This picture leaves me speechless every time I see it. I snapped the shot when I was coming in to church on Sunday. These lovely ladies are Dreamers at the House of Dreams. They all got new hair pretties and were happy to show me. You can click on it to see the original sized version.

When asked as a child what I wanted to be when I grew up my response was one of two things: famous or a farmers wife. Sometimes I threw both of them in to see the people’s response.  Yes, I wanted to be famous. I remember the day that acting fame, my most desired of all kinds of fame, slipped away and lay dying on the floor of my high school auditorium.

He was a kook. The drama teacher always directed the plays. Our theater was state of the art. Traveling acting troupes would use the stage. The city boasted of the wonders of this renovation. Naturally the man took all things performance very seriously. The scenes he made when he got flustered at our mediocrity in class and stormed out of the room were fit for any high-school comedy movie. You just never knew what to expect.

Auditions had been held for the next production. There were usually two or three major ones throughout the year. The cast list had not yet been posted. Rumors were flying about who we thought would get the parts. A handful of talented students usually got the leads. I hung out with them, but always held a fringe position in the clique. After drama class one afternoon the teacher pulled me aside. I did not expect what he asked of me.

“I want you to show me two different voices,” was the request.

“Like two accents? Or two different ways to say the same thing?” I sought clarification.

“Two distinct characters with two different voices,” he said.

I froze. Worrying I would disappoint paralyzed me. Stutters and false starts made my heart race. Finally I gave up.

“I can’t do it,” I said. The look on his face was smug to my nervous eyes. Without another word we parted ways.

For the rest of the day I beat myself silly because I couldn’t get my act together. It would not be until practices started that I would understand the gravity of my crumbling that day.

The cast list was posted and all the regular players were on the top. The date practices would start was followed by an invitation to any and all who would like to be part of the crew. As had been the case in all previous performances (except one when I danced in the Wizard of Oz at the back corner of the stage for less than five minutes) I helped with the crew. Once again I was the prop girl.

Still, I got to be at most of the practices. I loved it! Being there was so much fun. I watched them run lines and learn how to put on a good show. One certain scene shed light on the interaction I had with my teacher. He stood with one of the lead actresses and told her that she needed to make each character distinct. Her role was that of a spy who was disguised in order to solve a murder case. So she had to play both parts. That was the role the teacher was trying to see if I could do. I knew right then that I had blown it.

At the end of my senior year we had a mini-oscars amongst those in the drama circle. I was awarded ‘Best Proppie Ever’. All my hours of scouring mildewy thrift shops for the best period furniture at a cheap price had paid off. All my running around town to the flee markets for multiple sets of china to be crashed and broken each night of the show had not been for naught. Finding the perfect pipe tucked away in the corner of an antique shop was worth it.

For years that regret of a missed opportunity hung over my head. I am over it now. It wasn’t meant to be.

Funny thing, though, once a proppie, always a proppie. Who knew that as a pastor’s wife my prop girl skills would be called upon? My husband and I spent this last week putting together a new stage for church. It was fun. We got to collaborate in the painting, design, and creation. We are pretty happy with the results. This was the third one this year. So far we have done: a construction zone, a bank and now a living room / coffee shop set. This series will last twelve more weeks and we have already started to think about our next set design.

To be clear, DaRonn’s degree in marketing has been helpful in this design endeavor as well.  I would be remiss in leading you to believe that this was all my doing. It really is a joint effort.

(The images can be seen larger by clicking on them.)

A couple rules about election days here in Boliva:

• It is prohibited to organize an assembling of more than 10 people on election day.
• Use of motor vehicles is restricted to emergency aid only.
• Elections cannot be held on a work day.

Whereas elections used to occupy a space in the work week, for reasons of the economy they are now held on Sundays. It has been this way for a number of years now. In the past as a church we have worked around these obstacles in creative ways. Church the night before is one tactic. Opening the doors of the church for peopel to come and pray as they like; a sort of open house method. We have even done a night service after 7 pm when the restrictions are lifted.

