We left our hearts in Bolivia

We left our hearts in Bolivia
By Pastor Steve
Tony Bennet may have left his heart in San Francisco, but I left mine in Cochabamba.

Our host Emigdio Veizaga warned us at our farewell dinner that “it takes some time for your hearts to catch up to your bodies when you return home”. I quipped, “I think a big part of our hearts are going to stay here permanently”. One of the best lines of the evening came next, from Emigdio’s wife Gladys, “Well, then you’ll just have to come back and get them!”

This kind of friendly exchange characterized our last evening in Bolivia. Our team was treated to a feast in a beautiful restaurant, surrounded by almost all of the new friends we had made, about 20 people in total (the majority of people whose stories are in these blog entries were present). Ivan Gutierrez, our host, interpreter, counselor and expert driver began by saying this meal was a celebration in honor of our team and the work we had done together. He expressed his gratitude for the flexibility and teamwork of the Laurier team.
Ivan recommends a Bolivia dish to Terry, Chris & Steve

We feasted on a buffet including traditional Bolivian cuisine, oriental cuisine, a variety of pasta and seafood dishes prepared to order before our eyes, a salad bar, dessert bar, and even a selection of dessert crèpes also prepared to order before our eyes. I particularly enjoyed the crème caramel…

Dinner provided opportunity for a host of deep conversations and connections. Norma connected with Carla Botani (Interim Director of the Casa de la Amistad) when she discovered Carla’s dad was struggling with cancer. She also connected via cell phone with an American Baptist missionary named Iris whom Norma had been praying for since October, and who had been fighting the same cancer Norma had walked through. In God’s perfect timing, Iris had just discovered that day that her cancer was gone, and the two rejoiced together. Yolanda (President of the Bolivian Baptist Union) shared with me an upcoming personal challenge in trying to negotiate an arrangement with Compassion International (a child sponsorship group active in Bolivia) to enable them to continue to minister to the needs of the poorest children in Bolivia in the light of the shifting political climate. “I’ve seen where these kids live, and they are desperate. We must find a way to keep this support for them, or else what will they do?” she said, with tears in her eyes.

All around the table, these deep conversations were peppered with spontaneous bursts of laughter.

Following the meal, I rose to thank our hosts personally. “We came with a prayer that we would encounter God’s presence around every corner, and praise God, He has answered that prayer in abundance. Our team has been transformed.” On behalf of our team I expressed our love and thanks to each of our partners personally. We blessed Terry and Pat Janke and their work in the seminary. We repeated our promise to pray for unity and leadership development of the Bolivian Baptist Union. To Thomas Gabriel (Project Director of Jireh), we repeated our pledge to find prayer partners for each of the 45 kids in their program.

To Carla of the Casa, I said “we will come back to do more”, which received an enthusiastic “Perfecto!!”.

In addition to verbal thanks to Ivan and Emigdio, we presented them with a few small gifts brought from Canada, which Isabelle had lovingly wrapped in Canada t-shirts. We also gave a bouquet of flowers to Cristina, Ivan’s wife, for sharing Ivan’s time so generously. They are a very special couple. The maple syrup seemed to be a big hit!

My expressions of love and thanks were quickly and spontaneously reciprocated. Carla rose and said, “On behalf of the children we are very thankful and may God bless you. We hope you return again and our hands and minds will be open.” Tomas said, “thank you for your visit to Bolivia. Here sometimes we don’t have gifts, but we can provide work for you! God bless you.”

Last words came from Ivan. “It has been a privilege to serve with you guys. You have been incredibly supportive. I see it in your open hearts. And as you learn from us, I learn from you. Then he quoted Jesus who said, “may they be one” (Jn 17:20-21), and ended with a challenge: "if we have a sense of brotherhood, we can do incredible things for the glory of God.”

A note on Blogging for future teams

Reflections on blogging

When the Laurier Heights Baptist Church advance team arrived in Bolivia, only a couple of people on the team knew that Brian Wiens had the foresight to set up a blogspot. No one anticipated it would prove as valuable as it did. It helped our church feel part of the mission and the advance team looked forward every morning to reading the comments from church members.

