Friday, June 12, 2009

Radio Silence

Ok. So Paola and I are officially going on blog "radio silence" for two weeks. Early tomorrow morning we leave to go on a two-week medical mission trip. We will be traveling with a team of doctors from the states and we will be visiting about seven remote villages in Bolivia. We start high in the mountains outside of La Paz and then travel by boat down into the jungle. Then we make our way back up the mountains to La Paz again. We are heading to places where I don't think cell phones and internet exist.

It promises to be a truly amazing experience. I am going as a translator and Paola will be helping me and working with kids. We thank God for this new and different opportunity to serve Him. We will have a chance to see parts of Bolivia that we have never seen and I will have the chance to see poverty like I have never seen.

I don't know what God has in store for us on this trip but I know that He is up to something. I doubt Paola and I will come back to La Paz the same.

As with all our trips and experiences I promise photos and videos after the trip. We should be back in La Paz around June 25th so I will let you know when we make it back.

Please pray for us during this trip. Pray for protection and pray for God to work through us in mighty ways. It will be very interesting to see how the people in the remote villages react to the modern medicine that the docs are bringing with them.

Should be a wild ride. Take care and God Bless you.
We will be out of pocket for two weeks but we will be in contact when we get back.

Peace.

Curt and Paola

P.S. Paola and I will celebrate some milestones while we are traveling...her birthday on Monday 6/15, the day we met last year on 6/23 and our first date last year on 6/25!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Bye Twitter

Ok. So Twitter was just way too much for me.
Just one more reason for me to be sitting at my computer.

So I had to kick it to the curb.
Blog posts, phone calls and monthly email blasts are more my speed.

Bye Twitter.

In ALL Things

"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this is mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."
Ephesians 6:18


Last week during small group one of the guys led us in a bible study. And the above verse was one that we read. And it really got me thinking.

Paul says "all” three times in the verse above.

And I just started the list in my head…what are all of the things in my life that I DON’T pray about?

I pray about things but I can’t honestly say that I am lifting up all of my worries, concerns, problems and praises to God. I selectively pray. Maybe I pray only when I want God to help me/heal me/guide me/protect me. And the worst is when I tell someone that I will pray for them and then never do. Have you ever been there?

The fact is that there are situations in my life that just fly by without any prayer. And they are probably the situations where I feel like I am in control and that I don’t need God. Because after all…if I am in control why pray? But I need to learn that I am hardly ever in control and that there is no situation too big or too small for God.

We shouldn’t just pray when the situation is totally out of control. That is normal. That is when most people turn to God, when they finally realize that they aren’t in control.

Let’s lift up “all things” to our Heavenly Father.

What are you NOT praying about?

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Update

On Monday we hosted a missionary from Maine for the day. She was on her way to Tarija in southern Bolivia to serve for three months and we took care of her for the brief time that she was in La Paz. On Tuesday we evaluated the Foundation Qhanawara. We spent most of the day with them reviewing and evaluating the work that they do. They have a center in El Alto where they provide after-school support to local kids.

Yesterday I went to immigration to complain again that they haven’t given me my visa yet and they put my name on the “urgent” list. I hope I get it soon. Paola and I need my passport so that we can get our marriage documents notarized with the Bolivian government and at the US Embassy. I have been waiting to get my visa for two months now.

We are also preparing for our upcoming mission trip. On June 13th we will be heading out on a two-week medical mission trip with a group of doctors from the states. We will be visiting about seven remote villages in Bolivia providing medical care to the people. I will be translating. We have some supplies that we need to purchase and I need to review medical Spanish terms. It should be a pretty rugged trip. We will be sleeping on floors most of the time and traveling by boat for several days.

And I am trying to get our study ready to distribute to the small group Monday night. When Paola and I get back from this mission trip I will be starting a seven-week study with the small group. Paola is also going to start having a small group with the girls on Monday nights as well.

God just keeps using us in new and different ways.

Whenever you say “Here I am Lord.” He always says “Cool.”