The next elections are for mayors, or govenors, or something along those lines. The date had been set. Then it was moved up a few weeks earlier. They have scheduled the elections on Easter morning. It irks me.

I don’t yet know if the Catholic church is doing someting to have this changed. I don’t know that the association of Evangelical churches is doing something either. I do know we can pray. Would you pray with me that the date of the elections would be moved? There is still plenty of time for a change to take place. Would you pray that the church in Bolivia would move in wisdom and favor in this situation? Thank you for helping us out with your prayers.

Last Friday night DaRonn picked up Bill Hybels from the airport here in Cochabamba, Bolivia. He is on a 12 countries in 12 days tour. When he came in he was relieved that he was going to have an evening without a meeting so he could relax. Drinks were suggested so my husband took them down the street from the hotel to a fun restaurant. They had a nice time talking. (I was very bummed that I was laid up in bed with tummy crumminess. I got over it by the next morning.)

For the Saturday morning session we had invited 150 pastors to participate in a Q and A with Mr. Hybels. The format promoted thinking beyond quantity and into quality in our churches. The pastors had some great questions about strategy and concepts.

Personally, I was challenged by the four levels of leadership he taught. The one we are most familiar with is a downward directed leader from superior to subordinate. The second type is lateral influence that we have with our peers or people with the same level of authority. The third is called leading up for times when we are accountable to a board yet still have a degree of leadership in the scenario. Finally, there is self leadership. It was so good to hear that. Taking responsibility is key. We can not shift blame on the shortcomings of others for mistakes that must be attributed to faulty personal leadership. He encouraged us as pastors and leaders to lead ourselves well.

A lunch with key leaders from around Bolivia followed. We had the director from Compassion. Willow Creek’s representative from Brazil was there. The director for the Baptist social outreach program was at the table too. In all we were 13 influential people. It was my honor to be able to sit next to Mr. Hybels and be his earpiece and mouthpiece as I translated the back and forth of the conversation.

What struck me most was that even though he is an experienced and accomplished leader the air around him was completely unassuming and personable. At lunch he showed such a genuine interest in the people at the table by asking questions about the nation of Bolivia and then listening intently to the answers. He even drew a map and asked about key cities and population. His motives were obviously sincere and helpful.

After lunch as the team was loading up in the truck so that DaRonn could take them to the airport Bill said that he would like to come back so that he could spend some time to get to know the city. I truly hope that he is able to do just that.

Per request I would like to tell the tale of how we came to have the property that houses: the church, the international office, a small guest home, the elementary school and our home. You can see an aerial view of the property on a previous post: You Are Here.

Once upon a time a family came to live in the city of Cochabamba. The house they rented was large enough for them, the office where three people worked as a ministry team and their dog. All during the time that the ministry was growing the kind missionary man was searching for a location to put the team since the dear missionary woman was feeling crowded. By the time an office was found there were twelve people stuffed into that house working, home schooling, cooking and living on top of one another, oh, and the dog. The new office was perfect.

Eventually the team grew so much that in addition to the international operations there was a church. The church location was down the street from the office in a tiny store front. The office space was so big that they had room to spare so the church came to the office property and were very happy to have room for a nursery, a children’s ministry and a large meeting room for worship.

Sometimes the kind missionary woman would stand at the window on the back of that meeting room and gaze out at the unkempt lot with an abandoned building beside that jutted up against the property and she would think that it would be nice to have the building for expansion. Little did she know that the day some corrupt grounds keepers staying on that rundown property were caught stealing the instruments from the church by climbing over the back wall and thereby creating an opportunity for her and her husband to meet the owners of the place out back that the ministry would indeed be occupying that very spot not very many months later.