Nevertheless, there are consequences when a major element of a trip is spontaneously inserted. Why didn’t we plan? For one thing, we expected to stay in hotels and have limited access to computers. The demonstrations by the camposinos forced us into quarters at the CBM/BBU compound. However there was a big benefit! When Emigdio and Ivan went home for the evening, we had three computers to work with. An unexpected opportunity presented itself.

Should any other church wish to follow our lead, we suggest it plan better than we did. How will you get computer access? We needed a least two computers and internet access. One evening Sue, Norma and Isabelle were each on separate computers, working on contributions. Future teams need to decide who will do the work and what skills are necessary. The computer network and internet service in Bolivia were not as stable as we were used to and the instructions and "help" were in Spanish. Ray Johnson and Daniel Johns worked as a team, staying up after midnight to publish something new most evenings. Ray was photographer, copy editor and technical support. Dan was principal writer and publisher/editor. We had fun, but we were sleep deprived.
We suggest anyone wishing to have a blog site identify who will do the work and set aside time during the day for the writing and publishing. If a large team goes, it might wish to select a principal blogger and create time and space for that person to report for the team. I think, however, that back home church members will want to see contributions from all team members.

Blogs are a powerful tool than can bring the daily activities and news into the homes of all those back home and provides an ecouraging connection back to the on-site team. Our advice is that before you leave, set it up and try it out to get familiar with all the nuaces of the blog tool set.

Historical context provided by road trip

Historical context to the mission to Bolivia provided by a road trip
by Daniel Johns

Obtaining a historical context for the Canadian Baptist Mission to Bolivia was the focus of a three-day road the Laurier Heights advance team undertook on its second weekend in Bolivia. From my point of view, the trip was a highlight, but also a gruelling experience. My reactions to what we saw were sometimes completely different from other members of the team, which explains why I am writing this story in the first person. This is how I saw the trip.

Although I have not questioned the people who set the agenda, I believe the goal was to show us sites of historical significance to the Baptist Church and, secondly, allow the team to see rural Bolivia. Since several elements of our schedule inside Cochabama had been postponed due to the demonstrations by the camposinos, people from the countryside, I was interested to see them in their home settings and get an idea of the conditions under which they live. The demonstrations of the camposinos aimed at forcing the governor of the Cochabamba department (or province) to resign. Later we encountered similar demonstrations in La Paz, aimed at forcing the governor of the La Paz department to resign and those demonstrations had an impact on our travels, as will be related later in this story. The camposinos support the president of the federal government, Evo Morales, who is of native ancestry.

It is about 390 kilometres by road between Cochabama and La Paz and about half of the trip is uphill. In order to reach La Paz, a traveller first has to reach the altiplano and that involves a climb of almost 2000 meters to the top of the pass which sits at 4496 meters. Fortunately, the road is excellent, about the standard of a paved secondary highway in Alberta, but much more of an engineering challenge as it must twist along the steep slopes, often turning back on itself, all the time avoiding the dramatic drop offs on the downhill side.

The mountains in this part of Bolivia are steep, but not jagged, covered with grass and very high. At lower elevations there are patches of trees, pines and eucalyptus, but there are very few trees at higher elevations or on the altiplano. Since it was the rainy season, the hills were green. Nevertheless, the rain had created very little running water. A few rivers were encountered, but none carried nearly as much water as the North Saskatchewan River.

What struck me was the fact there was sparse, but continuous settlement on the mountain sides. At no time was the scene devoid of signs of human habitation, cultivation and livestock. Even the steepest hills had adobe houses with grass roofs and pens for animals. Every slope had one or more visible plots of crops such potatoes, lima beans or barley. Usually someone could be seen herding sheep, tending to the cows and at high elevations, the llamas. Most houses had no services, no electricity or running water. Overall, 90% of people in rural Bolivia are without these services. In fact, many don’t even have nearby roads and must walk any produce to market.

