We are gearing up to the big day- the birth of our baby boy! Now having done this before, you may think we have no concerns or worries with this event coming up. Actually though giving birth here in Bolivia promises to be a very different experience to the UK.

We will be going to a hospital for the birth. Our doctor will be there who has followed the whole of the pregnancy and we contact him first. We thought we maybe should make sure we were booked in or that they were expecting us, but that’s not how you do things apparently.

Spanish is spoken here. Our Spanish has improved considerably since we have been here, but in moments of crisis it could fail us. We have found that when we are stressed our ability to understand and communicate can decrease. We really want to make sure we are understanding what is happening and when.

Last time it was just us. We now have two other bundles of joy to make sure are looked after while we go to the hospital. We think David and Sarah will look after them for us which is great.

Care here is very different. We did an NCT course in the UK before Chloe was born and have to be careful not to expect the same kind of things here. For example there is no pain relief before an epidural. Our doctor looked at us like we were mad when we asked him about gas and air. When you try and explain something like that that seems so commonplace you start to realise that it does sound a little weird… A water birth is not an option and no one has ever heard of a birth plan.

We haven’t decided how we are going to get to the hospital yet. Without owning a car we have a few options. Part of me is glad of this though- the drive when Chloe was born was the most nervous drive I have ever done. (And I didn’t need to speed through red lights like my good friend Phil.) Our neighbour David has offered to take us- yet he is the slowest driver the world has ever known. We could take a taxi, or a few friends have said we could call them anytime.

So whatever happens it will be different. However different is not necessarily worse. We have had so may offers of help with lifts, help with the children and so on we feel really well supported. We will receive great care from our Doctor and can give all our concerns to our Loving God who knows how it will turn out anyway.

We are also in a very privileged position where we are able to go to a nice hospital. Roz has visited friends from Church who have given birth in massive wards with cracked walls and no cot to put their baby in. Where they need to go home as soon as possible. We also know of people who have given birth at home with no Doctor or midwife where their children have woken up the next morning to find their baby sibling came in the night. And we are worried about not understanding everything?

We have been here for two years. I can hardly believe it! Initially we said we would come to Bolivia for two years to get a real flavour of life here and review after that. So here it is- the 2 year review!

I guess the main point is that we still feel completely convinced that this is where God wants us to be. We have settled here, we are very much part of our Church- they are family to us here, I am more and more comfortable at school, our Spanish is developing, we have made friends, we have developed a pattern of life… And we have a heart for our neighbours, friends at Church, colleagues at school.

We met with David and Sarah a couple of weeks ago to talk about how the two years have been and what we have achieved since being here. This is actually a very difficult question- what have we achieved or accomplished or done? No one has been directly saved through us, the Church has not multiplied 200 times, my students at school are not suddenly 6 times better at Maths through my hard work.

On the other hand, we came here with one daughter Chloe, we now have another, Evie and are expecting a son very soon. The family is certainly growing! We have made some good friendships. Our Spanish is improving- I have actually preached in Spanish! (just in case anyone missed that from past posts), we are learning so much about culture, poverty and different lifestyles.

So maybe the question ‘what have we achieved?’ is the wrong one. Maybe it should be ‘are we being fruitful?’ This is a very Christian phrase, but it is how Jesus speaks of what He desires for us. Maybe it is no easier to answer, but at least it forces us to remember who it is that produces the fruit. Achieving and accomplishing put the emphasis on us- our work, our skills, our effort. But being fruitful is all about Him. God grows it in us.

I still think it is helpful to review and see what has happened since we have been here and New Year is a good time to do that.

Heres to the next two years!

News on sloth watch has been thin on the ground in recent months. Until this week! We have seen sloths in the central plaza of the city- just chilling out in the trees with people looking up at them. Then we saw this bad boy outside the zoo. A veritable glut of sloths.

*Just to clarify this does not say ‘slothful Ju’.

We decided not to go for a Bolivian/England Christmas fusion (sounds like the food from a contestant on MasterChef). Instead we have had a fairly typical English-style Christmas with one or two Bolivian additions.

On Thursday night we went to look at some Christmas lights around the city. This included huge ‘Christmas’ toadstalls, the seven dwarfs and a wise man with a glittery green banana. Chloe loved going out in the dark to see the lights.

We went out on Christmas Eve to an English speaking Church to sing some carols. When we got back we got ready for Christmas Day- Chloe put the stockings out and we left a mince pie for Father Christmas. Christmas with children is very exciting! Then the fireworks began at the same time as we were trying to get the girls to bed. Fireworks here seem to be more bang than oooooh, but there were so many it was pretty impressive.