The owners were sad to not have trustworthy people renting their property so they came to the kind missionary man and asked him if they could renovate it for him so that he could rent it. Seeing a great opportunity the kind missionary man agreed to the offer and helped to oversee the changes that the place needed so that it could become an orphanage and a better place for the church.

While those improvements were being made the office building changed hands and there were new owners but the renters stayed the same. The new owners saw that the building of one story could be made into two. They approached the kind missionary couple and asked them if they could renovate it for them so that they could have a nice apartment. The kind missionary family had been living in the home that they had always been in there in Cochabamba and the roof was leaking in seven places because it was an old home so they decided that this was a good opportunity to live in a new home. Seeing a great opportunity they agreed to the offer and the kind missionary woman helped to oversee the construction of the new apartment which included designing the layout of the kitchen which made her very happy.

Not very many months later all construction was finished and all moves made. The location in a very accessible part of town running the length of the block from one street to another was (and is) a very good thing. Some changes have been made since the initial establishment of a centralized location, one of which is moving the orphanage to a home and bringing in a school. There will be more changes in the coming years. But for now they are all living happily, even the dog because there is a yard.

The end… for now.

P.S. To God be the glory, great things He has done, is doing and will do.

At our annual New Years party at church we have a fun surprise waiting for us when we show up: hats! We never quite know what they are going to put on our heads each year. They seem to try to outdo themselves. I wonder what they will come up with 364 days from now.

Happy 2007!

Happy 2008!

Happy 2009!

Any suggestions so I could drop some hints to them about a desirable style for 2010?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

My first hour of 2009 went something like this…

• Kiss my husband
• Hug my three oldest kids (the youngest was upstairs asleep in our apartment that is next to the church building)
• Do some noise makers while wearing my festive hat
• Kiss, hug and congratulate all the people who had come to the party at church
• Talk with God about the new year
• More partying
• Shuffle my confetti covered kids out the door and upstairs
• Start turns in the shower so they would calm down a bit
• Hear the little feet of a tired little two year old coming my way
• Smell the familiar scent of puke covering that same darling boy
• Divvy up jobs with my very good husband, he took the kid I took the bed
• Bag the blankets for later washing and scrub the bed
• Make up a comfy sleeping bag on the floor for my baby
• Help papa finish getting the kid who was falling asleep standing up dressed for bed
• Sing and pray over my kids one by one

It has been a good year so far. The preparation for keeping the kids moderately good humored and yawnfully awake for the New Years celebration began Tuesday night with a plan. I told my dearies I had an idea for helping them to stay awake for the party. Raimy, my ten year old girl, said, “What? Are you going to give us coffee?” That was the plan for keeping myself awake, not the wee ones. I let them stay up until midnightish Tuesday. Wednesday they were aching for naps by 2:30 in the afternoon. Thus getting some good rest before tonight. I drank my liquid uppers (coffee) at 8 in the evening and we were all set to go. It worked out pretty well.

Hopes for 2009? Yes, I have them. Would you like to hear some?

• Finish reading through the Bible in Spanish
• Write more (participate in NaNoWriMo)
• Complete the adoption of our new daughter

Those are a few I felt like sharing. I hope that you are able to see some of your hopes for 2009 realized. May God bless you richly in His abundant goodness and mercy. May the Lord bless you and keep you; may he make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you; may he lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:22-26)

