Uh...From Somewhere in Volibia

What is a life worth? Not just physical life, but spiritual life. Would you choose your school over your family knowing that you will be disowned for the sake of your own life? Would you sneak your little brothers and sisters out of the house at night and put them on the bus to an orphanage for the sake of their lives?

There is a student who can say yes to those questions. She is 17 now but not all that long ago Mary (not her real name) witnessed her uncle hack her mother to death with a machete. She decided to leave her father’s house (he owns a brothel) and go to the Gospel Ministries run orphanage here in Bolivia. In time the staff at the orphanage encouraged Mary to come here to the school outside Guayaramerin. She did not want to go but with the encouragement of the missionaries she came. She has come to realize that the staff care for her and she is developing a relationship with Christ. She is tasting and seeing that God is good, that the Bible can be relied upon, that eternal life is worth the sacrifices now. She still struggles greatly, but she has seen a better Way and wants that. Recently (July) Mary went to her father’s house and snuck her little brothers and sisters out of her father’s house one night and sent them to the GMI orphanage were she had been so they can have the same opportunity that she has.

Before I came down here I viewed the school as, well, more of a school. I was looking at it from my perspective from academy. But that view was a little shortsighted. Nothing against academy, but a lot of the students were from Adventist homes and had at least a basic knowledge of the Bible. Here, the majority of students don’t know the Bible among many other areas of knowledge that we in the developed western countries take for granted (work ethic, washing one's hands, etc). The school has even had parents say that they don’t want their kids and to take them. Please keep this school in your prayers as it continues to fill a multifaceted void in the lives of many students.

I'm never lost, I always know where I am...right here! This picture was taken on a trail that was hacked through the jungle for the sawmill (which is mobile). On Sabbath a couple of us took a group from Texas on a walk through the jungle...to the pineapple patch. It was more bushwacking than a walk. I ended up being the pathfinder for the group by pushing on ahead into the jungle to find the path then the group would follow with a couple of machetes. It is amazing how fast stuff grows.

Girls Dorm: there will be a gated entrace to fill the space on the left side. The dean's apartment & office is on the right side (front).

Inside the girls dorm.

Cafeteria which also acts as a classroom.

'Termite House' (Classroom & nurse's office)

Director's House (Ruan & Tara)

House for female staff

Elementary hut on the left (back), electrical shack (left front), Girls Dean's current house (middle back on stilts), classroom (right hut).

Boys dorm (far left), workshop, carpenter's shed (middle with lumber), my house (male staff - with the laundry), Work Coordinator's house (back right).

Chapel with extension.

Setting up a log for the sawmill. The log needs to be up off the ground about a foot. We then built the sawmill around the log.

There is a rope (actually several braided together) because the weight of the log kept snapping the chains. This particular type of wood is dense and the bugs don't eat the heart wood (though they do eat the sap wood - the outer white ring just under the bark). This is actually a smaller tree from others they have done.

Sawmill setup. This section of the trunk had some rot but we still got a number of boards. The other trunk section was much better.

Bestia (beast) who I am presently working on wooing. Ruan & Tara brought her to the school from the hangar in Guayara because people wouldn't have anything to do with her because she is black...bad luck. She was malnourished but is doing better. She still has some hangups (hence the name Bestia) but I think I'll be able to reduce the intensity.

Banana

Papya

Pineapple - different variety than what we eat in the states - sweet, tasty, can eat the heart.

Today we have thankfully delivered the final load of an order of lumber and are going to stop by the sawmill in town to pick up sawdust to start a garden patch with the seeds I brought. The Mittleider method is what I'm going to be using for this patch. The sawdust will be mixed with sand and planted.