Later on our neighbour David (the one who tries to convince any visitors fromEnglandthey should move to Boliv) came round to invite us to his families Christmas meal even later that night. Roz needed to get to sleep but I went round just before midnight. It was great- I was totally welcomed by his family and enjoyed a full on meal. David showed me his nativity scene- in which the baby Jesus was now present. Four times. In different sizes. Apparently people often give baby Jesus as a Christmas present and you keep on adding them to an ever growing nativity scene. There was an impressive range of animals too. David is a little worried that it will take over his whole house eventually.

After a little bit of sleep the next day we went for the full on English style Christmas. We went round to David and Sarah’s and had food, games, presents and a traditional Christmas day swim. I was on cooking duty. Jamie Oliver or Delia Smith it was not. I could not match the timing skills of Mrs B or my Mum (insert your favourite celebrity chef or Mum here)- I have utmost respect for cookers of Christmas meals. We did get to eat in the end.

We also got to Skype our families, drink mulled wine (Matt and Beth you didn’t need to worry), eat mince pies and Christmas cake and pull Christmas crackers. We even watched the Queens Speech on YouTube. How British can you get?

In case you haven’t noticed, Christmas is rapidly approaching. We are going to spend our first Christmas here, after going back to England last year. We are a little bit excited about seeing how Christmas is in Bolivia, but we are also sad not to be with our families and friends.

If there is a Christmassy spectrum with Scrooge (bah humbug) at one end and my sister-in-law Jess (I love everything Christmassy, we put the tree up in November) at the other, we are definitely nearer the love Christmas than not.

But Christmas here is very different. The most obvious thing is the weather. We will definitely not have a white Christmas. It is the height of summer and temperatures can reach 40º plus.

However there are many other differences:

• I have not eaten or even seen a mince pie. I don’t think they exist here.
• We haven’t sung any Christmas carols or seen any carol singers
• I have not heard Noddy Holder sing ‘So here it is merry Christmas’ even once
• I’m pretty sure that ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ will not be shown on TV
• There are no Christmas crackers
• People don’t play Baker family Christmas game specials such as ‘Moses’, ‘The Tray Game’ or ‘Come and sit in my chair’ (don’t ask. Or if you do, ask Roz to explain)
• No one has heard of mulled wine
• I don’t think you get Christmas pudding or Christmas cake
• We will not be throwing snowballs, sledging or making snowmen

So that’s what Christmas is not inBolivia. On the other hand there are some similarities. Families get together and eat lots of food, possibly, but not necessarily turkey. This usually happens after midnight on Christmas Eve- this is when people have their Christmas meal. Most families give presents, but only one or two and mainly to the children. Father Christmas or Papa Noel is here- we have seen him at the supermarket, although I don’t think there are many chimneys for him to come down. Nativity scenes are very popular. We have seen loads. The Abasto market has a build your own nativity stall with a surprising range of animals available. At the moment though, none of them contain the baby Jesus. We wondered if there was a serial baby Jesus thief at large, but it turns out that he only gets put in the manger on Christmas Day. Fireworks are big here- I think there will be a lot of fireworks set off very early Christmas morning, like at New Year. Because of the big Christmas Eve party lots of people don’t go to Church on Christmas Day. For this reason our Church is not meeting and I reckon this will be the first Christmas I don’t go to Church on Christmas Day.

Ho ho... hot

So what will our Christmas be like? I don’t quite know yet, but I think it will be a mix of English and Bolivian. We have a rather straggly real Christmas tree with decorations. I’m not sure if we will search the Internet to listen to the Queen’s speech, but there will be food with friends, maybe some games? We will open presents that have been sent by our generous family and friends fromFrontiersChurchinExeter, we will hopefully Skype our family- although Crazy Uncle John has already taught Chloe the feel and shake Christmas present technique over Skype, so this could be dangerous. We will get Carols from Kings on (my Dad and Ben Sharpe would be proud). I may even try and bake a Liz inspired Christmas Cake. We have ended up with her little Father Christmas decoration to go on the top and it would be a shame to waste it.

Much more important than all this though is that we want to celebrate Jesus- God- being born as a man. The miracle of incarnation, Emmanuel, God with us. I will miss Christmas Carols- they speak of the amazing truth of Christmas that we are trying to explain to Chloe (no, not the Father Christmas truth). That God actually came and lived amongst us. The Creator, the uncreated one, was born as a baby.

If that is the heart of Christmas and being Christmassy, move us along the scale a bit closer to where Jess is…

We have just got back from a weeks holiday in La Paz and Lake Titicaca. It has been great to get away for a while- it is boiling hot in Santa Cruz at the moment. Unfortunately I had a cold just before we left which I generously shared with all the family over the holiday. A stuffed up 5 month old Evie was not the best of company.