The Quechuan people predominate on the slopes up to the altiplano, but after that the Aiymarans are most numerous. Their clothes were mostly traditional in style. In a few places people tried to flag down the vehicle, either to sell something or ask for a ride.

The slopes were steep enough that often the trucks could just crawl up the slope. Our friend, guide and driver, Ivan Gutierrez, knew the roads well and passed most slow moving vehicles promptly. At one point we were behind two large trucks. A cyclist had sprinted fast enough to catch one and hold onto the trailer with one hand, acquiring a free tow up the hill. At an elevation of over two miles, the thin air would sap the energy of any rider is, let alone the steepness of the road. One could understand the cyclist’s motivation in hitching a ride, but if he’d fallen, the second truck probably would have flattened him.

The arrival at the altiplano provided relief from being tossed from side to side in the corners for the five passengers jammed into the back of the van. Fortunately, my long legs earned me the relative comfort of the passenger. Once we achieved our highest point, the road straightened out and really did resemble a good Southern Alberta paved secondary highway. I don’t know exactly how large the altiplano is, but obviously it stretches for hundreds of kilometres. Decent sized hills stick out of the plain at frequent intervals, but the altiplano is surprisingly flat and most of the time I could see 10 or more kilometres in most directions.

The crops now included a little more variety, such as quinua and onions, but only a small part of the landscape was cultivated, likely less than a quarter. Another quarter, or less, appeared to be in what Alberta would call summer fallow, even though it was the rainy season. Villages were scattered here and there, located, I gather, according to the sources of water. Women, men and children herded animals, often mixed herds of sheep and llamas.

Our initial goal was Lake Titicaca, the highest body of water of its size in the world. We drove through El Alto, a suburb of La Paz, stopping only for fuel and preceded an hour or so further to the lake where we ate wonderful garlic trout, freshly caught, in a glassed-in dining room on the edge of the water. The view resembled a large lake in the interior of British Columbia and there were even a few of the same birds, coots, ruddy ducks and a heron resembling a black crowned night heron. The far shore was Peru.

We weren’t there to see the lake, but a village along the lake called Huatajata. The mission at Huatajata is one of the Baptist church’s proudest achievements. In the 1920’s the church acquired a large estate on the edge of the lake from another mission and ran it for years, with limited success. Rev. E. C. Merrick was put in charge in 1936. He questioned if the mission could ever achieve its goals, as long it maintained the traditional authority structure, with the church acting as a feudal landlord, leaving the residents in a state of serfdom. He implemented land reform and gave the farm to the residents, which resulted in better production and a stronger church.The model he used resembled the method used for homesteading the Canadian prairies.

In order to get title, the farmers had to make improvements. Since then the model has been used for land reform elsewhere in Bolivia and throughout South America. A church continues to thrive at Huatajata. The local houses and gardens were the most prosperous we saw in rural Bolivia.

The Health clinic serves the community

Well cared for garden of Potatoes

The next day was Sunday and we attended First Baptist Church (El Prado) in La Paz and Pastor Steve Simala Grant preached. The history of the El Prado church is interesting and it was reported on earlier in the blog. It was at a team meeting in La Paz that Steve wondered if the road trip was a good use of our time. Pastor Sue Hunter commented that she thought it necessary to give our trip a context for the Baptist presence in Bolivia and I completely agree with Sue. We needed to see the country outside a city to gain an understanding of traditional life, geography and resources. Otherwise religion, politics, and social justice would make no sense.

