Mothers Day

May 27th was mothers day which was celebrated in every arena possible over the course of a number of days. It began in the office on Wednesday with yummy cakes and a gift to each mother. On the Thursday Alana came home from kinder with a card and a pretty yellow rose. Saturday Alana was part of a short performance put on especially for all the mummys. They sang a number of songs then we were able to have a look at all the artwork that the children had been busy preparing for their mothers. Then on Sunday just when we thought it was all over all the mums were called out to the front of church and were prayed for and presented with a gift.

Moulding Chronicle May 2010

Dear Friends,

We have been learning many new things over the last few months both about the work that FH is involved with and a part of Gods plan for the future direction of the organisation. This month we would like to share with you one important aspect of the work that FH does, that is also a part of God’s plan for the future.

There are many Evangelical Churches in El Alto (the migrant city above La Paz ), however, unlike most evangelical Churches in the UK, they are very closed to the community around them. Over the last 5 years, FH has worked with about 250 Churches in El Alto. Churches that have wanted to learn and been willing to change their worldview. Worldview, being the way a person perceives the world around them.

Through a series of training workshops with Pastors and congregations our staff have been teaching; a biblical worldview, the place of the Church within a community, integral ministry and how to think and plan for the future (not common here, the Aymara language only has a past and present tense). They have also been teaching the churches about seed projects. Projects that are planned to help the church recognise and respond to needs within their community.

Such projects are short term, i.e. a few hours and are resourced entirely from within the church in finance and personnel (this helps to break the begging bowl mentality of dependence). The projects are a service to the community and in such demonstrate God's love. Examples of such projects are cleaning the streets, and erecting street signs. The churches are encouraged to complete 2 such projects a year that are well planned and well organised.

During a recent visit, Ed visited 5 Churches that were responding to the need to change. This is the fruit of just 2 of those he visited. The first had started a Christian School, teaching Biblical Principles at its core. Changes have been so evident in the pupils that children are now attending from all across El Alto. This year sees the first graduates. Professionals, wanting to take the Biblical Principles they have learned into the work place. The second church, positioned next to a University was running a restaurant to provide a cheap but balanced diet for Students which was also providing opportunities for evangelism.

Many of these things may seem common sense to us from a western back ground but for a people who have never been taught to think for themselves it is all new. If you wish to read more about the visit and how the programme runs and what some of the other churches are doing then please look at the more detailed report found on our blog (http://mouldings-online.blogspot.com/) Over the following months we hope to share with you some more of what FH is doing and what we are learning through it.

Thank God for:
• A companion family
• The boldness and courage to speak God’s truth
• The different things we are learning
• Peace about just living the here and now

Ask God for:
• Wisdom as to whether we should extend our contract which finishes in October 2010.
• Insight and discernment of the culture

With much love
Ed, Sarah & Alana

Anyone for a hotdog?

On saturday we had the opportunity to meet the families of those we work with at the office as we all got together for a barbeque at one of the parks in La Paz. The sun was shining (as it does regularly now at this time of year) and both the food and the company was good. In true Bolivian fashion, the strict 10 am start drifted into 12.30/1 oclock. The strict program that had all been planned out so carefully, just fizzled. However, on this occasion, it didn't really matter as it just created the time and space to get to know each other a bit better, and have some fun.

It was really nice to see eveybody interacting and the children all playing together, and to feel a part of it all. The only thing thing that seemed rather strange to us was that they served up hotdogs to everybody, then about an hour later, the rest of the food (Potatoes, rice and salad) why they couldn't have done it all together we were not quite sure, but thats cultural differences for you.

A visit to El Alto

Last month I (Ed) spent a day up in El Alto (the migrant city above La Paz at an altitude of over 4000m above sea level), visiting the work that FH has been doing with the Churches there.

There are many Evangelical Churches in El Alto. In just one section of the city you can easily find over 30 Assemblies of God Churches, let alone the other denominations present in the same area. Sadly however, the quantity of churches is no indicator of the quality of the churches or their outreach to the communities around them. Unlike most evangelical Churches in the UK many are closed to the community around them, and are only interested in those within its walls.

Over the last 5 years a two-man team has worked with around 250 Churches all over the city, in a program called Church Strengthening. The idea of the project has been to work with Churches that were interested in learning about; a biblical worldview, integral ministry and the place of the Church within the community.

