Bolivia: Is it safe?

Adreana & Federal police officers in Santa Cruz

My mom always says, “The safest place to be is in the center of God’s will.”  I felt like I was putting this saying to the test when Reed and I decided to go to Bolivia on a mission trip.

First of all, we had to get all sorts of shots, oral vaccines and pills to protect us from malaria, typhoid, hepatitis, tetanus, diptheria, mumps, measles, and rubella.  Of course, I was the first one to get a mosquito bite to put the malaria pill to the test.

Secondly, we had to fly into La Paz to unload passengers.  I got a little lightheaded at such a high altitude.  Some passengers had trouble breathing and needed oxygen.  But that wasn’t the bad part.  Then we had to rise to a higher altitude very quickly to fly over the Andes Mountains before landing in Santa Cruz.

Reed had already forewarned me about the taxicab drivers before we hailed our first taxi the next day.  He had read some excerpts from the U.S. State Department that cautioned us to use extreme care whenever we rode in a taxi.  Some cab drivers are unscrupulous and steal from their passengers.  Not only that, sometimes they kill their passengers and dump them along the side of the road.  Our missionary friend, Adreana (in the above picture), had not heard of anything like that happening in Santa Cruz, but it was still on my mind when I got in the cab.  I looked for my seat belt, but I couldn’t find one.  Then I noticed that the cab driver didn’t have a speedometer.  He was driving an old Toyota Corolla from Japan that had the steering column on the left side, but the speedometer was still on the right side. 

Santa Cruz traffic circle

On another one of our trips to and from the missionary compound one of the men on our mission team had to ride in the back of the car where the propane tank was rolling around.  This particular cab was operated by propane, instead of gas. 

We also noticed that the stop signs, traffic lights and yellow lines in the middle of the road were only suggestions.  The cab drivers honked when they got to a stop sign and kept going, even if they couldn’t see around the corner.  The other drivers were supposed to stop.  On a two-lane road the driver made a third lane right down the middle of the road.  The other two lanes of traffic were supposed to make room for him.  As if that’s not bad enough, most of the main roads are concentric circles.  It’s a major feat to cross from one circle to the next one.

I guess the scariest situation occurred when Adreana, the missionary we were visiting, didn’t have time to give the cab driver directions to the missionary compound where we were staying.  He just took off with three Americans who didn’t know where they were going and could barely speak his language.  Fortunately, I had just purchased a map of Santa Cruz and circled the locations of the Cristo Viene Girls’ Home and the missionary compound.  I remembered enough Spanish to tell him where we needed to go and showed him the map.  He drove around and around, but couldn’t find the house.  I was afraid that he would get frustrated and just dump us off.  It was nighttime so he flashed his lights at each stop sign, instead of honking his horn and kept going.  I was constantly praying that no one else was coming our way.  Finally we were able to contact the missionary at the compound, who had just returned from church, and he gave the cab driver directions that he understood.  I gave him a tract about Jesus, and we all thanked him profusely when he finally dropped us off at our destination.  Adreana was really worried about us when we showed up about an hour late. 

When we arrived at the missionary compound we noticed a brochure about the facilities on our coffee table.  In big, bold letters we were warned not to adjust the shower head under any circumstance.  We noticed electric wires running to the shower head.  Adreana, our missionary friend who worked at the girls’ home, said that she gets a “buzz” sometimes when she turns on the water!

Shower head

We went to the market to buy groceries and rode the micro.  We passed out evangelistic tracts.  It kept my mind off of the driving!  Every person who received a tract was very appreciative.  They thanked us, started reading them right away and took the tracts with them when they got off the bus. 

When we arrived at the market we bought the meat last.  I don’t know why because it wasn’t refrigerated anyway.  One of the customers knocked a chicken onto the dirty floor.  The missionary we were with just picked it up and put it back on the counter.  I was a little concerned about eating meat from that point on.

Cooking chicken at the Girls' Home

I noticed after our meals that the dishes were washed and rinsed in cold water.  They didn’t have hot water to sterilize their dishes.  Only one of our mission team members got sick, and I think it was caused by eating salad.  The rest of us stayed away from the salad.  I felt guilty about not eating it, especially when the girls were watching.  They were happy to eat it for us, though.

Washing dishes - no hot water

Adreana taught the girls how to bake bagels.  They sell them to people in the community.  They have a problem with mice getting into the flour.  I figured that they were safe to eat since they were cooked in a very hot oven!

