Funny how my plans of updating people ever two weeks turned into every month, for two months I think, and then every 6 months and then finally Christmas came to just wring a year end newsletter out of me and there went 2016! Where did it go???? I think about certain events during the year and they seem so long ago, but it is not because the year was long, it was just so jam packed with activity I don't think I knew whether I was coming or going half the time. It is a ridiculous life in this corner of the jungle, but Oh what a life! Never uninteresting that is for sure! ( as I write this in my little Jungle house, I heard something scuttling across my floor and a little lizard popped its head in at the door, saw me and made his hasty escape…that's right run boy, unless you came to take the tarantula that lives under the sink, and the toad the size of my head that seems to think my shower is the best bathroom ever, and the huge moth that keeps me awake at night fluttering against my skylight trying to get to the moon with you… then you could walk.) What did I do for the last year? Hmmm
I worked… Starting the year as Director of education with 6 staff and 85 students, (and got dengue just before orientation, which had me in bed for a week) teaching classes, making and keeping up with schedules, schedules that keep young and way too-full-of-energy youth constructively occupied... then there were special events to plan and organize and gardens to make and plant and look after, and rice to harvest and chaco to make to plant more rice and Dorms to be kept in order ( impossible) and the Administrative Committee meetings (uggg)( I am grateful and have learned A LOT)( why can't you just all behave and obey???) Evangelism and District office trips and stays, fixing owies and listening to dreams and broken dreams, struggles that seem impossible to these young ones learning to trust in a new friend, God. That is just a bit of what I did, not half of what was done all over campus by our amazing team to keep this school up and running hard. Thank the good Lord for the energy and enthusiasm to get through it! I slept for 11 hours straight for 3 nights last week. Hurray for a vacation!
I played… far too little… Jack has started to become a dull boy… will work on reversing that…
I taught… Art (not just to copy but to create and visualize and imagine, and …. Nope… we just copied). Music, started out with choir, then ended up in a Guitar class with 12 boys… funny thing I can hardly play the thing myself, but we sure had some noise and fun:) English, I don't know if any of them learned something, but I sure learned more Spanish and some English too! And then there was the health and Biology classes which I loved to teach, but sometimes got too excited and found stares and blank looks and crossed eyes so had to back up and take them for runs to wake them up and make them drink water and stand up to teach me the class so they wouldn't sleep… that after lunch class is the beast. From sleeping beauty. Oh wait. Never mind.
I learned… ( am learning) some art tricks, more guitar, Ingles, a bunch of Spanish, PATIENCE!!!!!, per-se-ver-an-ce, diligence, responsibility, a bit of firmness,( I'm still a pushover) how to spank verbally but with kindness… (at least I saw how it was done..),how effort is not painless, and love hurts, but I think it is worth it… at least I am so very grateful that Jesus did that for me. I learned some photography, tried a few new foods, learned some new words in native languages, and learned about a ton of personalities and cultures. I learned more of excel and the education system and all their paperwork and legalities, to stand up and give a winged speech in Spanish, and sit down and wonder if my knees would ever stop knocking together. I learned how wonderful it is to keep in contact with family and friends, and how much I am really grateful for my support from the home front. I learned that when your "almost 30" people get desperate to marry you off. It's like they think your eggs are running out or something. I learned some agriculture, especially in the flower department, (oh why can't we just eat flowers??) and some Bolivian husbandry with sheep (find sheep dead, bury sheep) and cattle. I learned how a sense of humor will basically pick you right out of the grave and place you on your feet and laugh at you because you believed yourself. I also learned how to eat rice. Every day. Sometimes 3 times a day. All the time. And I am learning to be grateful for all that. Because I have meat on my bones, and protection over that, and there is still rice to eat.