We decided to stay overnight in La Paz even though Ivan was concerned a possible demonstration Monday morning could trap us in La Paz. It turned out he was worried for good reason. When we arose on Monday, we learned a demonstration was being formed in El Alto. The sooner we were on the road the better. We skipped our planned visit to the Southern Cross Radio Station. When we arrived at the main road in El Alto, it was already blockaded. There wasn’t any choice of routes. Ivan questioned passing motorists and pedestrians and learned it was possible to wind through the subdivision on the north side of the highway in order to avoid the blockage. It took about an hour as we could usually only proceed three or four blocks before coming to a t-intersection or a ditch that forced a detour. Obviously traffic is never heavy on these narrow muddy streets because dogs balefully arose from the dirt, disturbed from a comfortable sleep in the sun, and reluctantly allowed us to pass. By looking to our right at many intersections, we could see the main road remained blocked. Ivan then had to make a choice of which new street to try. When asked, passers-by always gave us good advice on which route to take.
Miners helmut-the symbol of Oruro

Our Monday destination was Oruro, the town chosen by the first Canadian Baptist missionary to Bolivia, Archibald Reekie, as the location in which to start his ministry in April 1898. Oruro was then and is now a mining town, but it has grown to a city of just over 200,000 people. To get there we started down the road to Cochabamba, but detoured to the south. Oruro is even higher than La Paz. During the winter overnight temperatures can fall well below freezing, even though the city lies in the tropics. The trees in the city reminded me of varieties we might see here, such as poplars. The first stop was the cemetery and a visit to the Norman Dabbs mausoleum where Dabbs, a Canadian Baptist missionary, and other missionaries are buried. Dabbs endured a violent death, but his story has redeeming features.

Dabbs, and seven other Bolivian Baptists were martyred on August 8, 1949 in the village of Melcamaya which lies outside of Oruro. They were attending a regular Monday evening service with a small Baptist congregation. According to Dawn over the Bolivian Hills, a book started by Dabbs but completed after his death, a mob, incited by a Roman Catholic priest who objected to a Protestant service, stoned and beat the victims, resulting in eight deaths and several injuries. The buildings which housed the service were burned. Besides Dabbs, the dead included a rising star in the Bolivian church, Carlos Meneses, and two boys aged 13 and 16.

Almost 60 years later there are strong elements of redemption in the tragedy. The Baptist church in Melcamaya has survived and some of the participants of the mob became members. One still survives, but he apparently is too ashamed to talk about the incident. The grandson of one of the perpetrators has entered the Baptist Theological Seminary in Cochabamba. Ivan tells another story about the tragedy, which has symbolic value. One of the burned buildings contained seed potatoes. When recovered, they were charred, but planted anyway. A bumper crop resulted.

The Gym was used for the 1994 Americas Universiad hosted in Oruro.

Reekie began his mission by founding a school and our next stop in Oruro was the Reekie School, currently undergoing a resurgence in attendance. They expect to grow by 20% for the coming school year and were preparing some older classrooms to accommodate the increase. The oldest building on site, constructed of adobe in 1924, is still solid and undergoing renovations. There are currently three other building, including a large gymnasium. A walk in the grounds leaves no doubt the school still teaches the Christian message.
The motto from Ps 119 still guides the path of students 80 years later.

The visit to the school provided me with a moment for reflection. Reekie’s widow, then remarried, was member of a Baptist church I attended as a child in Norwich, Ontario, a village of 1700. My father was the minister at the First Norwich Baptist Church at the time. I can’t say I remember Mrs. Reekie. She lived in Norwich because after Reekie retired from the mission field he took on a nearby three-point rural charge. Presumably he was happy there and continued to do God’s work, but I can’t help but think the fact he ministered to such small churches indicated that when he returned to his homeland, he was not considered a prophet in his own country and was not feted nor given a prestigious job. I can tell you that Reekie is still remembered in Bolivia and highly respected as the man who brought his Christian message there. One example is the series of devotions, Emigdio Veizaga put together. (see the download Bolivia devotional http://www.cbmin.org/web/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=3&tabid=84&img=projects&vi=;1,15;;1 ) It praises Reekie for his faith, courage and dedication.
Other than the drive home through spectacularly beautiful countryside, Oruro marked the end of the road trip. We had seen a lot in a short time and even though I was determined not to miss a kilometre, like the others, I succumbed to a short nap.

