We had a great opportunity to witness to the village officials and syndicato as they heard our testimonies and love for the orphaned children of their neighborhood. We were blessed with the evangelical president of the tropics and a half dozen local pastors who shared favorite Bible vs and shared their hearts for Jesus.

The dedication was an amazing time of celebration. We purchased a side of beef and the woman of the church spent all morning preparing a fabulous meal for the community officials and Church members.

Ground Breaking

We've learned a bit more about patience and to wait upon the Lord. Fleetwood provided the funding to build this home last year and we've been waiting and waiting for the lot lines to be drawn. In the land of "tomorrow" it really is tomorrow! Praise God.

We enjoyed the time of prayer this past month with NPU (North Park University) from Chicago. We were able to bring some of the children from the Villa Israel orphanage to join us. It's amazing to think that God has already identified the children and house parents who will call this place home.

Hola! My name is Tiffany Du Mez and I arrived in Bolivia about 3 weeks ago. I will be an intern here for the Timmer family through International Teams until December 20^th (My family wants me home for Christmas J ). The day before I left to come to Bolivia I graduated from North Park University, which is where my story begins….

North Park University is a small, liberal arts college on the north side of Chicago, Illinois. NPU prides itself on pushing into big issues including racism, poverty, and other social injustices. Through this, NPU focus’ on taking what we learn in the classroom and bringing it to the ‘real world’: from the classroom to the community. In May of my junior year I took one of the 8 (Appalachia, New Orleans, Alaska, Mexico, Thailand, Zambia are the others) global partnership trips through our University Ministries department. My eyes were opened, my heart was changed, and I had to go back.

After a lot of good byes and even more prayer, I have found myself living in the Hacenda (house on the hill) with the seven other interns. So far, I have seen things I have expected to see, while felt things I could never have imagined. Although each day is a struggle to be away from my family, friends, and mentors the smiles we create, the change we see, and the hope we bring makes each day worth it.

Joys and things I’ve learned:

1. Always carry toilet paper
2. Futbol games mean business in South America
3. Ketchup is International
4. God is faithful

Prayer requests

1. I am still very much learning the language (and still will be in December) so I pray that I will be given continued grace with my abilities. And continued growth with my skills.
2. Continued safety and health. I have been so blessed to not become sick as many around me have and I am very grateful for that.

I think that’s about it. More of my adventures can be found at my own blog (tdumez86.blogspot.com)

Love and blessings

Tiff

New Intern: Kim Bishop

Hello everybody! My name is Kim and I am from Weare, New Hampshire. I am 20 years old and going into my sophmore year of college at Liberty University in Virginia.
So where to begin writing my story is always the hardest part. Do I start with what first brought me to Bolivia or go even farther back to what brought me into missions? I guess the beginning is always best...
I was first introduced to ¨missions¨ and ¨missionaries¨ at a Christian summer camp when I was about 9. It sounds young, but that´s where the spark began. Since then I traveled a lot with my family which grew a love for traveling and I saw my parent´s relationship with Christ which encouraged me to grow deeper in love with my Savior. All of these things mixed together in highschool to make me want to do missions trips when the opportunities were provided. My first missions trip was 10 days in Ukraine during my freshman year of highschool. I absolutely loved it. I returned during my junior year and did another trip to Mississippi with my school during my senior year. These 3 trips confirmed my passion for missions, yet I was unsure how that would turn out when I went to college.
Bolivia came into the picture when my church decided to begin missions trips here and ironically my dad was the first person to come here and ¨scout it out¨ for my church. He fell in love with the place and I continued to hear more through the missions trips that followed. I just decided to plan a trip here with a friend and all the details came together!
So far my time here has been challenging and so amazing at the same time. I am only here for another 11 days, which will turn out to be almost a month in total, yet I can tell already that I will have to be back!

New Intern: Elaina DeStefano

Hi my name is Elaina DeStefano, I am 18 years old and from New Hampshire. This is my first time in South America , and working with Iteams, and God has been very good since my time here! I go to Liberty University in Virginia, and next year I will be a sophmore. In attending Liberty Univeristy I have already seen a growth in my faith, and I love how Liberty pushes you to continue to grow in your realtionship with christ. My first experience with missions in another country was when I was a junior in high school. I got the amazing opportuntiy to go, along with other juniors around New England to the Dominican Republic. I was there for 10 days, and that trip really opened my eyes to how many things could be done to help God´s people, there just needed to be poeple willing to do them. Since than I have been to Uganda as well, and each of these experiences have made me want to continue to do missions even more. I am here in Bolivia for about two more weeks (all together it will be a month). Interning has been really good so far, and it has also allowed me to experince true Bolivian culture! I have already developed a heart for the people here, and I am sure I speak for the rest of the interns when I say we all have. It is my prayer that God can use all of us in anyway he sees fit to bring glory to His name, and bring love to His people.

Interview with Michelle.

This week we are going to highlight Michelle!!! Michelle will be leaving us in a week. We’re super sorry to see her go, but we know this is how God wants it…for now at least.

I took a few minutes on the bus to ask Michelle some questions about her experiences here and how God brought her here.

Michelle is from California. She accepted Christ at age 6 after hearing about God´s power to change Saul´s life, she then realized that if God could change Saul´s life and use him so greatly that surely he could use her too.

She has a BA from Biola University in Intercultural Studies and a minor in Bible. She explained to me that all that she learned there gave her more of an insight into missions and God’s heart for the nations. She has a love for Mexico and explained how her involvement with Tijuana Ministries (Mexico) grew her love for Hispanics, their language and ministry with them. Tijuana Ministries was an every other weekend trip where they would go to a battered women’s shelter of sorts. They spent time building relationships with the women, doing VBS with the kids, and basically just helping them get back on their feet.

Michelle shared that her favorite thing here is tutoring the kids. She enjoys spending time with the kids, and feels that it’s very rewarding to watch the kids progress. (Side note: the kids she tutors got their evaluations back yesterday and did very well. Go Michelle!!) She also feels as though her eyes have been opened a lot to the poor and their needs.

She confesses that the first thing she’s going to eat when she gets back to California is some authentic Mexican food…mainly just the frijoles, though!!

One life change that Michelle has learned here and feels that she will maintain when she gets back to the states is patience!!

We LOVE this girl and know that God will use her no matter where she is in this great big world!