URGENT PRAYERS for the CAMP’S FUTURE!!!

I am not sending this particular letter out to many folks just to a few.  I will screen a more general letter later. 

This Friday the village people had their meeting.  They celebrated the signing of contracts with a major state university  to put their university on our property.  They entered the camp (there was a camp going on at the time) under the idea that they needed to look at the water.  Then when they were there they were to put up their corner stone up for the university.  We found ourselves locked in our room upstairs until they left.  Eric was not there and we called the mission director who came from town but arrived 30 minutes after everyone left. 

Even the governor of the area is now involved in the take over and they had another celebration in a city 25 minutes away from camp.  THERE IS PLENTY OF ROOM EVERYWHERE AROUND FOR A UNIVERSITY, THEY JUST WANT OURS BECAUSE WE TAKE CARE OF IT.  IT HAS BUILDINGS, A GYM, BASKET BALL FIELDS ETC. 

The mayors say, “We are MAS, the ruling party, and we can do anything we want our president said so….”

We have had contact with the police again about the mayor who cut the road through our property.  He is on the drug dealers list and that makes us look even more bad in the eyes of the 13 + families involved in the drugs.  Yet, the police still have not followed through. 

This is emotionally draining.  It is spiritually draining as well.  God promises his wrath will be poured out but we need help NOW. 

I am sure he hears the prayers of his Saints.  Please lift us up. 

Eric and Emily Lizarazu
Benji ,Lydia, Ellie, and Julia

Accident in Bolivia

What a week.  We have had a virus and got very little done at camp, Ellie cut her cornea while trying to sweep the patio, Ellie also got a deep burn on her hand from a cookie sheet.  Then today we were on our way into town, as we were entering a school zone and slowing down a big Semi hit a mini van who flew, yes flew, into our car.   We are ok, most of us were buckled in, and no one died in the mini van  that flipped on to the side of the road.  The police have the truck driver, but our car needs some repairs.  Eric is out trying worrk on all of that.

We are counting our blessings and re counting our blessings.  Please remember to always pray for us on the roads.  They really have a reckless way about driving here.

Eric and Emily Lizarazu

Benji ,Lydia, Ellie, and Julia

Thanks for praying

 

Hello Everyone,

We have been running back and forth to camp getting started with everything we left behind.  There have been several camps as well since we arrived.   The last was a youth leadership convention with close to 300 leaders.  Eric is working on wiring and windows.  (It snowed up in the mountains close to camp!  Those mountain breezes are COLD!) 

There has been some continued political stress at camp with the village leaders.  The leaders of the mission plus Eric and Jose Luis have shown up to two meetings called by the local leaders but the village leaders have not shown up.  Then the local leaders took upon themselves to enter camp and do some “remodeling” on the water tank.  Please lift us up in prayer for peace.  The current President has given them the power to do anything they see fit including breaking the law, taking what they want etc. There has been a third meeting called for the 14th of August.    

We have been without water lately at our house.  We are unsure what happened but it seems that someone  broke a pipe doing construction.  We are among the lucky ones.  We have a tank that fills with water from a canal near our house.  It isn’t clean water but it works!  I used up all our disinfectant and it wasn’t enough for my peace of mind.  I boiled the rest and made some warm bath water.  The next few days went by the same.  Julia came down sick.  We thought she had ingested some of the dirty water.  When we took her samples in, they came out clear.  She seems to be doing better so it may have just been a passing virus, only time will tell.

The kids began school again. We were caught up in all subjects except English.  Isn’t that funny!  Well, thanks for all your prayers.  Emily and Eric.
Eric and Emily Lizarazu
Benji ,Lydia, Ellie, and Julia

We’re Home after our U.S. stay!

On Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 12:51 PM,
We made it home.  All 6 of us.  Winter has been cold here.  They have closed schools and extended the vacation to keep the swine flu limited. 
 
All of our bags made it.  The chocolate chips made it too — unmelted because of a rain storm in Florida.  Customs hardly looked at our bags and we made it home after 31 hours of flight.  We found our house and work with miminal ¨problems´ to fix up and return to normal.   What a Blessing.  Thanks for praying for us all. 
The Lizarazu Family

 

Eric and Emily Lizarazu

Benji ,Lydia, Ellie, and Julia

April-June in the States

We will be in the States April, May & June.  Alabama, North Carolina, Alaska etc.

New Car – Thank you!!

