I am thankful for...

We have just set up a thankful board in our house.  It is a big piece of thick cardboard, with lots of cut up pretty paper next to it...the point is pretty obvious right-to fill up with things we are thankful for.

So it has got me thinking this week about being more thankful!  I am excited to see this board fill up and having fun looking back and reading it!

So this week I am thankful for...

- rainy days
- house mates who listen to me rant when I get back from a not so great class!
- skype to talk to my family and friends
-finding some sweaters at the market for really cheap

....

The other two things I am thankful for happened Monday and today.

On Monday I got to have a lovely friend over (Lily, age 6) to hang, make cakes, watch a film with popcorn and coke.  It was so fun, she smiled constantly and was just so full of joy!

Today I would normally have classes in the morning, visit families in the church with Lidia and then worship band this evening.

I woke up to find that my class had been cancelled because my teacher had to sub for another teacher who had been in an accident this morning.  So I got to head over to the Adjei's and see Dick and Betty who arrived yesterday from England!
I also picked up some essentials from England sent by my amazing parents; contact lens, earl grey tea for the roomies, piano books and my big furry hat...after not asking for any chocolate and my Dad telling me he hadn't sent any over, turned out he was joking and I found two big bars of Dairy Milk (olympic stylee!) thank you Mum and Dad eating some right now!

Then this afternoon there was a mothers party at a local mission to celebrate Mothers day (this Sunday) which lots of the families from church went to, so we could not visit the families we were going too. So I got to hang out with Lidia for the afternoon instead.  We did some more of the Mothers day crafts that we were making for Sunday then headed out to the Plaza, walked around and she took me to the Christian bookstore.
I wanted a small Spanish bible as I am getting fed up of carrying my big heavy translation one around and I also managed to get a Joyce Meyer book for Lidia to read and a commentary on Ephesians in Spanish which looks really great! Also for free they threw in some kids books, note paper and a diary as it was Mothers day soon!
I have been searching for a diary so I was so pleased with this!

So I thank God for these times that I have had in these last couple of days, and I pray I will remember to be thankful in every circumstance even when it is hard.

fun times

These last 10 days since I have last blogged have been filled with various different events and interesting going ons!

To start with non work stuff...we as a house had a puppy to stay for 2 1/2 weeks.  Turns out cute can be deceiving haha, howling all night, pooping everywhere and crazily hyper...but it was cute anyway!

Meet Trooper-she enjoyed sunday afternoon chilling time with me, our hammock and a good book!...

We have just had another visitor in the house, my housemate Adreana's mum from the States! She has a very southern accent-luckily with all my experience of American's this year I understood haha! She was a real blessing for us as a house, and was great to have her with us!  Here is us after a meal out for chinese buffet minus Martha our other housemate...

This Friday I also has the privilege to go to the graduation of a very special girl in my life.  4 years ago I got to go to go to her sister's graduation and now I got to see her graduate.  She has come on so amazingly this year in school and generally in life, and was just so awesome to see her reach the end of this year ready to go up into 1st grade and has been such a pleasure to see her grow so much in this year.  Here she is with the rest of the Adjei clan! Well done Lily!

We as a church have had two more visitors here over the last week.  Bea and Eugene, from England have been travelling the world to see where God wants them! I had the opportunity to spend time with them, take them visiting to some families in the church, they experienced Bolivian micros (buses) and also to translate for them on the Sunday they were at church!  It is such an encouragement for me after translating as after two weeks of not great Spanish speaking due to stress I realised I could do it again! It is a challenge to simultaneously translate but great fun also!

Speaking about visiting, I have had more opportunities these last two weeks to visit people in the church-I love this as I get to see to a clearer view of their lives, how they live, their struggles, chat with them and pray.  It is such a privilege that I get to do this.  Also it can be 2 hours from my house on the bus to get to the houses-so I get to share these bus rides chatting to my good friend Lidia which is always great!  I have two more families lined up to visit this week so pray for these opportunities to be able to share with them!

Three others and I yesterday spent the afternoon planning and making Mothers day gifts for the children to give to their mothers on Bolivian mothers day next week.  I cannot wait to post a picture after next weekend to show you, they look pretty great!

I am looking forward to seeing Dick and Betty-Sarah's parents from my home church who arrive this week as well :)

God has been speaking to me this week about the importance of memorizing Scripture to use as a weapon and making sure I am putting on the armour of God always.  So I have set myself the challenge over the next few months to memorize Ephesians...with my bad memory that was interesting enough but have decided to do it in Spanish as well! So will let you know how I get on...I also encourage you to take up the challenge of memorizing more scripture!

Ok thats all for now!

Love Rhian xxx

the need for patience and a week of stress!

Those who know me will know that I like to know details.  I like to know what is happening next and I confess I am not the world’s most patient person!  I like to know what I am going to be eating, where we are going, how long it will take us,what is in my schedule for the week, I would like to know exactly where I am going to be in a year’s time after graduating, I want to know where I will live in a few months when I move back to London, (if I could know the next 5 years that would be great!) and other various details that for me seem very important!

Over this year here I have been learning (well God has been trying to teach me) that details are not so important.  If a class is supposed to start at 7, then at 8 45 when everyone has turned up that is fine!  If you’re late for something, then don’t worry-it probably means that you’ll still get there before it starts!  Even if my week says something is happening at the start, actually it is all going to change so what is the point in planning completely to start with!

