THE CANNY CHRONICLES

This past Friday I (Bryan) celebrated my 28th birthday, but I received the best early birthday present a few months ago when I found out we are EXPECTING!!! We are extremely excited to share this news with you now and appreciate your prayers. Molly is doing well and is staying very healthy. We found a great doctor here in Santa Cruz and are looking forward to meeting "Baby Canny" in February 2013. Look for updates here on the blog and on our Facebook group. Thanks so much for your constant love and support.  Blessings,  Bryan and Molly

A missionary's life is rarely set to one consistent schedule and that seems to suit us just fine. Now it is true that as of late we have gotten into more of a pattern with directing the New Hope Tutoring Center Monday through Friday afternoons from 2-5. It is also true that interspersed with our daily routine are many surprises and changes of pace. Occasionally the changes of pace can be frustrating like waiting in line for hours at the immigration office just to turn in one more paper for our VISAs. Or trying to figure out a new route downtown because of a blockade or some road construction. My friend, John Behrens, once told me that Minneapolis has 2 seasons, winter and road construction. Santa Cruz is similar, but more like sandstorms and road construction. It is clear we're into the windy season when at the end of the day my beard feels gritty and stiff.  But enough about the unwanted. In the past 2 months we have had some very welcome pace changers. I finally got some ...

April and May are months that mark some very important milestones for us.  April 15, 2012 = One year of ministry together in Bolivia April 14, 2011 All our bags were packed to the very last pound that regulations would allow. My guitar case was securely (and perhaps excessively) taped and ready for the "fragile handling" of the airline employees. We had our tearful hugs and goodbyes and headed toward the security checkpoint. As I set my wallet and shoes into the bin I realized a couple things. The next time I'd put money in that wallet it would be Bolivianos (currency of Bolivia). And in 3 connecting flights later, those shoes would be stepping out onto Bolivian soil which we would then be calling "home".  I still remember the deep peace we had getting on that plane out of the Omaha airport. This wasn't a peace that had just come naturally. In the months leading up to our departure Molly's father and my mother were both diagnosed with a sim...

On March 25th we helped with a "Feria de Comidas" (food fair) organized by some of the volunteers from our New Hope Tutoring Center committee. They had the idea to raise money to help cover costs of the daily snacks at the center. A Feria de Comidas is a Sunday lunch generally with 4 or more plate options and of course Peanut soup for appetizer. Each of the churches is invited to participate and sell tickets to their congregation. These events are a fairly common fundraising technique here in Bolivia, but before that weekend we had only gone to eat the food. This time we had the privilege of helping prepare all the food as well. We went to Dios Es Amor (God is Love) church Saturday evening to start the prep work. Granted the kitchen was a bit different from a church kitchen you might find in the states, but we all worked together, made some great food, and had some good laughs. The prep work started Saturday evening with some new experiences for us. Molly cut off her firs...

 Have you ever felt like Satan was trying to get in the way of something great happening in your life? Perhaps a job opportunity doesn’t work out or a deal on a house falls through. Maybe you’ve continually given into the same temptation and wonder when God will just “free you from it”. It is in these times when Satan can try to manipulate our thoughts to doubt our own strength and even worse to doubt God’s power in our lives. I was recently reminded of just how important it is to take control of our minds in difficult situations.             Each year the Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center (SCCLC) has a 3 day long Junior High Camp and week long High School Camp. Molly and I both counseled at Junior High Camp. It was an incredibly fun couple of days. The mosquitoes were out in full force. The showers were ice cold. The bed was rock hard with a paper thin mattress.  And I had forgotten about “camp cologne”. You know that...

I just recently finished an enjoyable read of the first book in C.S. Lewis’s celebrated space trilogy, “Out of the Silent Planet”. You may be feeling like that is exactly where this message is coming from since my last blog post was at the end of August.             As we start 2012 I want to make it a goal to do better with frequent updates both on the blog and on our Facebook group. We will use “Canny Chronicles” to post articles and pictures of recent events at least once a month and use “Bryan and Molly in Bolivia” (facebook group) for weekly prayer requests, praises, and day to day updates.             We feel really privileged to be serving on the mission field in an age of so many technological advances. We don’t plan to get a Twitter account to let you know our every waking move, but we do want to stay closely connected with our network of support. We value each and eve...