Lovely Feet Newsletter - November 2009

Day of the Dead offerings

San Pedro Prison, La Paz Bolivia. People wait in line to visit loved ones in the prison.

Vida Abundante, El Alto Bolivia




EL ALTO
High above the city of La Paz where we are living is another larger city on the edge of the Altiplano called El Alto. El Alto is a dusty rundown city inhabited almost entirely of displaced Aymara people driven from the villages of the Altiplano by drought. The city is full of drugs and alcohol without a main center, characterized by large street markets. There is a very small remnant of Christians struggling to survive. Here, a small church named Vida Abundante (Abundant Life) has carved out a stronghold. Vida Abundante has about fifty members, many of them youth currently led by Pastora Claudia Murillo, a twenty-nine year old single woman. Last year Vida Abundante celebrated its 30 year anniversary.

We traveled up to Vida Abundante on November 1 where we were received with hugs and kisses and snaps of cameras. They remembered us from last year when Rhonda and I had the opportunity to play and sing with some other musicians from the states. The service on Sunday was wonderful and the young people didn’t want to leave. We were asked to return to play and sing again with their small worship group. Finally, we left to return to La Paz and Pastora Claudia came with us as did another friend and some children. We spent the rest of that day at our house eating, praying and singing. Later that afternoon another Pastor from El Alto joined us and we talked and strategized about what the needs were in El Alto. They stayed until ten that night before taking a two hour bus ride back home.

It is our hope to return to Vida Abundante in El Alto one Sunday a month and at other times as possible to encourage and participate in their service. We are praying about training the youth in drama, both short skits and longer presentations that we can perform in the streets and at churches. We also want to have a movie night once a month showing encouraging films in Spanish and feeding the people Choripan (sausage on a roll). The people here are poor and the food will attract many. Please consider this in prayer. The enemy has risen like a flood but God will raise up a standard against him. Our feet have walked in El Alto---God has given it to us…for Christ!

PRAYER NEED: The enemy will not continue to hold this city captive! The church will be encouraged and strengthened and the neighborhood would be open to see the films and their eyes would be open to the truth of Jesus.

THE LA PAZ PRISON
(San Pedro Prison)
Sunday morning is visiting time at the prison in La Paz and people line up early waiting to see their loved ones. Women line up on one side of the gate, men on the other. This past Sunday, November 8, a small group of us walked through Plaza San Pedro, across from the prison, handing out a Christian newsletter about the Peace of God, witnessing and inviting the people to church. Sam and I went to the lines at the prison. Most of the women were Aymara but they wanted to read the newsletter. We didn’t really hand it out, instead the women reached for it. We talked and joked with them as they waited for the prison gates to open. They wanted more newsletters than I had and many asked me to go in. I said that I was going to apply for entry when my Spanish was better and then they told me that there were English speaking people inside that couldn’t speak Spanish and needed a visit. They encouraged me in my Spanish as well and said it was good enough. I could feel their desire for help, for something, for someone to save them and their families. I told them that I was praying for them and their families and I could hear them say thank you throughout the line.

We will return to the prison line next Sunday to share with them what we believe God is saying and to tell them that God loves them and has a plan for them, a plan to prosper them and not to harm them, to give them hope and a future!

We left the prison to return to our church and Sam uttered his final words: Diosampiki which is Aymara for God be with you. The women laughed and smiled and some repeated Diosampiki! They were pleased and surprised to hear a young white blond man speak Aymara.
A special note about the prison: In Bolivia when a man commits a crime and is sent to prison, his entire family goes with him, wife and children. There in the prison they are subject to abuse. During the school year the children leave the prison early in the morning to go to school and return to the prison by 1 p.m. every day. Next week begins summer vacation here. The children will not be able to leave the prison for school until it begins again in February.

PRAY NEED: Pray that I (Ron) will get approval to enter the prison, to proclaim the word of God to those who speak Spanish and to those who speak English. Pray for the children, and the families for their safety and for the binding of the enemy! The gates of hell will not prevail against the church! Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.