La Paz feels like a different country. It is at a high altitude and surrounded by stunning mountains. The city itself spills down really steep hills and is full of cars and buses trying to navigate their way around narrow, steep roads. It seems much more like a city than Santa Cruz, with taller buildings and a more obvious centre. We were actually a little scared by the traffic, especially as we were the only people trying to push a buggy (stroller if you are American) around, along narrow, packed streets. Roz’s higlight was eating English-style fish and chips.

On the other hand, we loved Lake Titicaca. We stayed in a great hostel in Copacabana and went on lots of boat trips. The lake is beautiful- when the sky is clear, the colours are amazing. We saw a little bit of Incan history and the spectacle of cars being blessed at the Church there.

Holidays with two children and one of us (Roz) being pregnant are quite different though. We normally like to do lots of trips or activities and this was not so easy with two and us being a bit ill. Instead we ended up chatting to lots of different Bolivians- people here love babies and want to know your story. Bolivia is awesome.

Is it really possible for people to change? Lots of people at our Church come from really difficult backgrounds, family situations, patterns of life. Can they change? Can they get out of downward spirals, patterns of sin and bad habits? And, when I look inside, at my own selfish nature, can I beat bad habits and the overpowering desire for a quiet life to change?

I preached on this on Sunday (in Spanish- woohoo!). We are looking at the book of Acts and have just gone through the conversion of Saul- the chief persecutor and destroyer of the Church- who eventually becomes its chief missionary. His life is an incredible turnaround. He changes totally. From being religious and legalistic he lives by the grace of God.

Saul is evidence that people can change totally. But it is not simply a change of behaviour, rather a total change of heart or a heart transplant. He meets with the risen and alive Jesus and this transforms him. This is what changes him. And this is the only thing that can change people in our Church, my neighbours, colleagues, friends, family. And me.

And yet this is a complex thing. I know from my own experience that Jesus has saved and transformed me, but it is so easy to go back to selfishness and pride and live without God. This transformation is from meeting Jesus, but also an ongoing relationship with Him. For me to change, for people in our Church to change we need to go to Him. Trying harder does not do it. Guilt does not do it. With man this is impossible, but with God…

I don’t know if you have heard about it, but there was a shock result recently in the world of football. A weaker, technically deficient team got a great result against a World Cup winning, footballing giant, filled with worldclass players. Great tactics? A bad day at the office for the favourites?

I’m talking about Bolivia’s 1-1 draw with Argentina of course. Bolivia, arguably the worst team in South America, managed to get an away draw against the mighty, past World Cup winners, Argentina.

We hadn’t realised the game was on and were going home in a taxi as we saw that literally every single small shop/cafe was full of fans watching the game. The driver had the radio on and I have never heard a commentator so excited. Very un-English, patriotic, biased, incredibly excited commentating. It felt like the whole city was watching or listening to the match.

Wasn’t there some other football upset over the weekend too?

Last week at Church we had a special prayer morning on Sunday. Prayer is something we want to develop as a Church- to meet with God, seek His heart for the Church and the city, to pray for the sick and those in trouble, to ask God to empower us by His Holy Spirit, to commit everything we do to Him. Ultimately so that we are a Church in close relationship with the Father.

We had a great meeting, full of short, sharp prayers and time to listen to God. We still have lots to do to really develop a culture of prayer in Church, but are hopefully making progress.

Prayer is an immense privilege, but also requires perseverance at times. We want to be a Church who pray individually, informally and when we meet altogether. We are looking at how best to organise and encourage this over the next months.

Also last week people from school organised a baby shower for Evie and Mr Bump. I was the only man there, but really enjoyed it- we had great food- including quiche that Roz only realised she was craving as she started eating- and people were so generous with clothes and gifts, including a buggy (or stroller apparently). Really helpful as we gear up for another little one. We have been so blessed.

 

We have written before about how many people in our church have lived on the streets at some point in their life. One thing that has helped a lot of them is a Ministry called ‘El Jordan’, a Christian training, teaching and resource centre aimed at people on or with links to the streets.

It is hard to define exactly what El Jordan is and everything it does, so you may want to look at their website to find out more here- El Jordan website this gives helpful background on what life is like for lots of people on the streets and the vision to help.

Last week we went to two events at El Jordan. The first was their yearly graduation ceremony. A number of our friends had graduated from courses in cooking, Bible study and more. It was also a celebration of all that God has been doing in the last year and the eleven years since El Jordan started. We loved the event- it gave real importance and significance (in a high context culture) to what our friends have achieved and we felt blessed to be able to celebrate with them.

The other event was an open day or fair, where you can buy food and handicrafts made by the people who attend the courses. It is a good way for them to sell the products they have been learning how to make- bags, purses, cards and so on. Again, we loved seeing our friends showing their mastery of skills they have learned and enjoying the atmosphere of El Jordan.

We thank God for the work of El Jordan- it is an amazing blessing and encouragement to so many people from our Church.