The last month we did some traveling. I was in need of a change. Let's just say in Oruro I learned my limits. It was a much tougher assignment than I would like to admit. Both the Spanish language and the poor living conditions took their toll on me. I was curious of what other options there are in the country. Thus we went to check out 2 newly started English groups and a Spanish congregation the Circuit Overseer suggested as they are in desperate need of help.
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| Service group in La Paz English |
Our
first stop was La Paz. In the past we spent plenty of time in
the city for immigration paperwork. This time we were here with the idea of possibly supporting a new English group. It was refreshing to enjoy a meeting in English delivered by a local missionary brother. The La Paz English group is a
small group of 12 publishers that is more like a family than a congregation. Yesterday we heard that they just started weekly Public talks and Watchtower studies. We joined them in the ministry for a couple of days. There is some house-to-house territory, but mostly the preaching is approach work in
the plazas. We can see that there is plenty of work to do as the city is full of tourists and foreigners who live here. Thus there is a desperate need for more help if anyone wants to come "apoyar".
The couple assigned to start the English group (Pablo and Candi - on the far left in the picture) are also assigned to start the La Paz Chinese
group. One big draw to La Paz is the international feel, we enjoyed a variety of food - Japanese, Chinese and Western cuisine. What a nice
change from the usual greasy chicken and fries we get in Oruro!
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| Bolivian Bethel - Santa Cruz |
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| Residence buildings at Bolivian Branch |
Our next stop was Santa Cruz. It is on the other side
of the country, about a one hour flight away from La Paz. It is a much lower elevation (400 m / 1,400 feet compared to 3,650 m / 12,000 feet)
and tropical. Unfortunately we did not get to enjoy the tropical feel as it was overcast and raining the whole week. But it was a real treat
to visit the branch and even enjoy a night's accommodation and a few meals there. It's interesting how
the building isn't constructed according to local building standards but, as everything with Jehovah's organization, it was
done right.
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| Lidia, Andrea, Miguel, family and friends |
After our stay at Bethel, we were invited to stay with a family
close to Bethel. The sister (Lidia) is a single mother with 4 children. Her
oldest daughter works in Patterson. Her other two daughters (Andrea and Mariaella) live at
home but are day-time workers at the Bolivian Bethel and attend the
English congregation. We first saw them repairing the air-conditioning units while on our tour. They are repair women at Bethel. Her son (Miguel), the youngest, also lives at home and understands English, so it was easy to get to know them and their amazing, "make you want to cry" story. I don't want to post their personal life on the blog but if anyone is interested send us an email or ask us in person and we'll relate their account.
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| Dinner with Santa Cruz English Congregation |
Next, we visited Santa Cruz to check out English group. There were only 25 or so publishers. The week following our visit they officially
became the first English congregation in the country, having all their meetings in English. They also moved to a Kingdom Hall closer to the
Bolivian branch. Many of the Bethelites were encouraged to attend and learn English so that they would have
the opportunity to go to Gilead. With the Bethelites that are now attending there are about 40 publishers and 11 elders in
the congregation. But there is still a huge need for native English speakers to help in
the congregation and support the midweek service as the Bethelites cannot.
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| Book fair public witnessing in Santa Cruz |
While we were in Santa Cruz we had the opportunity to share in field ministry one morning
doing business witnessing. We also got to see the preaching stand set up in a book
fair, much like the one that was highlighted on the May JW Broadcasting program. Near the end of our visit Troy had the privilege of giving a public talk. After the meeting we were invited out by the congregation to enjoy some delicious
Italian food with the brothers at a local restaurant. As you can see, most of the congregation came.
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| Toucan paid us a visit |
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| Troy with a Tapir |
There is a large zoo in Santa Cruz that we visited. It is a
little sad as all the animal enclosures are quite small. But at the
same time it was nice to get interactive with some of the animals. Troy
got up close and
personal with this odd looking Tapir, even getting a kiss. The
highlight was visiting the large bird
enclosure. Walking along the elevated boardwalks hundreds of different
types of birds were flying and screeching overhead, some even landing
near and pecking us.
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| Early morning view from our window in Sucre |
Our 3rd stop, Sucre, was a beautiful, colonial city. It is more in the middle of the country with an elevation of around 2,800 m / 9000 feet. That is about the same elevation as when we
lived in Pachuca, Mexico, but with much warmer weather as it's closer to the equator. It's a quaint, historic city
of white buildings with red clay rooftops. It offers nice restaurants
and actual supermarkets. We saw many tourists in the city and there are
several brothers from different countries supporting the local
congregations.
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| Selfie with Carmen and Sonia |
This was the city with the congregation the Circuit Overseer asked us to consider supporting. They have 2 elders but both were out of the country for 3 months for work, overlapping during parts of June and July. They have a large territory to cover including the isolated territory village of Yotala, 45 minutes out
of town. As a comparison in Oruro we "covered" our territory every month whereas in Sucre it is "covered" every 3 months. As well, they just started conducting one meeting a month out in Yotala (isolated territory). At the
June Yotala meeting, 11 people from the community attended and 2 of them commented at the Watchtower study. What a joy it was to meet the 2 missionaries from Mexico, fleshly sisters, who are assigned to congregation America. They are 2 of the most loving sisters we have ever met. The congregation really reflects their love. Everyone in the congregation was very loving and hospitable. While we were there for a week we were invited to stay with a couple from Arizona.
Alonzo and Judith were a great help to the congregation but needed to
return to the USA to help the infirm parents.
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| Troy's first Spanish talk |
Finally
we returned to Oruro after 3 weeks on the road. After changing
elevation 4 times I learned that not taking the altitude medication was a bad idea. I was sick again but my body fought back and after a few days I was back to
normal. We stayed for a week in Oruro before temporarily moving to Sucre to help during the time period that it was without elders.
While in Oruro Troy finally gave his first public talk in Spanish. It went fairly well considering he only had 9 months of Spanish learning.
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| Dinosaur footprints |
We stayed in Sucre another 4 weeks helping out. Sucre is also known for the largest paleontological site in the world (or so they claim). When
we finally found it, we saw thousands of dinosaur footprints.
While we were there Troy was invited to give his second talk in Spanish for a neighboring congregation. This one went much better!
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| Anniversary dinner. |
Now we are in La Paz once again ready for our flight back to
Canada for a few weeks. Seems that we are leaving just in time. It's
snowing!!!!
It's our anniversary this month so we treated ourselves to a nice hotel and dinner out.
We are excited to see friends and family soon. We have 2
weeks in the Okanagan before heading to Vancouver Island. We hope to
see as many of you as possible while we are back.
See you soon.