On with the nutty, mixed-up, crunchy, munchy life I lead…

• DaRonn won the city-wide Bowling Championship last night by eight points! Yeah! I would have gone with the kids but DaRonn called me just as I was about to walk out the door (he had gone early to warm up) and said that at the last minute they changed some of the rules and there would be two extra games to play. This meant that they would not be finished until about 10:45 pm. A bit past the fan club members bed time. He also said that they were going to hand out the awards on another date. So we will take the kids when that happens.
• Tyler broke out with Chicken Pox yesterday which means he was contagious Sunday when he was in the nursery. Oops. He had a slight fever this morning and has been a bit cuddly but he doesn’t seem to be suffering or itching even though he has about a hundred spots on his little almost-two-year-old body.
• Tomorrow is Bolivia’s Independance Day. There are parades and everyone has the day off.
• In the evening tomorrow we have our monthly women’s meeting at church. I will be speaking about turning obstacles into opportunities and trusting God that all things work together for the good. You can pray for that.
• Including tomorrow night’s meeting I will have taught six times in the last week. It has been good to teach. I am so grateful that I have helpers to free me up.
• Today is a milestone for me personally. It marks one month of my plan to read the entire bible in Spanish. I feel I am at a good level in my Spanish that I can read fluidly without laborious stops to look up what a word means. Without a plan it is more than likely not going to happen in Angie-world.
• I am happy to have a partner who also has a desire to read the bible cover to cover. We are emailing to help keep eachother on track. I thank God for you Amy!
• It is illegal for us to have Sunday morning service on the 10th due to a nation wide vote taking place that day to see if we should redo the presidential election from 2005. Pray for this country to be at peace. The results will be mostly felt in La Paz. God help us.
• We did a huge cleaning of the kids’ rooms last week and hauled out no less than 12 garbage bags full of stuff to throw or give away. It feels great!
• Gabrielle will be seven on the 12th. Yeah for her!
• Watched a laughed-till-I-cried movie: “Meet Dave”. Hilarious!

Whew! With a snack of Trail Mix that size we have spoiled our dinner for sure. It was sure yummy though, wasn’t it?

(We came up with a fun plan for posts with the title “Just Another Day in Bolivia”. It requires me learning some new stuff and possibly an equipment upgrade. I am not going to disclose what exactly it is yet; but I will give you a clue: it rhymes with “groovy plot”.)

Now on with the nutty, mixed-up, crunchy, munchy life I lead…

• Met with my dear girl friends. Shared coffee and talked from the heart.
• People watched my little people so I could do this. Yay!
• As a family we took spaghetti to a pot luck lunch in celebration of one year of operation of a missionary friend’s 24/7 prayer center. Prayed, ate, drank and talked from the heart.
• A gal from church picked me up so we could go out. Shared coffee and talked from the heart.
• People watched my little people so I could do this. Double yay!
• Chatted on line with a dear friend. Typed from the heart. FYP my dear.
• Watched my man practice bowling.
• On our date we ate Chinese and talked from the heart.
• People watched my little people so I could do this. Triple yay!
• All of the above was my Friday!
• Saturday I chilled with the family.
• Sunday we did our regular: church, lunch, rest and church.

And for our last little nibble some pics of my baby.

Couldn't you just eat him up?

Warning: When you are in close proximity to a generous person you must be very cautious due to the highly contagious nature of giving. To avoid such fatal encounters maintain a fixed gaze at your own belly-button while shoving your closed fists deep into your pockets and walking briskly away from any human. The cure for this infectious malady is yet to be discovered. No treatment has been successful. To emphasize: generosity is contagious!

Case study #720 – Date log: June 25, 2008

Location: Cochabamba, Bolivia

Epicenter of outbreak: Iglesia Cristo Nacion

Report: Dozens of people witnessed the atrocity. One man began giving away t-shirts and books. Then another woman gave away an airplane ticket. Then the disease was out of control. In less than 10 minutes a spontaneous reaction occurred and another man gave away an oven, another his plumbing services, and still yet another woman gave away a scholarship to vacation bible school. All attempts to contain the insanity were futile. The entire group left the premises with an altered state of being. The generosity is beyond all know methods of treatment.

Symptoms: Include, but are not limited to, a sudden urge to strip yourself of material possessions, an overwhelming sense of goodwill towards other people, and a complete loss of desire to be repaid for your acts of kindness.

Projected effect on society: All precautionary measure should be taken immediately. If not contained this disease will spread at an alarming rate and will infect every nation and race in the world.