Worldview or paradigm is the way in which every person views the world around him or her, which effects how he or she responds to it. No one culture or worldview is better than another; each has good and bad points, thus the idea of this part of the training was to look at what was good within their culture. From there they were to look at what God says is a good and healthy worldview based on what the bible says. Through this training they seek to help the Church understand its role as a church. Over time they have seen that whilst teaching the churches has had a positive effect, they have seen far greater results when they have walked with people on their journey of discovery and built up personal relationships opening up their eyes to God’s plans.




Through a series of training workshops with the Pastors and their congregations over the period of 3 years, our staff are teaching the churches: their place within their community so they can minister to the community, meeting its needs whether that is in health, education or developing the local economy, what is integral ministry, how to think and plan for the future (not common here, especially where the Aymara language only has a past and present tense) and to get the Church to carry out seed projects within their community. These are simple projects like cleaning the streets of rubbish (of which there is always a lot), or putting up street signs. These are to be short projects, just a morning or afternoon, that are resourced completely from the church in terms of finances and people (breaking the begging bowl mentality of dependence). They are created with the aim to serve the community and through which demonstrate God’s love. In doing these projects twice a year the churches learn how to plan and organise.

Such work is not always as easy as it sounds as many of the pastors have full time jobs, and so need to work around these jobs to be able to come to the training sessions. The other issue is that many of the pastors lack a basic education, with most having ever only received between 2 ½ to 5 years of basic education. This means that many are not even able to read and write.

If pastors lack a basic education and in many cases the ability to read it makes you wonder how they are leading and teaching their congregations (in case you are wondering pod casts and recordings of sermons are not a resource available to these people), what is their theological training? The answer to these questions is poorly. Therefore this is part of the challenge when working with the Churches helping them to understand the different themes at a suitable level to their understanding.

Another part of the program that the FH team runs is TOT, (Training Of Trainers). Over the past 5 years they have learned that although they have a very good reputation in El Alto among the Churches, they are still strangers. Because of this they have begun to train people within the Churches in these same themes, so that they are then equipped to share within their Church in a way that is more effective. The idea being that the work then multiplies with the trainers training new trainers.

This is long and hard work that often goes unseen for some time, but they are seeing results now in a few of the Churches, which has been very encouraging. During the day I visited 5 Churches all of which were very different. One Church had started a Christian School and was teaching its pupils Biblical Principles. Positive changes have already been seen in the children and now parents want their children to go there because of this. This year they are seeing their first students graduate as professionals, people who will take the Biblical Principles they have learned into the work place, generating change. Another church was next to a University and had started a longer-term project using its own resources to run a restaurant to provide a cheap but balanced diet for the Students as this is a need the Church has seen and acted on. It is also providing opportunities for evangelism.

We then went to a completely different Church where the pastor had died and his teenaged son had taken over responsibility. With an elderly and sick congregation (of about 20 people) they had built a small Church for about 50 people from their own resources. The pastor of the next church was a rarity. He was older and normally the older pastors do not like any suggestions of change (sound familiar!), as it may threaten their job and their security so they do not want to listen. However, this pastor has changed his way of thinking and taken it to another level. For 5 years they have been running with a child sponsorship program with another organisation called Compassion for around 300 children, which runs classes for the children in the mornings and afternoons. The pastor has realised that one day the funding from Compassion will stop and so instead of residing to fate, he has told his church that they need to start thinking about how they can fund this project in the future to keep it going. Finally I went to a Church that was just beginning the process of changing its thinking. There were about 50 people of all ages learning about God’s intention for the Church.

To see some more of the results of this program and what can happen when the Church has its eyes open to the needs around it. Check out the project FH is involved with (and looking for funding from the UK) in a community called Puerto Camacho on the edge of El Alto. FH started there with Church Strengthening work and now FH is helping the Church to reach out into the community and help change the lives of some of the children living in that area.
http://www.uk.fhi.net/bolivia/

Alana meets the stars

On our recent trip to Cochabamba we had the opportunity to see a live performance of Alice in Wonderland, in which two of our friends were taking part. Alana knew who her friends were but wasn't so sure about them being in costume, they did look a little strange, but then what else do you expect of a Mad Hatter and a March Hare!

Amazing creation

On the day we arrived in Coroico Alana discovered this rather bright looking caterpillar attatched to a wall. We guessed by its lack of movement that it was in the process of undergoing a change however we were very suprised to discover how quickly that change came about. The first picture was taken on the evening of our first day, the second on the early morning of the next. Sadly we weren't about long enough to see how quickly the next transformation was going to take or which form it was going to take. But Gods creation really is quite amazing.

