You may well know what we are going to say but we have decided to go for it! After getting back we looked at the prayer requests we made and God has answered all of them! He has been so faithful and gentle with our fears, He is amazing!

We feel he has confirmed his plan for us through the job and our heart for the Church and people we met. This means leaving Exeter and moving to Bolivia in January 2010- wowsers. That is less than 2 months. Please do pray for all our practical preparation, especially renting the flat out and getting official documents sorted.

Thanks again for your prayers and support!

Dear everyone

Thanks again for your comments- it has made a real difference to us being here, we’ve felt so connected to people and well supported by you.

This will be our last post here but there are a few photos on some older posts. We’ll continue to use this back in England but less often.

Two weeks has passed in a flash, we know that God has been ahead of us every step of the way. We met with the school’s director for the last time yesterday and I have been offered a two year contract with one-way flights, visas and a fully-furnshed house for us to live in. God has answered our prayers and everything seems to say go but we will decide for certain when we are back home. If we accept it will mean moving here in January 2010 (pretty much 2 months exactly).

We fly tomorrow morning and arrive in England on Thursday. Please pray for Chloe- she didn’t love the flight out and is not feeling 100%, maybe because of her teeth. We think she’s got nine now! 3 since we’ve been here.

Lots of love Ben and Roz.

Sloth-tastic!

Hi all

I went visiting a few families a few days ago.  I travelled on lots of buses to get to homes on the outskirts of the city.  As we travelled further away from the centre it got very dusty and less built up.  It took about 1 and a half hours to get to one of the barrios where a lot of the guys live now.  I visited a home of a girl who has lived on the streets for years but is now back living with her mum and about 6 brothers and sisters.  She has 2 children of her own, one is a 2 month old baby boy who i held.  She is beaten up often by her boyfriend still.  She has become a christian and its amazing that shes been living at home for 6 months now without running away to the streets.

I visited a few other relatives of ex street kids who live in that area and have joined the church.  I realised what a long bus ride they have to get to church on a Sunday 1 and a half hours to centre of town.  This shows amazing commitment and they use what little money they have for the bus.  Also if it rains they cannot get to church as the roads turn to mud and the buses dont go there.  It’s raining at the moment so i’m wondering who will manage to come to church tomorrow.

We also visited the YWAM girls home that D & S used to work for. It was another opportunity to meet ex street girls and see them getting the chance to have a childhood.  The youngest girl living there is 8 years old.  We think this is a great project.

FOOOD!!!   has been good.  We went to town for lunch with Chlo yesterday and had Sonso – kind of like cheesy mashed potato.  Today we ate Sopa – broth like soup, and chicken and rice which was very tasty.  We’ve been enjoying eating bolivian food.  We babysat this afternoon for D & S so they could go to the cinema.  We had a taste of what it would be like to have 4 children!!  Tired now!  This morning we all went to the zoo, Chloe liked seeing the amazing jaguars as much as picking up leaves from the ground!  The highlight for us was meeting a sloth face to face.

This post will be a little more reflective- I just want to share what I’m thinking and Roz is out visiting people from the Church, Chloe is sound asleep and it is a little cooler so I’m drinking coffee and probably in that frame of mind.

I find depending on God is the major lesson He keeps returning me to. Being in Bolivia and thinking about moving here means we have been turning to Him all the time and putting our trust in God. However, now that I have taught at the school, we’ve been here a little while and feel more relaxed, I can quickly find myself getting comfortable and not fully trusting. This is not what I want. I want to live life as an adventure with God, trusting Him for everything, not depending on myself. It’s interesting that my natural, sinful default returns so quickly here in Bolivia as it does in Exeter. Depending on God is not automatic and I want to grow in this. Our feelings are so changeable, yet God is the Rock who does not change. He is self-existent and depends on no-one. (Been reading some Christian books).

I also wanted to say thanks so much for your prayers- home groups, Church, family and friends! Its such an encouragement to us.

Chloe’s up! Ciao for now. Ben

Ben went to school today for the second time to teach.  He felt more confident and at home this time but was surprised by 2 parrots living inside the school grounds!  Everything has been positive, the Director (Amanda) has asked us to let her know if we want the  job before we leave for England next week.  We have both been feeling that this is right, please pray for wisdom for us.  We are in contact with our Elders who are praying.  There are a few issues :  Visas for me and Chlo  accomodation and finance for flights.