I Laughed… the kids' antics sometimes leave you laughing out loud literally in the middle of the night when you are supposed to be sleeping… The staff are even funnier, and the staff's kids are just over the top. The other day the little overly expressive daughter of some staff members came and adorned my hair/ head with flowers and told me I looked like a mother queen, so beautiful. I could feel my hair all messed up and flowers sticking out everywhere. We started eating breakfast and another staff member walked in a said "You look like a dinosaur", to which the adamant little soul exclaimed "No she doesn't! She looks like an adulterous princess!" LOL. She hasn't figured out the difference between being "adult" and "adulterous" yet, bless her little heart:)
I cried…how much can one gal take of exhaustion, loneliness, then not having enough aloneliness, pain, disappointment, frustration, sadness and hurt when things just don't seem to have any possible good ending in sight. I cried when the Puchichi (staph infection) on my temple was being squished to death, and I could just not bear it anymore. That was the only time I cried from physical pain though, the rest is just that heart that is so rock hard being broken and molded and retrained in the way of loving. That is worse than a thousand Puchichis all together, but hopefully with fabulous eternal results on my heart. (And hopefully not eternal results on my presently bald temple…)
I was frustrated… ggrrgrgrgruuhhhhgggghhuuuuurrgggrgrgrhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaa! I don't even want to talk about this one yet… Lord I don't know how you can even think of saving us people!
I hated… I shouldn't have.
I loved… I should have more.
But most of all I had joy. And there is nothing that can take that away when you can trust that in spite of the circumstances or our idea of the right circumstances, we can say;
" I laid me down and slept ; I awakened; for the Lord sustained me… and it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: Great is thy faithfulness!
And with that, I am going to say adieu, and wish you all a wonderful Merry Christmas, and God's blessing of wisdom unto salvation for this New Year that is just before us. May we all be found faithful. With love from the jungle, Sara:)
The "Richard Gates Industrial School", ("Unidad Educativo Tecnico Industrial de Richard Gates") located near Guayaramerin, Bolivia, is a non- profit organization operated by all volunteer services along with donations.
If you are interested in volunteering at this project, please contact myself at farmgirlzsidekick@yahoo.ca, or go to this website: http://gospelministry.org/volunteer/. If you are interested insupporting this project financially, 100% of donations go directly to the project. You may make a tax deductible (US only) donation via:
Another Month has gone flying by, as the work in this jungle continues. Busy weeks of studies and work, activities on and off campus, dorm and campus life, washing and bathing in the river… no rest for the wicked or otherwise! April was ushered in by the end of the first bimester of studies for our students, which meant all the paperwork for students, teachers, and The Director of education increased a bunch and the fluster and flurry of hitting deadlines again came upon us. All in all it has been a very busy and heavily loaded bimester for us because of our lack of numbers in staff, but Praise the Lord, he has given us the strength and enthusiasm to do what we can in spite of the challenges that continue to arise.
Me in the office trying to make sense of the disaster that is being the Director of Education.
What a beautiful thing to work in the Lord's work because we know that whatever comes our way, we are not in control, He is, and He will work it all out for the good of his servants, and children. That sure takes a lot of pressure off of us when things just don't make sense!
This is how I feel too about school sometimes! There are the after lunch blues and then the and breakthroughs!
This month brought on the ripening of the rice. Part of it has been harvested, the other part is still needing to mature some… God has been so good to us providing our food, and Even though the Rice did not produce as it could have this year because of lack of rain at planting and for the first few months after, we will have some rice to keep our growing Boys and girls fed.
First day of Rice Harvest
As you can see the rice is very sparse in many places
The rice cooking pan
with happy Bolivians
lining up to eat it! :)
There has been another potential BIG problem for the school panning out in the last month. The land surveyors from the government came out to mark the borders of our land at the beginning of the year. They are apparently taking land away from people who aren't using it for agriculture purposes, specifically cattle or animals I understand. We have a lot of jungle out on the other side of the creek that is basically untouched as it is where our spring water comes from. The area seen that they want to take from the school is our spring and also part of our creek where we wash and bathe and cool down at. It would contaminate our water source to have activity on that side of the creek. SO we ask for prayers that they will understand our appeal to leave us our water source untouched so that we can function as a school. God has blessed us with the water source on campus and I know he will continue to provide especially that need.