Bagel oven at Girls' Home

We felt safe at night at the missionary compound with barbed wire at the top of the wall, bars on the windows, locks on the doors and a barking dog outside.  Actually, we knew that God was in control and He would take care of us.  We just didn’t know if he would take us on to Heaven, or leave us on this earth a little longer.  It really didn’t matter as long as we were in “the center of His will”.

Missionary Compound & Seminary

We went sightseeing and bought gifts in downtown Santa Cruz.  While we were shopping we noticed graffiti on the walls.  Most of the people in Santa Cruz are not happy with their president.  We were in Bolivia during their Independence Day Celebration.  We had been warned of possible riots.  We weren’t sure if we would be able to fly home on schedule.  Fortunately, there were no problems. 

Graffiti in Santa Cruz

In a previous story I mentioned all the wonderful things that happened at the Cristo Viene Girls’ Home, which far outweighed my concerns of safety.  A Bible verse (paraphrased by my dad) came to mind occasionally:  “Worry about nothing;  pray about everything, and God will give you peace of mind the whole world wants, but only Christians possess it.” 

Wonder where God will take us next time.  Adreana is already asking when we’re going to come back.  We’ll see…

Bolivia countryside outside Santa Cruz

You’ll never be the same…

Cristo Viene Girls' Home

Elvira hugging Nicol

When I called my mother and told her that Reed and I were going on a mission trip to Bolivia she said, “You’ll never be the same.”  I wasn’t quite sure what she meant until I had spent a week at a Bolivian Girls’ Home. 

Adreana (standing on the far left in the picture above) is a missionary from our church in Virginia.  She asked us to come help out last summer.  Five members from our church volunteered to go.  We asked her what she wanted us to do while we were there.  She gave us several suggestions, but mainly she just wanted us to “love on the girls”.  That suggestion didn’t sound like a very important job.  I thought you were supposed to go on a mission trip to witness about Jesus.  I found out that loving was just as important as witnessing.  Some of the girls are orphans;  some have been abused;  some of them had to leave home because their parent(s) couldn’t afford to support them.  All of them need love.

On the first day in Santa Cruz, each of us gave our testimonies about Jesus, which were interpreted in Spanish.  We offered each girl a Spanish Bible.  They only took one if they didn’t already have one of their own.  We also brought a new set of sheets for each girl.  Marcee’ and Adreana, the two directors at the girls’ home, told them that they would receive the new sheets after they washed the old ones.  They had to wash the sheets by hand and hang them out to dry.  The old sheets were given to the poor people.  We thought that we were already giving sheets to the “poor people”, but I guess it’s a matter of perspective.

Several times we took the girls to a nearby soccer field to play softball.  They had never played the game, but they caught on really fast.  Before long the boys who were playing soccer joined us in playing softball.  They had a great time!  After the game we gave them Spanish tracts about Jesus.  They eagerly read them and took them home.  They didn’t throw any of them on the ground.  In fact, I was surprised that everytime we offered people these religious tracts they immediately started reading them, whether it was a passenger on a bus, a cab driver or the military police standing in the town square.  We told them in Spanish that it was a gift for them.  They seemed very appreciative.   

The girls loved having their pictures taken.  Elvira wanted to have her picture taken with Reed and me, pretending that she was our “hija” (daughter).  Then another girl wrapped her arms around me and wanted to be another “hija” in the picture.  We became attached to several of the girls.  We were very sad when we learned that Elvira had run away from the children’s home a couple of weeks after we returned home.  Adreana said that they found her working in a family’s home.  I hope she’s okay.

We took a different group of girls out to eat almost every night.  This activity was a special treat.  They have very little variety in their meals.  We took the younger ones to La Dumba.  It was like a McDonald’s, but dirtier. The play area was very small and needed several repairs.  While we were eating, a large light fixture fell next to our table.  Needless to say, La Dumba wouldn’t have passed an O.S.H.A inspection.  We went to several restaurants with the other girls, but La Dumba was the worst.  The girls didn’t notice any of the problems we saw.  They had a great time!

Ann, the other lady on the mission team, and I did some craft activities with the girls.  Three of the girls gave me the Bible bookmarks that they had made.  I thought they would want to keep them since they had so little.  Elvira wrote on her bookmark (in Spanish), “The girls love you very much.  To Cindy.  From Elvira.”  She was always practicing her English on me while I practiced my Spanish on her.