Fences and sheep folds are typical on the Alto Plano

A great Vista

Ivan managed to stay awake and keep us on the pavement. We returned Monday evening to Cochabamba.

Pastor Steve returns to San Sebastian Women's jail

Returning to keep a promise
By Steve Simala Grant

During the visit by the Laurier Heights advance team to the San Sebastian women’s prison on Jan 19, we made a simple commitment. “Yes, we can provide five new shower heads.” (In South America, the shower head is an electrical appliance, which uses electricity to heat the water as it passes through it. Without a functioning “widow maker”, as they are affectionately known, there is no warm water in which to shower).
Note the electrical wires connected to the shower head.
So to me, the only question was when we would have opportunity to pick up the materials and deliver them back to the prison. (For details on our visit to the prison, see a story by Dan Johns published earlier in this blog “Children need to escape jail lifestyle”.)

The response of the inmates quickly revealed that for them, the question was not “when” we would return, but “if”. It seems that many who tour through the prison make similar commitments, but never follow through, so our return with five shower heads a few days later came as a surprise.

“Gracias!! MUCHO gracias!!! Doblé!! Triplé!!!” was the response from one inmate, a member of the inmate council who had given birth since our visit four days earlier. The faces of these women were full of joyous gratitude, which also included Spanish expressions of thanks to God (at least, as best as I could understand!).

The gift doubled the number of workings showers. Now the approximately 250 people who live in the prison will have 10 showers instead of five. Because the showers are also used by the children who attend Casa de La Amistad, the gift was in keeping with our goal of supporting children’s program. As it turned out, the gift may help us achieve our goals in ways we did not expect.

What was intended to be a brief delivery of some materials quickly turned into a meeting in the office of the warden of the prison, where a lively, positive, and significant discussion ensued between Irene Quisbert Coronel (Director of the San Sebastian prison), Ivan Guittierez (CBM field staff, Bolivia), Carla Botani (interim Director of La Casa de la Amistad), the inmate council, and me, the pastor of a church in Canada who is partnering with the Casa in ministry to the children of the prison.The discussion was too important to interrupt with “real-time” translation into English, but the body language I read was positive, intense, and forward-looking. Guittierez and Botani later reported that discussion included other ways the ministries can support children, including kids who are soon graduating and hoping to attend university (a need which has been recognized, and which the Casa is already considering). The meeting was extremely positive, and significantly strengthened and reinforced an already strong relationship between the prison, the Casa, and Canadian Baptists.

At our farewell dinner that evening, Botani hand-delivered an official letter from the Warden, which reads:

Cochabamba, 23 de Enero de 2007

Senor
CBM, Laurier Heights Church

Presente.-

Distinguido Senor:
Por intermedio de la present hago extensiva mis agradecimientos a nombre de las senoras internas del Penal “San Sebastian” Mujeres y mio propio por su aporte valioso de dotarnos los cinco duchas (Lorenzzety), que nos es de mucha utilidad para el aseo de las senoras internas y ninos.
Con este motivo saludo a usted con las consideraciones mas distinguidas.

Irene Quisbert Coronel
Directora Centro Penitenciario Femenino “San Sebastian”

TRANSLATION:

Distinguished Sirs:

I would like to express my deepest gratitude on behalf of the ladies from the "San Sebastian" women’s penitentiary. The women and myself, would like to thank you for the donation of five showers heads that are very much a necessity for the women and children.

With this I thank you with distinguished thanks and considerations.

Irene Quisbert Coronel
Director of the central women’s penitentiary, San Sebastian.

Casa has achieved much, but dreams of doing more

Casa de La Amistad has achieved much, but dreams of doing more

In its 13 years of existence, the Casa de La Amistad (Casa) can point to proud achievements, but it dreams of doing much more, acting director Carla Botani, told the Laurier Heights Baptist Church advance team at a meeting in Cochabamba during the team’s first week in Bolivia.