This morning we visited the city centre and went for a coffee  together.  There is a large central plaza with benches under shady trees and a cathedral.  Ben bought his daily saltena and we saw the famous Bits n Cream (just for you Dave H!)  It was good to see the centre.  The whole of Santa Cruz is nowhere near as big as Lima.

I’m hopefully going to visit some Church peeps tomorrow with Lydia who works full time for the church.  I’m looking forward to that.  Chloe put her flip flops in the dolls pram today and pushed them round!

While we are in Santa Cruz we are staying with David and Sarah Adjei. David leads Fuente De Vida Church and we met them when they were visiting the UK in the Summer. In Budleigh Salterton, bizarrely enough, where David’s parents live.

They have three children- Jasmine the oldest and Gabby and Lily who they have adopted since being in Bolivia. There’s more information about them on the Church’s website. They only moved into their new house three weeks ago and spent the day before we arrived putting up curtain poles and arranging air conditioning in our room. This just gives you a hint of how hospitable they have been, totally sharing their home with us.

We have been made to feel part of the family, have fallen in love with the children and Chloe now has some big sisters! They are really caring, humble and generous. We have got on really well!

By

• The crazy traffic!  I can’t imagine driving here
• The immense heat – tires us out
• The speedy spanish, only understanding occasional odd words
• The luxury at Santa Cruz International School (SCIS)
• The needs and lives of those at Fuente de Vida Church
• The idea and sacrifice of us actually coming to live here
• But that being nothing compared to Jesus’ sacrifice
• Gods hugeness – he created the whole world and is the same God we worship in Exeter as we’ve been worshipping here.

These have been some of my feelings since being here.  Thankyou for your messages, your support is also slightly overwhelming!  Tomorrow I go to SCIS for the day to observe, probably teach and find out exactly what the contract is.   Please can you pray for Gods hand in this.  Roz is expecting to go visiting a few of the women in church towards the end of the week with another lady from the church.  She is really excited about it.  Please pray for Chloe as her teeth are giving us and her grief!  We continue to love fresh fruit, bare feet, really friendly people, the church, saltenas (kind of like a pastie but more yummy).

Love Ben

Some of the people at Fuente De Vida Church

Hi everyone,

It’s been 37 degrees today and tomorrow it will be 38!  After Sunday its supposed to cool a bit.  Chloe is coping with heat really well.  Sarah and David have a paddling pool which she loves.   Today we visited Santa Cruz International School.   The teachers and Director were very welcoming to us.  We were given a tour by the Director.  Ben is going back in for the day on Tuesday to observe a lesson and possibly teach too.  I’ll let him tell you more about it tomorrow.  He is out at the moment at a church meeting.

We also visited the main market near the centre of town which seemed to sell everything under the sun!  I loved it, we bought Chloe some flip flops.  We’ve eaten delicious watermelon, pineapple and plantain today.  Chloe is eating a lot as always.   We all slept well last night and feel human again now!

Thanks for your prayers.  Roz

Hi everyone!

Thanks for all your messages.  We arrived safely this morning an hour late.  The journey was everything we could have dreaded with a 1 year old!  Chloe forgot the meaning of the word sleep!  And decided to cry a lot instead.

But here we are safe and well!  David and Sarah and family have been so hospitable  and we are enjoying being with them.  The temperature is sooo hot and looks likely to get hotter over the next few days.  We went swimming this afternoon to cool down.

Tomorrow Ben is going to try to visit the school and arrange interview for next week.  The school is very near where we are staying.

We are both very tired but looking forward to the next couple of weeks here.  I’m feeling excited to be in South America again.

We will keep in touch over the next few days and let you know what we’ve been up to.  please pray that we all sleep well tonight and feel refreshed in the morning ready to explore this city.

We’re feeling very excited today although Chloe is not on top form. We leave Heathrow tomorrow at 12.30 flying to Miami, then have 5 hour wait before our plane to Santa Cruz. We arrive Thursday at 8am! I think we are going to be very tired. Please pray that Chloe will sleep on the plane so that we can both get some rest. I’m quite excited about the film choice and food! It’s going to be soooo hot when we arrive which is hard to imagine at the mo! It’s around 30 degrees during the day! Next post will be from SC, Bolivia!!!!! Ciao for now! Roz