Many thanks to all who have helped us and prayed for us to get a new car.  We have been driving the car now for 1 month and I put the first scratch from nose to tail on it.  *Eric kept his cool very well….  Then when he was away on a 10 day camp up in the mountains I set the car alarm off and we were stranded in a parking lot until I could go and get help.  I left the kids in the car with their Bolivan Grandmother and came back with the folks who sold us the car and an electrician who cranked the car up with one turn of the key.  We are enjoying it very much.  We have yougurt spills on the seats and candy wrappers in the floor.  It almost feels like ours now!  With love. Eric and Emily Lizarazu

 
Eric and Emily Lizarazu
Benji ,Lydia, Ellie, and Julia

November

News from Bolivia:

November 20, 2008

I am sitting by the heater at camp.  We use our heater year round here.  The altitude makes it chilly enough at night that you need just a little something to knock the chill out of the air.  But, it is summer time and the rainy season makes summer colder than winter?  It is one of those things you just have to live through to understand.  When we leave camp for the city, we have to dress in layers because we drop of the mountain and into the valley where the climate is more dry and hot.

Happy Thanks Giving and Merry Merry Christmas.  The kids get out of school for their summer break this Friday and I probably wont get out to the city very much the next month to wish you a Merry Christmas.  So, with a smile we wish you all a Happy New Year too. 

How are we doing?  Better, I think.  It has been a tough 6 months since the car was stolen but we haven’t had to sit still too much.  Our beater has gotten us around, most of the time, but Eric has had to spend quite a bit more time under the car than behind the wheel.  The new car we were able to purchase is still only half painted.  We go and check on it each week and hear another excuse.  I am glad I have been in Bolivia for some time and I expected this or else I would have blown my cool some time ago.  But, patience has “grown” on me and I can shrug off the wait a little better.  At least I know we have a new car and the hope of the day of getting it keeps us going. 

Keeping busy has also helped!  Where do I start?  Things we do seem normal to us and I have to remember that our life is nowhere near “normal” when we compare our lives to your lives.  Bolivia is not “normal” in any sense of the word but especially when you compare it to most of the world.  So, with a smile, I will hit some highlights of this past year. 

One of my favorite activities this year was definitely the Samaritan’s Shoe Box give away this past June.  We gave away almost 1,000 boxes to the kids around Candelaria (by camp) and in two other pueblos near camp.  It came with its sad side though.  Not every child received a gift due to the fact that they came late or they lived “between” villages or their mother came for them but the child had to be present to hear the gospel message therefore we couldn’t give out extras.  But, it was such fun.  We had prayed for Samaritan’s Boxes to come out our way the year before, we had even written them but heard nothing.  Then a fellow Camp team member heard about another church that had 7,000 boxes to give away.  God does work in mysterious ways!

This year we also had some extra duties as Jose Luis the camp director went to the states for 3 months.  Eric found himself as director and administrator.  We found that construction slowed down during this “season” because we just couldn’t keep up with both duties.  Now that Jose Luis is back we are back into full swing finishing up our two- year project of building a new mess hall, kitchen, apartment, and staff dorm.  We can see the end to this project but remember things move slow here.  Workers show up when they feel like it.  Weeding, planting and harvesting has some to do with it but we find we just- hang out- at a stand still until they show up again.  So goes life here. 

We worked with two neat interns from Montreat College.  They stayed with us for 3 months as they learned a bit about themselves and a lot about living in a 3rd world country.  They both left feeling like they still wanted to be missionaries some day so maybe we didn’t work them too hard after all.

We have been working with two churches, one near our house and one near camp.  Benji, 7 at the time, was a Sunday school teacher in the village.  He taught a few Bible stories and I made play dough.  This was such a neat experience for him.  He now believes in his heart that he can do it.  He can teach others about God.  Lydia won’t let him win for anything and talks constantly of growing up to become a Sunday School Teacher.  

If you are a Christian and the village churches find out, watch out!  You are now the preacher, Sunday School Teacher, offering collector and usher, you name it. They are so excited to have any new member.  They are excited to hear what God has given you to offer them, new news or special words from God.  Explaining this, you will understand that Eric is now a stand-in/stand by preacher with the title of “Pastor”.  He’s not too comfortable with his new title and laughs at it, but every Sunday that we are not at camp we attend church behind our house.  The walk is nice, chickens, dogs, goats, sheep, onion and corn fields line the path and road on our 15-minute walk to church.  We arrive to a normal worship service of singing and scripture reading.  When it is time for Sunday school they select a member to teach the children. After the children are dismissed, the member in charge then asks Eric to step forward to preach.  Guess we are called to be ready at all times. 

There has been a women’s group out at camp the past few years.  The village ladies used to meet at camp, but now they meet at the Baptist church in the village.  Once a large group, they have narrowed down to around 11 or 12 women, all weavers.  A lady from North Carolina has become involved with the group with the intentions of having the ladies use their weaving for more income- a micro enterprise of such.  I have become the translator and go between for the group.  The women speak mostly Quechua, so I work with another lady who helps me.  We go from Southern English, to my bad Spanish, to Quechua. 

Another favorite activity is still in its planning stages.  A missionary from International Teams has a goal – to build lots of orphanages.  We have worked since June to find land around camp to build 2 homes on.  After all options were looked over, we settled on a far corner of camp. The volunteers and workers will stay in the main house at camp during the months that the orphanages are under construction.  We are excited about this and hope to send pictures of the homes going up when we can.  We are waiting on the last OK from the SIM and we don’t expect that to take too much longer.  (Camp is owned by SIM)

Chores at camp are never ending. The weeds are growing, flowers blooming and we are gearing up for Christmas break.  Fresh fruits such as cherries, peaches, pineapples, and watermelon are flooding the market.  School is out and we are preparing for children’s camp, family camp, teen camp and of course the village Christmas party.  It will be 2009 before we know it.  Another year has gone by and we have missed you all.  We have purchased tickets to take a small break in April.  We plan to stay in the US until the end of June.  Our plans to visit Alaska are still up in the air but we sure would like to make it up that way.  We are watching Travel Velocity and Cheap Tickets.com with hopes of finding the best deal ever!

Pray with us for Marlene, the young girl who lives with us.  She has shown some interest in the Bible. We continue to sew seeds and teach God’s word directly.  We are praying now for someone who can spend some quality time with her when we come for a visit in our fall, your spring.  She will be in classes until July and then she will graduate. 

I am sure there has been more, of course there has, but  I have probably taken up your time with this long email and you are sure to have lots more things to do.  Blessing to you all.  Thanks for Blessing us too and reminding us that you support us and think of us and that you pray for us. 

A few blessings and other prayer requests:

·       We have had amoebas only once this year and that is not too serious.  I see it as a blessing from God because dengue fever, malaria, typhoid, and other parasites are still a real threat.  Thank God for giving us good health as I relax a bit and take less care than I did the first years.

·       There has been more peace these past few weeks but we do need a new president.  Keep praying for Bolivia and its future.

·       We are so excited about our new car.  Thank you. It seats more people than our old blue car and Eric has so many plans to go from village to village and start up a teen mission group again.  Thanks God!

Eric and Family

Thank you!!! also a rumor -U.S. Citizens must leave…

Wow! Me of little faith.  I expected a much, much smaller number.  I see myself as one of the small missionaries. One of little account, but today I hang my head down in humility.   You  as a church have shown us love, and support.  God has shown me his  provision.  We are grateful, thankful, encouraged and humbled.  Thank you for all you have done for us!  Thanks to God as well.  Funds have been raised for us to purchase another car.

On another note.  We have heard nothing official yet, but it appears that US citizens have been asked to leave Bolivia.  We, as a family, are also Bolivian citizens due to the fact that Eric is Bolivian.  It does not help me much to be red headed and blue eyed though.  We will let you know how things unfold in the next few weeks.

Butterflies

Thank you all for praying for us and helping in our work. Thank you for being our partners. Truth is, in Bolivia, life is hard.  It seems to be getting harder every day.  When I reflect on life in other places such as India, or in radical Muslium areas, I realize that life here ísn´t so hard.  However, today we will go shopping to stock up on everything we can.  With our president and his radical ideas, one half of the country is standing up for their rights.  It has gotten bloody and Bolivian troops have moved in. There is no gas to buy for cooking or for cars.  (I have an electric crock pot and a solar pot if it comes to that.)  So far things are pretty normal in our area but with half of the country shut down we expect lots of shortages.  My family loves butterflies.  Who doesn´t?  They are so beautiful. My children know the verses that state that Christians will rise to meet Jesus in the air someday.  In trying to explain all the problems in Bolivia and around the world, I tell my kids that.  Everything is OK.  Jesus said these things would happen just before he turned us all into butterflies and we would flutter up to meet Him in the air.  They all cheer.  I used to be afraid to say, ¨Come Lord, Jesus, Come.¨  but now I can easily say it.  Pray for us.  Pray for God to take note of the evil that Evo, the Bolivian President, is doing and put a stop to it.  Pray for Justice. Thank you. 
 
Eric and Emily Lizarazu
Benji ,Lydia, Ellie, and Julia

Passport!

I got my passport after being held up in immigrations for 2 years!  I got my citizenship stamp finally!    We are all cheering!  My heart is lighter today than the other day when I wrote.  Thanks for all the prayers!