Month: April 2016

Finishing and farewells

Posted on by deanandruth

We arrived back in the UK on April 12th after a whirlwind of goodbye parties and sad farewells. Our last few weeks and months were really busy; trying to hand over and finish the various projects that we had been involved with.

The Expressions team arrived from the UK and we used their 3 weeks to forge links with existing projects and a few new ones. It was amazing to have them with us. Even though it was a little bit squashed having six people living in our little apartment. We managed to get to Sucre, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz.

This blog will include more photos than usual with captions as a way of showing what we have been up to.

 

Working with the boys in Cometa and being a able to share the Good News was a real joy

 

Every Friday and Monday we would play volleyball or basketball with the boys

 

Our lovely friend Hali came to stay for a few days from Santa Cruz.It was great to show her our projects and here more about her work with the Ayoreos

 

Working with a youth group at Richard’s church: presenting drama and doing a music workshop

 

Daniella and Jayson Hobbs arrived from the UK for a three week mission trip

Ellie and Francesca arrived a few days later and the Expressions team was complete. We had planned an exciting schedule of activiites and visits for them. They were hoping to use their creativity to communcate the gospel . This was Easter Sunday when we hiked up the 1240 steps to the Cristo staute above Cochabamaba.

 

Visiting Horno K’casa in Sucre one last time with craft activiites, games, drama and music. This is where we worked in 2007-09 and it is wonderful to see how the children have benefitted from the educational centre and facilities which we started and that have been supported faithfully by the CCE church in Sucre.

 

The older kids decorated baseball hats

 

At a youth cell group in Sucre studying the bible and using art as a way of expressing our thoughts. The young people had never really done anything like this before and enjoyed it very much.

 

With our lovely friends in Sucre at the house of Gonzalo (grey T shirt and shorts) and Maricel (red stripey T shirt)

 

Performing street drama with our team from Belen church. These guys have been consistently willing to help every last Sunday of the month to evangelise in the main plaza. It was a memorable experience for our team to be invloved in.
We had the opportunity to speak at a church called Kairos in Santa Cruz about Servanthood. A group from the church took part in some training and then came to help us when we visited a number of youth prisons in the area.
Our trip to Santa Cruz started with presentations and teaching at Kairos church. A totally cool experience with reggae worship.

                                      

Afternoon dance workshop at Mosoyjan.
Afternoon dance workshop at Mosoyjan.

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As you can imagine being back the UK is quite a strange experience. Can’t understand why the temperature is below 25° and we wonder why people run away from us when we go to hug and kiss them (as is the Bolivian way!). We are really enjoying seeing friends and family again, but will never forget the amazing adventure, privilege and community that we have found in Bolivia. We will be back…

A very big thank you to everyone who has supported our journey, through prayer, emails and packages, we are still waiting for 2 Christmas packages that seem to have been lost along the way! Thanks also to those that have sent donations which miraculously arrived when we needed them. It’s been great to share our journey and ministry with you.