Casa was started by the Bolivian Baptist women in 1994, but taken over by OBADES, the Bolivian equivalent of the Sharing Way three years ago. Casa provides programming for about 170 children who live with their parents in both the San Sebastian men’s and women’s prisons across the square from the Casa and in the San Antonio men’s prison a few blocks away. About 300 children live in these prisons. Programs run by other organizations help some of the other children.

Casa operates during the school year. As the Laurier team visited in January, the Bolivian equivalent of July, the children were on summer vacation but over 40 attended a party arranged so they could meet the Laurier team and celebrate their bright new classrooms, painted by the Laurier team. (The party has been previously reported on in this blog.) Pre-school, after-school care and homework help is the primary programming offered in the classroom like settings of the three storey Casa building. About 80% of the children do their homework at the Casa. The supplementary education is working because all of the children completed their school year. The crowded and active prisons would not allow most children an opportunity to concentrate on their studies and complete their homework.

Other services are provided. Children are fed lunches, offered some clothing and shoes and benefit from training in hygiene, visits by dental students and access to computers. As well health care insurance is purchased for every child. The Bolivian government gives some financial support to the lunch program, based on the number of children. It should be noted that the prisons only provide a very limited amount of funds for food such that almost every prisoner is dependent on someone from outside the prison to help them.

.Laurier Team and Casa Staff after successful Fiesta

Casa staff includes a director, psychologist, paid teachers and some teenage and youth volunteers who help operate the programs. The teachers are not always adequately trained. Medical volunteers also contribute time on a scheduled basis.

Just as importantly as meeting physical needs, Casa attempts to teach values such as justice, love, faith and Christian principles. This teaching is important, Botani says, because the children will be returning to a jail atmosphere. “It is not healthy for children to live in prisons,” she says.

Although some parents are in jail for years simply because the judicial system has not gotten around to trying them yet, others are there because they are robbers and cocaine dealers. These people are not good examples for children and they act and speak in ways children should not witness, Botani explained.

Living conditions depend to some degree on income. Children live in men’s prisons as well as with their mothers in the women’s prison. A rich prisoner can pay for special accommodation that enables him to live in a comfortable suite and bring in his wife and children. On the other hand, in the women’s jail, a mother may have no choice but to live with more than one child in a cell one and half meters wide with the children sleeping with her and on the floor.

Botani dreams of more ambitious programming. If an adjoining property could be purchased there would be room to expand the project to provide some skill training which could be shared with the Jireh project. Ideally she would like to have a residence where the children could stay overnight, outside the jail, but still be close enough to make regular visits to their parents. “To be able to provide a nursery and a foster home would allow the children a much better chance” explained Botani. The owner of the adjoining property would likely sell if Casa could come up with sufficient funds. A detailed plan of the opportunity and requirements was provided to us by Botani. (contact Ray Johnson for more details).

Another dream of Botani is to be able to work with families just released from jail as this is often a time of instability. Families are released without resources and unless they can be supported until they have acquired jobs and an income, they may be forced to return to the lifestyle which put them in jail in the first place.

At present Casa is currently trying to address some of the problems it has witnessed in the dynamics of the families by offering family counseling to help them learn how to operate in a less aggressive mode.

How To Help

Reading some of the stories in this blog, we expect that some might be moved to respond. We want to help, and that is a great thing!

As a church, we have entered a partnership with both the Jireh project, and the Casa de la Amistad project. Both of these are described below. Our partnership is very carefully crafted to ensure that financial support gets directly to the places where it can do a lot of good, and where it will not do any harm.

If you would like to support these ministries financially, donations may be made to "Laurier Heights Baptist Church: STEP Bolivia". Donations are tax deductible in Canada, and every penny will go to our partners. Questions or further conversations can be directed to Pastor Steve, or to Ray Johnson.

Of course, financial support is only one way. Other ways to support include being aware, participating in the stories, and above all by praying. We commited to finding specific prayer partners for the 40 kids in the Jireh project, and we'll also be looking for prayer support for the kids in the Casa as well.

posted by Pastor Steve