The girls really enjoyed reading the Spanish Bible stories we brought them.  They would sit as close to us as they could.  The little girls would climb up in our laps.  They laughed when we tried to read to them and stumbled over the Spanish words.  They loved looking at the picture albums of our families.  Adreana told us to be careful selecting our pictures.  She didn’t want us to show our houses or cars.  It wouldn’t be polite to show off our “wealth” when the girls had so little.  None of the team is wealthy by American standards, but Bolivians would think differently.

One little four-year-old girl named Nicol had a skin disease on her scalp and had her head shaved.  Adreana said that the the infection was gone, but she still sprinkled a  white powder on her scalp to make sure.  One day I found Nicol crying.  I think God was testing me.  I am very germ-conscious, especially after taking Microbiology in college.  I went over to her and picked her up to console her, trying to ignore the powder in her hair.  She snuggled in my arms while I talked to her, trying to remember a little Spanish.  I asked the other girls why Nicol was crying.  They said that someone was teasing her and calling her by the name of her ”amigo” (boyfriend).  She quickly recovered and started playing with her friends again.

The three men on the mission team also read stories and showed them their family pictures in their free time.  They did some repairs on the childrens’ home.  Reed and Ann worked in the small garden located in the courtyard of the childrens’ home one afternoon.  When we returned home Adreana said that the girls took some of the plants to the “poor” people.  They are always thinking of others.

Mom was right.  I’ll never be the same again.  For years I supported missions by praying for missionaries, supporting them financially, inviting them to speak at our church and taking them home afterwards, teaching GA’s (a girls’ mission group), and serving as a member of the missions’ committee at church.  All of those activities were fun, but there is no greater joy than going on the mission field and serving with the missionary.

Fabiola

Moving South to Virginia

After two years of crazy shift work in Pennsylvania Reed transferred to a national park in Virginia.  We’ve lived in the same house for twenty years, but Reed has worked three different law enforcement jobs with two different agencies.  Looking back, we can see God’s hand in each one of the job changes.

One of the most memorable job changes was the opportunity Reed had to work for the U. S. Forest Service.  He had applied for a job change within the National Park Service, but we would have been required to move into the park.  The commute would have been too long for me to continue teaching school.  In God’s timing the perfect job opened up with the Forest Service that allowed us to continue living in town.  He worked for the Forest Service for fifteen years until his retirement two years ago.  I’m still teaching in a public high school and looking for ways to share Christ in my job.  I’d appreciate your prayers when school starts on August 12.

Another GodMove: from TX to PA

While living in San Antonio, Reed applied for several law enforcement jobs around the country.  He wanted to transfer from his historical interpreter’s job to law enforcement, but he had to make the switch before he turned 37, the cut-off with the National Park Service.  He was offered a job in Pennsylvania, shortly after our second child was born.  I felt like Abraham and Sarah, moving far, far away from family and friends.

At first, we didn’t know why God moved us all the way to Pennsylvania, but within the next two years God made it very clear to us.  We were able to share Christ with several friends, but our friendship with the Aiosas made the biggest impact on our lives.

My parents came to visit us for two months while Reed was in Georgia at the law enforcement training center.  They became friends with the Aiosas, too.  My dad had the opportunity to tell Joe about the love of Jesus, and I had several opportunities to share Christ with Bobbi.  Just before we moved away from Pennsylvania Bobbi got very sick.  She had hepatits so we visited by phone.  I talked to her again about Jesus.  Then I asked my dad to call her.  He talked with her again, and she trusted in Jesus for her salvation shortly before she died.  That’s when we knew why God moved us all the way to Pennsylvania. 

Later when we moved to Virginia Bobbi and Joe’s daughter began writing to me, and I had the opportunity to encourage her to put her faith in Jesus.  Unfortunately, Roni quit writing to me after I witnessed to her about Jesus.  I’m hoping that she eventually turned her life over to Christ.

Debbie Albrecht is another reason God sent us to Pennsylvania.  She and I became good friends.  Her husband worked long hours on Wall Street.  Sometimes we got together when our husbands were working.  Our family got to meet her parents at their New Year’s Eve dinner.  Their daughter, Kristen, and our daughter, Sherry, became good friends.  I had the opportunity to share my faith, and she talked about her Catholic background.  She said that her family didn’t go to church anywhere because they didn’t want to influence their children.  They wanted to let them decide for themselves what to believe.  She knew that we took our children to church to introduce them to Christian beliefs, but the final decision was up to them.

I have the same hope for Debbie as I have for Roni.  I hope that our conversations made an impact on her and that she accepted Christ as her Savior.  Unfortunately, I lost contact with her when she divorced her husband and later remarried.  Our daughters corresponded for awhile, but eventually the letters stopped coming.

I’m always disappointed when I witness for Christ, but no decisions are made.  But I have to remind myself that I’ve done my part by sharing about Jesus.  Only He can save.  I hope to see Roni and Debbie and their families in Heaven some day.  God doesn’t need me around for them to make decisions for Christ.  The seed has been planted.  “God yields the increase.”

Move to San Antonio. Blessing or Curse?

My husband and I have moved several times over the past 32 years.  Most of the moves were job-related.  Each time we wonder if the move will be a blessing or a curse, even though we try to remain positive.  My husband had worked as a police officer in a big city for several years when my brother offered him a job in a new company.  We prayed about the move, but had a lot of trouble determining God’s will.  The rotating shifts were really hard on Reed.  He had trouble sleeping more than 4 or 5 hours during the day.  He also had a funeral escort business with other police officers as a side job.  On top of that, he had to mow 2 acres around our house every week and take care of a 2 year old on his days off while I worked.  We finally decided to give it a try.  We figured that he could always finish his college degree if the business weren’t successful.  His VA educational benefits were going to run out in a few years.

We moved to San Antonio in July and bought a house with a 15 1/2% interest rate.  The business went under in November, and I had to find a teaching job.  That’s not very easy to do when school has already started.  Unbelievably, a teacher had just resigned from his job the week before I needed one.  After I was hired I discovered why he had resigned.  He must not have had control of the classroom.  Many of the kids were very disrespectful and didn’t want to learn.  One student rubbed his hand against my leg as I passed his desk.  Fortunately the administration honored my decision to remove him from my class.

Reed was not eager to return to school.  He was banking on a successful business.  When the business failed, he really wanted to go back to his old police job.  The police chief had told him when he left that he could come back anytime.  We decided to put the house up for sale.  Unfortunately, no one wanted to buy a house when the interest rates were so high.  Meanwhile, the air conditioning broke down.  We were so broke that we didn’t fix the air conditioning and suffered through the 100 degree weather with fans.  We slept with the windows open.  We would have been nervous about keeping the windows open at night, but God had provided 5 barking dogs next door.  Reed says that the best deterrent to crime is a barking dog.  Unfortunately, the barking dogs had fleas, which the neighbor girl blessed us with, when she came over to visit.  We even had fleas in the car and flea bites on us!  Our pastor, Bro. Van, loaned us his car to use while we put “flea bombs” in our house and car.  Then he inherited fleas in his car.

Meanwhile, Reed was working on his degree and delivering pizzas at night to help pay the bills.  The car kept breaking down.  We discovered that our Chevy Citation was a piece of junk.  We finally found a buyer for the house.  He put down $500 earnest money.  We moved out, and the buyer and his family moved in.  His loan didn’t go through.  When he moved out of our house he took our ornamental monkey grass with him and left a hole in the bedroom door!  The roof started leaking, and we discovered termites behind the tile in the shower stall.  What else could go wrong?!

Reed finished his bachelor’s degree.  He already had an associate’s degree in law enforcement.  He majored in History since he thought he might like to teach.  He took three education classes, but the last one “did him in”.  He observed students in a history class at the school where I taught.  He was shocked at the disrespectful, lazy behavior of the students.  He wanted to handcuff them and take them to jail. 

What do you do with a History degree?  He thought he might be able to get a postal job since he was a “5 point veteran”.  He had served in the Air Force during the Vietnam era.  He made a perfect score (100 +5 points) every time he took the postal exam, but the post office was only hiring “10 point vets”.

Reed went to the Federal Building in downtown San Antonio and applied for a federal job.  Then he went to the Job Placement Center at UTSA.  The counselor told him that he didn’t have a chance of getting on with the National Park Service.  He didn’t tell the counselor that he had already applied for a job.  He was hired by the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park as an interpreter.  He had taken several Spanish history classes, never realizing that this particular background would enable him to get a job telling stories about the Spanish missions in San Antonio.  The job paid much less than his salary as a city police officer, but at least it got his “foot in the door”.

A short time later he transferred to a National Recreation Area as a park ranger (law enforcement officer).  Finally, after four years in San Antonio we were able to see our move as a blessing.  We made some special friends and enjoyed living near our families.  But the next move would take us far away from family.  Would it be a blessing or a curse?

Do you like black people?

Since I teach in a public high school you never know what your students are going to ask you.  One day one of my black students said, “Do you like black people?”

I said, “Of course, I like black people.  That reminds me of a song I learned when I was a little girl – “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white.  They are precious in His sight.  Jesus loves the little children of the world.”  

Another student said, “Yeah.  I remember that song.”

Then we went back to Algebra problems…They like to get my mind off of math, but I have to remember that I’m getting paid to teach math, not Sunday School.  It was a great GodSpot, though! 

My students know that I try to treat all students equally.  I’ll have to admit that I had 2 really special students this past year.  Both were black.  Clyde was failing Algebra II with a 48 average by the last nine weeks of school.  I was teaching in small groups by then.  We had an uneven number so I became Clyde’s partner.  We worked problems together whenever I wasn’t helping other students.  He worked harder than he had all year.  He turned to me one day and said, “You’re a very good teacher.”   WOW!  What an encouragement.  You don’t hear that very often, especially from a student who is failing.  Clyde ended up passing the state end-of-course exam and passed for the year.

Another student named Devon was passing my Algebra II class this year, but needed to pass the state end-of-course exam in Geometry to receive an advanced diploma.  She had taken it twice last year and failed both times under another teacher.  Her former teacher didn’t want to tutor her so I volunteered.  I tutored her for 3 weeks, before and after school.  She failed twice, but showed improvement each time.  We kept working on her mistakes.  I told her that I was praying for her and that we were going to celebrate after she took the test the final time, whether she passed, or not.  She had worked hard and deserved the treat.  Imagine our excitement when she passed.  We went across the street, and I treated us both to a banana split!

Jesus – expletive or holy?

Since I teach in a public school I’m always excited when I hear the word “Jesus” in a positive way.  Occasionally I hear it as a curse word, and I’ll say, “Don’t talk about Jesus that way.”  The student who said the expletive always seems a little surprised.  They don’t even realize what they’re saying when they curse.

Our students had just returned from an assembly, which emphasized respect towards authority and each other.  The black man had the audience totally spellbound. 

When my students returned to the classroom Joey said, “One man can’t change our school.”

I immediately responded, “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.”  We’ve had speakers come and go.  It seems that the atmosphere changes for a day or two.  Then the bullying, fights and rude behavior continue just like before. 

All of a sudden there was a GodSpot!  I said,  “Wait a minute.  There is a man who could make a difference.”

Joey said, “Who?  Jesus?”

I said, “Yes!  He can!”

Joey responded, with a laugh, “I don’t believe that church stuff.”

That was the end of the conversation.  In a Christian school that would be an introduction to a great Biblical lesson, but we’re in the public arena.  I’m always excited to put Jesus in a positive light, though.  It made my day, or I guess I should say that Jesus made my day. 

“At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow…”

I might die tomorrow…

I’ll call this a “GodSpot”, a term coined by my brother.  During math class one day one of my students made a random statement that came totally out of the blue.  We were talking about algebra. 

He said, ”I might die tomorrow.”

I said,  “I hope you know where you’re going when you die.  I’m going to Heaven when I die.  I’m excited about seeing my dad again.”

Long pause…

Another student said,  “How do you know he’s in Heaven?”

I said, “Because he believed that Jesus died on the cross to save him from his sins.”

Now that’s a GodSpot!

DUI

While I was teaching at a large urban high school (2000+ students) in the mid-eighties, one of my students was involved in an accident.  The driver had been drinking.  All three students died in the accident.  We were all in shock the next day.  I tried my best to comfort the students in my classes, but I felt like my hands were tied.  It’s not easy being a Christian teacher in a public school.  I wanted to tell them how they could be sure that they would go to Heaven when they died.  Since then, I have joined Christian Educators Association International, which reaffirmed that I have limited freedom of speech in the classroom.  Now I encourage my students to come by after school when I am free to express my beliefs.  Times have really changed.  I was the student council chaplain at the same high school in the sixties.  We were allowed to have student-led prayer at the beginning of each day.

Tutoring in the Seventies

I was a federal park ranger for five years before I became a public school teacher in a rural high school.  I was notified of a drowning at a city lake.  When I arrived at the scene a wrecker was pulling a car from the lake.  Later I found out that a woman had committed suicide by driving into the lake.  A couple of years later I was teaching Becky, the daughter of the drowning victim.  She didn’t put a lot of effort into her work and soon fell behind.  The Superintendent told me that a trust fund had been set up for Becky, and they would like to pay me to tutor her.  Becky had decided that she wanted to join the military and needed to pass her math class.  I hope that my relationship with her was an encouragement.  At the time, I had a daughter of my own and felt very sorry for her.