Coroico

Last weekend we decided that we were all in need of a little R & R so we packed our bags and headed off to a very small town called Coroico down in the slightly more tropical regions of las yungas. A place which surprisingly is only 2 hours away from La Paz and yet so vastly different in fauna and flora. Including some pesky biting bugs!

It was indeed a very small town, our taxi driver made comment to us that if you were to trip over whilst in Coroico, you would fall over the edge. When you see how the town is perched onto the edge of a mountainside you can understand the reason for the comment.

We all enjoyed the short break and being somewhere different. There wasn’t really much to do so we just enjoyed hanging about and seeing how many different creatures we could find, by the end of the weekend Alana was very proficient at spotting insects and bugs of all shapes and sizes, including a stick insect climbing up the steps.

In the grounds of where we were staying there was a small play area, that was somewhat over grown, but a haven for so many creatures, some nicer than others. I don’t think I have ever seen, or heard so many different types of grasshopper in one place before, all colours shapes and sizes.

On the Saturday we headed off for a walk in an attempt to find some waterfalls. A taxi driver had told us that they were only about half an hours walk away, a time scale reference to which we were a bit dubious, knowing how time is not a strong point within the culture. However, we still set out full of hope and were accompanied by one of the dogs from the hotel who took a liking to us and obviously fancied a walk too. Once we saw she was insistent on coming with us we decided to call her Poppy. Alana was very happy for the extra companion and we for the extra distraction to keep somebody walking. After an hour and a half walking around the mountainside and no sign whatsoever of any waterfalls we gave up and turned back, a decision that was helped by the fact that the path had now become almost impassable. We also figured that with the return journey it was enough for one day for a short pair of legs.

We were a little disappointed at not reaching our destination however the views were quite spectacular and we did see lots of other pretty butterflies along the way. Poppy seemed to have enjoyed the exercise too and accompanied us right back to our room, though we drew the line at letting her in.

Happy ‘Beaster’ (as Alana puts it!)

We enjoyed a very different Easter experience this year, which was influenced by two differing factors. The first being local elections on Easter Sunday, the second being the decisions of the local church we attend.

Easter Sunday may seem to be an odd choice of date for local elections, but for a president who is anti Catholic/Christian what better day than this to disrupt any celebrations. During such a day of voting, there are a number of restrictions put in place that causes the country to come to a stand still. Everything shuts down, people are not permitted to travel, or even drive their cars on the roads without special permission (which has to displayed in the windscreen), no alcohol can be brought or sold up to 24 hours before the day or on the day, in an attempt to ensure people are sober to make their vote, and that violence is kept to a minimum. The other significant aspect of this day is that no gatherings are permitted to be held, thus church services are prohibited.

This all makes for an eerily quiet day, with streets deserted of any traffic on what normally would be busy bustling thoroughfares. Many people are out in the streets with their families, and people of all ages are out on bicycles, which is a sight not normally seen. This makes you wonder if people only ride their bicycles on days of elections and strikes!

The local church, which we attend, decided to make some rather radical decisions this year in face of the circumstances presented. The first decision was to reschedule the usual Sunday morning service to the Saturday evening. So we arrived at 6.30pm when it started, thinking that it would be shorter than the usual 3 hours due to the change in time. When we finally arrived home at 9.45pm we were all quite exhausted. The Sunday school class starting at 8.30pm proved to be just that little bit too much to take in for Alana, who was literally bouncing off the walls by the end from being up so late. For someone who is normally in bed and asleep by 7.30am, the expectation of sitting down for a class at 8.30pm was just too much.

The second somewhat ‘different’ decision that they made was to actually preach on death and resurrection. This was something very controversial, as here in Bolivia the evangelical church would normally make no reference whatsoever to the day and what it celebrates. To many of us this seems very odd when we consider the death and resurrection of Jesus to be central to Christianity. The reasons behind this, so people say, are to distance themselves from the beliefs and practices of the Catholic Church.

So our Easter Sunday was spent at home, sharing the Easter story together and setting Alana off on an Easter egg hunt!

Feliz dia Papa

Happy fathers day to all those daddies in Bolivia.

For the last couple of weeks Alana and her friends at kinder have been working hard practicing and preparing something special for their daddies. Yesterday they put on a special celebration reciting a poem then getting their daddies to dance with them, along with painting portraits of their daddies. Saddly though Alanas daddy couldn't make it as he had his head in the toilet throwing up.

Today was better though with a special treat to go and see Alanas artwork displyed in one of the art museums in the city, which we were able to go and see.

A childs Imagination

Any guesses as to the identity of this latest creation?

Why its a rabbit of course, with some toys!!!