THE VILLAGE
As you know our trip into the Altiplano to a remote Aymaran village in the month of October was postponed, but we have another plan. We will be traveling a little more than 2 hours into the remote areas of the Altiplano November 20 or 21 to different village that has not heard the gospel. Pastor Angel secured this visit and we are ironing out details. We will take our small drama team with us to present the story of Creation, the Fall and our victory over the enemy through Jesus, our Savior, for all who believe. We will also present three other dramas, music and proclaim the Word.

It is our hope to present the Jesus film in Aymara. We will be purchasing a projector before we go since we received a generous donation for half of the price of the projector. LovelyFeet has also purchased children’s Bible stories in Spanish to be given as gifts to the village. Currently, the Aymara offer sacrifices to Pachamama, mother earth, serving her in fear.

PRAYER NEED: Pray that the village would be open to see the Jesus film and that chains will be broken and captives set free

CULTURAL UPDATE: THE DAY OF THE DEAD
The Day of the Dead is a national holiday in Bolivia on November 1. It coincides with the Catholic day of All Saints Day but that is as far as the resemblance goes. It is a pagan holiday, characterized by families visiting cemeteries to honor their dead relatives. They bring food offerings, alcohol and toys for those who died as children. They may also make arbors of sugar cane over the grave. They believe that the dead spirits will take the “spirit” of the offerings leaving the food for the families to eat and drink and participate in a celebration of their kinship. Here, in La Paz, everything was closed. Days before the 1st, even the post office was selling bread in the shape and size of people for the offerings.

Setting Captives Free...

Friends from Vida Abundante and the Church of the Nazarene share worship time in our home.

Pastora Claudia preaching on Romans chapter 7 in Vida Abundante

Sunday, November 15, 2009

The mist and light rain was falling today as Rhonda and I walked up and down the street outside the prison meeting the women waiting in line to go inside. The lines form every Sunday regardless of rain or sunshine. Most of the women are Aymara, wearing their traditional dress, some carrying meals or breads for their family inside.
Some recognize me from the week before, they smile and utter a word or two in Aymara because they remember me butchering their language last week. They laugh at my attempt and Rhonda passes out a small newspaper entitled, “The Message of Peace.” In the United States, I remember holding out tracts and waiting to find someone who would take it; but not here. The women are reaching for it. They know it is Christian and many of them are not, but they want the paper anyway.

This prison is not like any other that we Americans understand. Here, in Bolivia, when a man commits a crime he goes to prison and so does his wife and children. During the school year the children are released from the prison to attend school and they return to the prison after classes. School ends here next week for summer vacation and I don’t know if they will have the opportunity to leave the prison walls again until February when classes return.
It is said that if a family wants a cell to themselves that they can buy it or their family outside can buy it for them. If they don’t pay for a cell then they sleep in the courtyard, but I don’t know if that is true. It is also said that cocaine is manufactured inside the prison, but again I don’t know if that is true. I know is that God loves the people inside that prison and we are praying for their safety and for revival to overtake the prison.

After we pass out some of the papers I deliver a short message about God’s love for them and how God’s plan is not to harm them but to give them hope and a future. Many of the women listen, some turn their backs (but we know they are listening) and others shout “Amen.” Rhonda finishes our visit by praying for their safety and for God’s love to break into their lives and set them free. More women reach for more papers. They share smiles with us. I think they are happy to know that somebody cares and that we can see their value. And we wave, say good-bye and say to them all, “Oramos para ti y para su familia,” “We are praying for you and your family.” Many of the women have tears in their eyes. Rhonda and I walk away to words of “Gracias,” and I wonder who was blessed more, them or me. My breath is gone and God’s presence covers me and I am the thankful one.

We are writing our own tracts each week to hand out at the prison. They are about the mini sermon that was shared the week before, so that the words are reinforced and they can take the message inside to their family. We are also taking cookies once a month to pass out to the 100 or so people that wait. I want inside the prison but I am not allowed right now. I am waiting for the paperwork to apply. Everything is a process in Bolivia. The ladies tell me that there are some English speaking people inside that don’t speak Spanish and that have no one come to visit them.

I am unable to take any pictures because the guards would frown on it. We will write more as the doors to prison are opened by the grace of God.

God be with you!

Ron, Rhonda and Sam