Our much used and much loved creek
April 10th in the evening showed us How Great God is at looking after us out here. A bunch of people from Dawson Creek BC where I hail from, came out to a Bolivian supper hosted by my favorite little sister. She showed pictures and told some of her stories from her experiences at UETIRG,( the high school), and also from our sister Orphanage and boarding school, Familia Feliz, in Rurrenabaque. I am not sure what all went on at the supper, but I saw some pictures of many wonderful people from home coming out to support us and learn more of the schools. They had an auction as well where people donated items to raise money for our projects. It has touched my heart so much to see the interest and support you have all shown for us. Thank you a million times over from the bottom of my heart for the prayers, efforts and donations so that we can keep moving forward in the education and building of character that we so hope is budding from our endless efforts. God bless you all! We'd love a visit from you guys if you're ever on your way over here! Just drop me a line:)
One beautiful item donated for the auction was this metal rose made by one of my brother's good buddies. It just warmed my heart that he is using his great artistic talent to bless us! Thanks so much Nathan!
Exciting times have been awaiting me as April 27th would bring my Mommy to Bolivia. We have been looking forward so much to her visit as I haven't seen my Home family for a year and almost a half. She said the only reason she would come back to Bolivia was if there was a grandchild to come for. Well Helen has helped us out on that one, and will be having her baby any time soon. She is planning to have a home birth with one of our great nurse friends here, and I wanna be there too! I have never seen a real live Human birth yet, and I figure it is about time, and it is about the best birth to see as I get to meet not just any baby but my second little nephew! As I was trying to wrap up a bunch of projects, pre prepare classes, finish grades for all the kids and make their report cards, finish washing cloth items for the home birth, and get things ready for a month's absence from the school, I got a call from my sister saying, "You'd better come as soon as you can because I don't think this baby is going to wait for you!" I was on that next plane like a flash, leaving all behind. (What troopers are the volunteers at the school in my absence…God bless them! ) We were praying that if it was God's will I would get on the plane. It looked like there was no space, but when I called, the Lady I knew answered the phone and said I will get you on that plane! Well I am not sure why God worked it all out, but I made it here in good time cause we are still waiting! So here I am In SC for a few weeks now with My sister and family....
...torturing my nephew and teaching him a few tricks, ...
...waiting for baby...
and waiting....
..waiting...
.. waiting...
...and loving and
being loved by
Mommy!
I had been complaining to God, and perhaps to some of my missionary buddies about my job. I have always sworn I would never ever work in an office job sitting there all day inside a room doing paperwork. It just doesn't make any sense to me that someone would actually like to do this kind of work. Now I am convinced, since I have had a few years now of this work , that one slowly goes mad in there and soon it is like they think they almost like doing it that is why they stick at it, not because anyone can actually like it. Crazy always helps some. Well anyways I was complaining to God that I didn't want to be doing this anymore. My dream is to do Missionary work but as a Nurse!!! I always said I would be a Missionary Nurse not the Director of Education at a Jungle School. Funny how the good Lord gives us a time in the desert, perhaps so we can learn and unlearn things and also so we can appreciate more when we finally get to the promised land of our dreams. I guess he decided he would give me a bit of a break and let me have my way for a few days. SO I get to see a baby be born and help monitor and learn from this.
Also while we were at the dentist, the Doctora, out of the blue, asked me what I will be doing while I am here, and said she needs me for a few days to help a team of Doctors coming from the States to do Cleft Lip and Cleft Pallet Surgeries. They don't speak Spanish and the Doctors here don't speak English and they will be working together so guess who gets to be there and learn and help in whatever way I can???!!!
My first day, all scrubbed up in the Operating Room… I learned a lot, and am so excited to have had the chance to see how it all works! Jesus knows the heart and arranges things even before we actually ask!
Meanwhile back at the school we have lost and gained according to the will of our good Father. 3 of our teachers for several different reasons finished off the Bimester and decided to leave their teaching jobs. That was a big loss, as they had many classes as do we all. Right away God made it possible for a family from Columbia to join us, and slowly but surely God is supplying for all our needs in regards to staff and food and guidance. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we march and plough along learning and growing in faith. If anyone is interested in an adventure in faith as well, please contact me or GMI so you can get involved where the action is God Bless! Until next time….
The "Richard Gates Industrial School", ("Unidad Educativo Tecnico Industrial de Richard Gates") located near Guayaramerin, Bolivia, is a non- profit organization operated by all volunteer services along with donations.
If you are interested in volunteering at this project, please contact myself at farmgirlzsidekick@yahoo.ca, or go to this website: http://gospelministry.org/volunteer/. If you are interested insupporting this project financially, 100% of donations go directly to the project. You may make a tax deductible (US only) donation via:
