Andres' soccer ministry...

Lots of things to post these days, but until I get a little more organized with all of that, I thought I'd share this.  A year and a half or so ago, our church sent Andres and a couple of other church guys to Argentina to a training seminar to learn how to use soccer and coaching as a teaching tool. 

Andres came back very excited about the possibilities.  He started planning and eventually started a project at the children's home, Mision Timoteo (a children's home we help).  Last week they celebrated their one year anniversary.  The project has expanded to working with kids from the community as well.

This afternoon I did up a little video for him, to show at our church's annual Christmas/give thanks supper.  The church supports the project so this was his report to them.  It figured I'd share it here as well. 

Andres (with Sandro helping) is doing an amazing job and it's been exciting to see his teaching and leadership/mentoring gifts grow through this experience. 

I think I'm feeling that proud father thing going on....

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Christmas is coming!

Filming a big tarantula in the road.

This has been a fun week.  If you're a friend on Facebook you've seen a few of the pictures.  For the rest of you, I've been helping a friend from Canada while she films a documentary for a TV channel in Calgary.  I'm what's called a chauffeur/creative consultant.  For the past week or so I've been driving her and her cameraman around and helping translate and set things up with people/sights here she wants to film.  It's been a lot of fun and I've actually seen and done a few things I've never had the chance to do before.  I was joking with my mom that like a lot of dads I took on a second job to help buy the kids Christmas presents.  =)

So while there have been lots of upsides to this job, the downside has been that I haven't really gotten started on preparing for Christmas yet.  Well...that and the fact that it's 33 C out and it feels like Christmas is six months away still instead of Tuesday.  But tomorrow Andres and Yimy and I will start our Christmas shopping for the house and then Saturday I'll grocery shop for everything we need for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  I only have to buy for 15 guys and cook for 35 so it shouldn't take that long.   

The other thing I didn't quite have time to do was write this post.  =)  I wanted to let you know about a special project we're doing.  If you've been following the blog for very long, you'll remember we did this last year.

For those of you who are new or don't remember (it's okay...it happens to the best of us) last year we helped a children's home we work with celebrate Christmas.  First we found out they didn't have any Christmas decorations and that they had nothing special planned for Christmas Eve (when Bolivians celebrate Christmas).  So we went out and bought some decorations.  Then we put on Christmas supper for them.  It was a ton of fun and made for some pretty happy faces.  Of course we'd like to make this all happen again this year.

As well, like I said, I'm starting my Christmas shopping tomorrow.  Once again we have a new face in the house and this will be his first opportunity to celebrate Christmas with us.  For a lot of the guys, Christmas with us was the first time in their lives that they'd received a personal gift or shared in all the joy that go along with Christmas.  Since those early days, we've established some great family traditions.  We invite any of the guys we know who maybe don't have anyone to celebrate with to come join us.  So there's always a full house.

Of course all of these things take time (which I mostly have) and money (well....).  So if you're interested in helping us financially to see these things happen, it would be a huge blessing to us.  As many of you know, some of our guys are approaching the end of their schooling or have graduated.  Here in Bolivia, those final classes are very expensive and as a result our coffers are pretty low.  We would hugely appreciate any help you might be able to give.

One of my favourite traditions my family has in Canada is reading the Christmas story together before we open gifts.  It helps us remember and focus on what it is we're celebrating.  It's a tradition we've carried on down here.  Christmas morning we read God's Word together, take time to pray and then open gifts.  We all know there's a lot of joy in that moment.

Thank you all for considering this request.  If you'd like, you can e-mail me at ken.switzer@iteams.org for any additional information you need or you can click on the link on the right hand side of this page "To Donate".  As well, you can call my mission at 1-800-465-7601 and they'd be happy to help you.

I'll post some pictures of our Christmas decorations soon.  Just as soon as we finish them.  =)  Tonight in about an hour I'm off to help my friend film the all-night butchering of 250 chickens for El Jordan's "Christmas on the Streets".

My life is never boring.

Feliz Navidad! 

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Roberto's Grad!

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated the gradutation of our first university graduate! Roberto graduated from law school. So I officially have a lawyer...who I will never pay...for the rest of my life. =)

It was a good night...

Roberto with his family...

Roberto with me and the guys!

 

Our table...

 

Our plate of snack food...

So funny story...even though there's a meal included with the grad, it's always the custom to have plates of snack food for the guests, provided by the family. We usually go the potato chips, peanuts, a few chocolates and some banana chips route. It's pretty standard and has been fine for all the other grads we've been involved with.

Kind of forgot this was a law school graduation. Most of the families were a little more upper crust, shall we say, than us.

As I walked in and saw the other tables, I was like..."Oops."

There were full meals spread out. Fried chicken, empanadas, little finger foods...things I didn't even recognize....

So I dumped what we had, grabbed Andres and Jose Manuel and took off for the nearest grocery store. It was too late to do much, but we bought a big block of cheese and some olives and some fancy rich people crackers.

I have some very funny pictures on my phone of us cutting up the cheese into little cubes in the cab of my truck (I had to buy a knife and a cutting board). Also turned out I was the only one there who liked olives. But they seemed like something you would put on a fancy, law school grad platter of snack foods.

I did enjoy them...

Roberto walking in with his mom.

 

With the diploma!

Many Bolivians tend not to smile in pictures or in more serious situations. They can sometimes look a little severe. That was the case with Roberto's mom (and most of his family). Roberto was pretty serious too during the prossesional.

But I got some smiles out of him once he was up on the platform...

Liking that diploma!

It was pretty classy. As I mentioned...

 

The graduating class of 2012!

Lots of congratulations!

Roberto with his Grandma.

 

Awkward hugs between brothers...

 

With his younger sister...

 

Roberto with his mom and siblings.

Yea...there's not a single picture where they're all looking the same direction.

It was a pretty cool night. We've been looking forward to this for a long time. I actually got a little weepy when I saw Roberto up at the front. Of course, weepy for me is maybe not the same as weepy for other people...but I was still kind of emotional. It was exciting moment!

Roberto's mom was emotional too. I'd only met her one other time. She lives a long ways up into the mountains and the last time I saw her was eight years ago when she came to visit Roberto and his brother at the home I used to work at and where they lived.

Everytime she was near me, she gave me a big hug and thanked me again for everything I'd done. It was nice, but I just kept thinking that this was so much bigger than anything I'd done. It was also our church family here in Santa Cruz...it was the people that support us from North America...it was the people around the world who pray for us.

And most of all it was God who protected this kid and brought him to this place. It was amazing to be one small part in the plans and purposes that God has for Roberto. I'm excited to see where he goes from here.

And a huge thanks to all of you for your part in this process. Many of you have never met Roberto and yet you faithfully give and pray so that he has the opportunity to change the direction of not only his life, but of his family as well.

So yea...thank you!

I have no doubt that is just the first graduation of many to come!

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A Day in the Life...

When people ask me what an average day looks like for me down here, I’m never quite sure what to say.  I think the word “average” is what throws me off.  Every day turns out a little different.  Some days are pretty normal…hanging out at the house with the guys…that sort of thing.  But then…other days get more interesting…

Yesterday wasn’t some kind of crazy, adventure day or anything.  But it’s typical of what life can be like down here.  I happened to have my camera with me so I snapped a few pictures along the way.

I spent a couple of hours in the morning waiting for a plumber to show up to stop the water dripping into my bathroom and laundry room from the apartment upstairs.  He said 8 AM.  I waited until 10.  He never showed.

Then I went over to the house and hung out there to make sure things were running smoothly…or as smoothly as a house of twelve guys ever gets.

Jose Manuel is working at the city airport (he’s studying to be an aviation mechanic) doing his practicum.  He doesn’t get paid for his work or get lunch, and we don’t have the funds for him to buy food every day, so I usually take him a plate of whatever we’re for lunch.  I know some people are going to ask why he doesn’t just fix himself a sandwich in the morning, but this isn’t really a sandwich kind of culture.  Lunch is the big “hot” meal of the day.  He has classes after work so he doesn’t get home until 9 PM or so.  That’s a long time to wait for your big meal of the day. So I took him lunch.

Then Roberto and I went suit shopping for his grad (which is tonight).  He’ll be our first graduate.  I’ll post some pictures from his grad later.  He won’t be leaving us right away because he still has to specialize and that means a bit more studying.  But he will be finished with university.

We went to a couple of places before we found a suit he liked AND we could afford.  Ha…I’m sure that sounds familiar to all the parents out there.

Our only funny moment came when I realized I didn’t have enough money on me so we walked five blocks to a bank machine and then on the way home realized that if we’d turned the other direction there was one a block away.  I told him it was good for our health and that he was getting fat so…

Suit shopping (and searching for a bank teller) took longer than planned so I dropped him off at another market to find shoes and headed for El Jordan, my friend Corina’s ministry.  They were doing a weekend camp out in the countryside for the kids of their students, and I’d volunteered to drive.  They also asked  Yimy to drive their truck.

Driving a truck load of kids out into the country on a muddy, crazy road pretty much defines what I like about my job.  =)

 

 

 

After we dropped them off it was back into the city to buy more Christmas decorations and pizza.  It’s become our yearly tradition that Ken bribes the guys with pizza to help hang up lights and whatnot.  I’m trying to get into the spirit here and everything…but I’m a Canadian at heart and without snow it’s a little tough.  Closer to Christmas it’ll be better.  =)  You‘ll notice the guys are all shirtless.  It was like 40 C in the house that night….

 

 

 

 

And that was my day.

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Motorbikes and city buses and what God does...

A couple of months ago on Facebook I asked for help with the medical expenses of a young guy named Larry, a friend who’d been in a bad motorcycle accident.  For a while now, I’ve been meaning to update you all about what happened.  Here’s a bit of the story…

Larry in the middle with his brother and cousin.

I’ve known Larry since he was twelve when he lived at the boy’s home I used to work at.  If I’d had favourites (which of course I didn’t), he would definitely have been one of them.  He was just a nice kid with a smile for everybody.

He didn’t talk much about his life but  I found out eventually that his mom was in jail so he and his brother had been placed in care.  He didn’t know his dad and all of his other siblings were older and lived out of country.

I didn’t see Larry much after I left the home until about a year and a half ago.  His mom was out of jail and he’d moved into the city to live with her.  After we reconnected he started coming over to the house every week or so to see us.  It wasn’t going great with his mom so I was happy to see him spending time with us and hanging out with the guys.

Then suddenly he was gone and we weren’t sure what had happened.  Turned out that his mom was back in jail and Larry had joined the military to do his obligatory year service because he wasn’t sure what else to do.  I talked with him a few times on Facebook but that was it.

Last spring he showed up in Santa Cruz again.  We didn’t see him as much as before, but I tried to connect with him every few weeks to see how he was doing.  I was worried because he didn’t really seem like himself.  He was much more reserved and quite whenever we had lunch.

Then in September I got a call from a friend of his.  She told us that Larry had been in a serious motorcycle accident and gave us directions to the hospital.  Larry had asked her to contact his friend on Facebook and so she contacted me. 

It was a bit of a God moment because turns out I wasn’t the friend he wanted her to contact.  He was embarrassed about everything that was happening in his life and hadn’t planned to tell me.  So…you can imagine his surprise when I walked through the door of his hospital room.  =) 

As we talked and I started asking questions (which is what I do) I started to get a sense that things weren’t exactly right.  The other fellow in the accident was in the same room as Larry so there was a limit to what we could talk about.  But I could tell there were some problems.

Eventually I found out that Larry was working for what amounted to a group of loan sharks here in the city.  These guys were Columbians who were (are) here in the country illegally.  They’re using drug money from Columbia to finance (very) high interest loans to people who could never get loans from an actual bank.  Larry and his friend were going around collecting interest on the loans…which is what they were doing when they ran their motorcycle into the side of a city bus.

Larry doesn’t remember anything from the accident itself.  He was in a coma for two days and then when he woke up he couldn’t see anything for another day.  His doctor told me over and over that he couldn’t believe that Larry was still alive.  He said he’s seen lots of these types of accidents and the people nearly always die. 

Another God moment was that Larry NEVER used a helmet.  He told me he thought they were too hot.  That day, for whatever reason, he put one on and so he was wearing it when his head connected with the side of the bus.

When we spoke with his doctor we also found out that Larry’s medical bills were over $3500 US.  That’s almost two years wages for most people here.  Larry couldn’t leave until that bill was paid (and he had no money)…but he was also racking up more expenses every day he was in the hospital.  So…a bit of a no win situation. 

By now we knew that Larry was working for these guys, even though we didn’t know all the details at that point.  My fear was that they would pay for his hospital and he would end up very indebted to them.

So I asked on FB if anyone could help us.  I couldn’t really say at that point everything that was happening or the time constraint we were under…just that we needed some help.  And….people were amazing and very generous.  We had the $3500 in just over a day.  When we went to pay his bill and get him out of the hospital, I told Larry that I thought it would be better for him to recuperate with us rather than by himself.  He didn’t argue.  We’d just saved his butt. 

As soon as we got him out of there, I sat him down and had a pretty serious conversation about how dangerous the situation was and that he needed to leave.  I talked to him about the option of moving in with us and to start studying.  He thought about it (but not for too long!) and agreed.  I think he was pretty clear on the fact that God had just given him a second chance.

Since then it’s been amazing to watch the changes in him.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone blossom the way he has.  He truly is a different kid. 

He’s never really had a dad, so I think he’s enjoying hanging out with me.  We sit in the office in the house and chat about all kinds of things.  He loves laughing and joking and trying to prove (unsuccessfully I might add) that he’s stronger than me.  He’s got toothpicks for arms so…

It’s still rough for him some days though.  The spiritual battle hasn’t abated in his life.  He’s made some good (and difficult) choices since moving in with us trying to move his life in a different direction, but that old life still calls.  He and I have started a weekly one on one Bible study at my house and he’s spent some time talking with a couple of the guys in the house as well, about life and the struggles he’s having.

As well, the Columbians haven’t stopped looking for him.  They called him continuously after the accident, until he finally changed his number.  They’re still angry that he left.  Fortunately they don’t know where we live, but they do work in neighborhoods not that far from us. 

I actually didn’t know all of this (that they were angry about his leaving) until just the other day when it came up in a conversation Larry and I were having.  He was quite nonchalant about it all.  I, on the other hand, was doing my best to remain calm as I pictured a bunch of angry Columbian drug dealers/loan sharks descending on the house.  Too many crazy movies with the guys I think.  It’s what they make us watch. 

If you could continue to pray for Larry and for all of us, that’d be great.  Please pray for protection for all of us and for wisdom and strength for Larry.  For those of you who gave so generously to help Larry with his medical costs, I want you to know that it was money well spent.  You literally saved this kid’s life and sent it in a completely different direction.  God is at work in him in an amazing way.

So thank you all!  I’m going to work at keeping the blog a little more current again, so come back soon!  Our first kid is graduating on Saturday (Roberto the lawyer) so I’ll be sure to post pictures of that!

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