' bolivian life. i (tbone) wake up a lot of mornings and pinch myself that this is real. its been so wonderful. ministry wise we are off to a great start i think. as you may figure out by me posting this that we were not able to head up the mountain today. we were bummed! but it rained yesterday and its pourin today thus it makes the road up there fairly nasty. but we hope to make the trip on thursday so hopefully this rain stops for wednesday and thursday. you guys can totally pray for that.

as for the rest of our ministry jazz its going really well. its a lot of meetings with the ministries to discover what they do and how God is working. and guys, these ministries are amazing. but the hard part is how can we can show everyone how amazing they are. so we continue to listen to God for the best ways to communicate all this work He is doing here in Bolivia. yesterday we were able to photograph at the radio ministry here which broadcasts to the quechua people. it felt so good to put my eye up to the camera again. love it! we sure do.

lets see what else..... oh as you know jones and i like to eat and let me tell you friends the bolivians know how to eat. they eat 6 times a day. joni and i haven't fallen into that pattern yet! :) but honestly everything that we have tried we LOVE! although there is one soup boiled from a lamb's head and then they decide to leave the head in there as a centerpiece, so needless to say we probably might avoid that one! but honestly everything else is super!

life is good friends. we love hearing from all of you with your life news and encouragement. its humbling to know how many people care for us! we wouldn't be able to do any of this without your prayers, encouragement and support. we hear iowa is freezing so wrap up and stay warm. we better run and keep editing our photos before it gets out of control. as the bolivians would say - CHOW!

pictures, plans and progress!

2008-01-10T12:34:00.001-08:00

Before we find ourselves a month down the road and way behind in posting pictures, here are the few that we have taken! You would think as photographers we would have tons by now, but not yet... just wait, soon we will have so many we won't know what to do with them!

Here is one of the beautiful mountain peaks flying into Bolivia... from our incredibly clean window :)
That's right, Eat Fresh, Bolivia!!!

Here we are deciding to be touristy on our walk back to our apartment.

Ok, enough about that. This week we were able to tour the radio station that SIM has here, called Mosij Choski, which ministers to the Quechua people. This is also going to be our first project here, helping raise awareness of the ministries of the station, and also promoting the projects they have. There is so much that we could do for them, in fact they told us today that they would be able to keep us busy the entire time we are here. But, they are not the only ministry that needs help, so we will do as much as we can.

Next week we are hoping to take a trip up into the mountains and document how the Quechua live, and how this radio is impacting their lives, not just mechanically, but socially, spiritually, and health wise. Please pray for no rain on Tuesday for this trip to be possible. We both feel it would be invaluable information and photographs to help tell the whole story.

On a side note, today we were taking a taxi to the radio station when the taxi driver told us "I was told all the beautiful women were in the heavens, what are you two doing here?" and then as we got out, "If you two come out at night, you will make the starts jealous." Oh dear....

When I, (Joni) was in Africa, Tbone came to visit me in Ghana. While she was there we both photographed the SIM Pastors Conference, where the guest speaker was Joe Holmon, from the States. Well since then, Joe, his wife Denise, and their ten children, (yes, ten!) obeyed God's call and moved to Cochabamba, Bolivia! (the world just keeps getting smaller) So we have both been able to reconnect with Joe and look forward to meeting the rest of his clan!

The next few days for us will be filled with more meetings with different ministries and brainstorming how we can effectively help them. One of the challenges is considering the different generations in our audience. Our age group tends to see things only 2 years at a time, when our parents see things in a long term vision. So our challenge is to present the needs in ministering to the Quechua, which may take 6-7 years before they are effective (b/c of language) to a generation that sees only short term. Please pray us as we brainstorm different medias for different generations and needs.

coke trees and cooking

2008-01-07T15:22:00.000-08:00

Well we have had a great second day in beautiful Bolivia! This morning we took our first public transportation (by bus) to the SIM office down town Cochabamba. There we were introduced to the office compound and ministries there, and also had a meeting with Dave Shipster (SIM director from South Africa), Allen Andrews (ministry coordinator) and Amalia (our personal short term coordinator). It was good to sit and talk about how we as photographers and designers can help the team here in Bolivia communicate what their needs are and what God is doing in this gorgeous country! All the people we have met so far are just great. Soon after we were walking around the streets of downtown thru markets stores looking for a few things that we need.

This afternoon we hit the supermarket... my oh my... missionaries are not "suffering" food-wise here at all! We were amazed at everything you can buy here- including Hershey's syrup for your ice cream AND Dr. Pepper! :) Really the only thing we were told is hard to find is chocolate chips- so that is pretty great!

So we drove up to the supermarket to find a HUGE 30 foot Christmas tree in the parking lot. But it wasn't just an ordinary Christmas tree- it had lights around it yes, but it was made entirely of full Coca-cola bottles! Coolest Christmas tree I've ever seen.

After our supermarket and vegetable market trip we had our cooking lesson for our time here. Why the cooking lesson you may ask? Since we are living at a higher elevation, there are a lot of changes in how we bake things (that is IF we will bake.... :) but also how to properly wash our fruits and veggies before we can eat them.

Some other news we found out today is that we can unpack in the apartment we are in! It sounds like we will be staying in Cochabamba for about a month before we move on to other places. So instead of living out of our suitcase for half of our time here, we can spread out a bit which is a great feeling!

Well before I bore you all with more details I am going to sign off! :) Thanks again for praying for us and our transition. Please pray that as we discuss options with Dave (the Director) that God would clearly show us which ministries to focus on! Thanks!

phew! we made it!

2008-01-06T10:43:00.000-08:00

thats right friends the journey is over. after four planes and some small layovers we made it. and also so did all of our equipment and baggage. so yeah for that. just to let you guys know we are currently in the city of Cochabamba. we are surround by some sweet lookin mountains. thus our view out of our window is a bit different than the iowa plains. we also just got settled in to our HUGE apartment here and are catching some lunch here in a second. thanks for all your prayers thus far. you guys seriously rock! we will chat with you friends later!

away we go!

2008-01-04T09:24:00.000-08:00

ok friends. so here it is the corner of the world that we are going to hop on a plane tomorrow to go and explore. so many of you have wished us well with hugs, emails and promises to pray. you guys are all so awesome. we hope to keep this as up to date as we possibly can but also feel free to email us at tboordt@hotmail.com ( tbone) or bykerwoman@hotmail.com (joni). we hope you all had a great holiday and the next time we chat with you we will be in bolivia!!!!! crazy!!!! farewell friends!