THE CANNY CHRONICLES

The 2011-2012 school year has kicked off at the Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center (SCCLC). This school truly is a culture all it’s own. It is an educational institution for missionary kids from many different countries, Bolivians, and other students who desire a private education based off of an American curriculum and schedule. Some of you may know that Molly has her degree in Elementary Education and from 2007-2009 she served as the 4 th grade teacher at SCCLC. When we returned to Santa Cruz this past April we were feeling God directing us toward more ministry with our Spanish speaking churches and Molly knew that she wouldn’t be teaching full time. However, the key word in a missionary’s vocabulary is “flexibility”. As the school year was nearing the start, SCCLC still needed to fill many teaching positions. One of those positions was in the 4 th grade. A teacher was lined up, but she was still in the States raising her support. Molly saw a need and decided to help out. For ...

Work Team by the Numbers 15 Great New Friends 1 Trip Up the Mountain 1 Good looking couple 1 of many waterfalls at Las Cuevas 1 Flat Tire on the Bus 1 of 2 Spanish Sunday Morning Services This one at Lineage of God Church "GracePointe Choir" accompanied by Bryan on guitar 4 days of Manual Labor   2 Dump Truck Loads of Sand   Half a dozen blisters on each hand from this job of "tamping the floor"   12,000 bricks used for the project 5 Afternoons of Vacation Bible School July15-26 were amazing days for us in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, As you can see from the pictures, we did many things and went many places. Looking up at the waterfalls at Las Cuevas was breath taking and helped me appreciate God’s creation more and more. On the days when it rained too much to work at the building site, we took the team shopping around down town. This gave me a sense of pride as I realized I was starti...

Wow how fast a month flies by. A lot has been happening here in Santa Cruz. A Funeral: A couple from one our churches lost their 11 year old son due to medical complications. More of the story can be found HERE on Gordon Elliott’s blog. It was the first Bolivian funeral service for both Molly and me. It was an all day commitment. We arrived at the church around 9am and didn't leave the cemetery until about 2pm. It was such an unnecessary loss, but it seems a common thing when people just don't have the money to get the help they need. A Wedding:  Molly and I embarked on a daunting task of crafting as we agreed to supply over 20 bows for the wedding of Molly’s friend Veronica. I have a new found respect for the establishment of Hobby Lobby. There isn’t really a one-stop shop for all your crafting needs here in Santa Cruz. It took a few more steps and searching in different markets, but we found tulle (that we later cut to the proper width and length ourselves) and ribbon ...

This week I learned more about tortoises than I had anticipated. For instance, the plural of tortoise really is tortoises and not torti like I originally thought. There are some different answers floating around the web as to what the proper name is for a group of tortoises. A group of turtles is called a "bale" and some say this goes for tortoises as well. Other answers were a "herd" or "fleet". My personal favorite was, "a creep" or tortoises, named such for their slow movement. Listed below are some other interesting facts about these reptiles.  The key differences between Tortoises and Turtles Yellow Spotted South American Tortoise You may be wondering, "Why the sudden fascination with tortoises?", and I will tell you. This past week, Molly and I took a few days away from the city for our one year anniversary. It was a good time to get away and reflect on all of God's blessings over the past year. The place we stayed at ha...

We are fortunate enough to have several fruit trees in our yard. The unfortunate part is that Molly isn’t a big fan of citrus or tropical fruits. I love fruits of all kinds but, being from Iowa, I know absolutely nothing about the growing process of the fruits in our yard. All I know about these fruits, I have learned by observation. I found out that a papaya starts out as a bud, turns into a flower, then from the middle of the flower sprouts a small green fruit that grows and grows and one day fully ripens and turns orange. This is a fascinating process to behold, but it takes a long time and papaya flavor is kind of hit or miss. It is either incredibly refreshing or it tastes like feet. Along with papaya, we also have bananas, a mango tree, and up until this past week I thought we had two orange trees. One morning, this past week, I went outside and looked under our two orange trees. I saw that under each tree were a few green spheres. I went over to gather the fruit and bring ...

As usual I’m a little bit behind with keeping our blog up to date. There has been so much going on in our lives since getting to Bolivia. The first few days here we “hit the ground running” as our field director, Gordon Elliott, promised we would. Gordon was a great help to us in running us all over the city to different offices for everything from blood tests to finger printing and all the seemingly endless paperwork involved with moving to another country. We had to get everything in process right away and Gordon wanted to help us while he could because he took a visit to the states just a few days after Easter to attend his son’s college graduation and will return May 19 or 20th. You can read all of Gordon’s updates at his blog “Ch’airo for the Soul”. The link is in our “Blogs to Check Out” section in the right hand margin. Aside from paperwork and unpacking/settling into our house, we also joined our fellow missionaries in La Paz for the Bolivian Easter Junta (celebration). You ...