But for some reason the last week/10 days I just have not been able to stop thinking about this kinda stuff. And especially the last three/four days have felt really stressed.  There have been lots of different factors bringing this together.

Luckily for me I have great roomies to chat too and have been able to chat it over with various friends in the church here-interesting to try and get my point across in Spanish! but I thank God that even when I am stressed he is there, he knows what is happening and can help me through it!

With stress comes a decline of Spanish speaking ability.  This last week I just have not been able to speak in Spanish.  Simple things whilst I have been teaching English and keyboard, things I know-I just cannot remember. The thought of attempting to pray in Spanish has scared me this week-so I have found myself just staying silent. I have found myself nearly in tears in meetings just because I feel annoyed at myself and irritated that I cannot understand!

Normally Saturday is my rest day.  I do not go into church, I do not plan, I do not visit people.  I just chill, see my housemates or friends. This week however I have taken that day today.  I chilled all day. Baked vanilla,zucchini and carrot muffins and soup and got to spend time with one of my housemates.  It has also been a day where I have stopped, and processed more of my stresses!

So please pray for me as I prepare for next week, pray for me in the next few days that I can stop feeling so stressed and just trust in the Lord for everything.  Pray that I will learn to be patient-one of my friends said to me this week maybe I should just be asking God for this haha so pray I will!

Thank you :)

Rhian xxx

Dave Gillard's visit

Dave and David...preaching was in English with translation which was nice
except for my brain trying to translate as going along!

These last ten days we have been so blessed as a church to have a visit from Dave Gillard from Biggin Hill church in the UK.
For those who do not know him, he is such a great guy, such a man of God, very chatty and an amazing musician!
He has been focused mainly on evangelism whilst he is here and also music. I have really appreciated the opportunity to get to know him after meeting him briefly a few times over the summer in Uckfield and at the Brighton Conference when the Adjei's introduced me.


As a church it has been so encouraging and very amazing to see the fruits of his visit in this week! We have been praying and praying for more and more of the Holy Spirit to manifest in the church and this week we have definitely seen that happen!


He has preached both Sundays, done mens groups and housegroups.  I unfortunately did not get to the house group *note to self carry phone around even when go to the market so do not miss out!* but I have spoken to various friends in the church and Dave and David and just been amazing to hear some of the stories!

We have seen people become Christians, baptised in the Spirit, receive the gift of tongues, interpretation, prophesy, pictures and seen healings! Amazing!

Dave speaking on the Holy Spirit

As a worship band he has been so helpful, he has taught us more about leading, PA, the importance of leaving space for contributions and lots of other stuff.  But Friday night was the best night for me.  After practising our songs for Sunday, David had arranged for Dave to lead us with just a guitar in a time of worship.  Something that being in the band week after week you miss out on...as much as you are worshipping, when you are attempting to sing the Spanish songs into a microphone, play the chords and various different buttons throughout the song on the keyboard it is a bit hard!

So he led us in a time of worship, only around 4 songs but I got to sing in English and Spanish-mostly a mix to whichever bits of the song I could remember in which language whilst I had my eyes closed-a big treat to sing in English!  And God was just there in such a powerful way-God spoke to me, he filled me and renewed me in ways I did not realise I was lacking.  It was incredible. And just that we all praise and worship the same God, it does not matter on the language-I can mix between two and it does not matter-he understands and is there with me! When I got home that night I was talking to a friend who  had to leave the practice early to get the last bus home and he was telling me how he just could not stop shaking and get off his knees, also how God had given him the gift of interpretation, prophesy and the ability to receive pictures in the last week whilst Dave has been here!

So thank you God for sending us Dave, and thank you Dave if some how you read this for giving up your time to do so much with us as a church.  It is such a blessing and encouragement to know you are behind us and supporting us :)

Rhian xxx

its getting cold! and a week of cake.

Its getting cold! Well yesterday was and today is...I wore my new hoody (good thing I bought one at the market the other day, (real hollister for 3.50 yes please!) trousers and socks!
Those who know me well, know that I hate feet! Especially bare feet! When I got here to Bolivia I wore socks for ages, even though I was wearing flip flops, I took them in my bag for wherever I was going...yeh 8 months in that does not happen now-bare feet are just the way forward but I yesterday was so happy to wear socks haha.  I even wore a onesie. (thanks Natalie!) Unfortunantly I ran out of milk for a cup of tea but that can be solved later!

But as much as I am enjoying this cold weather I would like to talk about others who will not be. Alot of people from my church live in conditions that we can not even imagine, its just shocking.  Alot live in shack type houses, share one room for everything and everyone in the family.  Some are made of wood and corrigated iron. Some will have holes where water can get in, and the house is not going to stay warm with the holes either.  One of my friends from church last night posted on her fb about how cold she was in her house and it just made me think.  Please join with me praying for these guys as we go into this cold time.  Another friend was telling me how they all got into one bed to keep warm last year as it was so cold.  So please pray for strength, for health and warmth from God.
As I was talking to my Dad about when he was here, one of the things I find hard with living here is having the balance of the nice house I live in, the food I eat, the clothes I can buy and then working with the church where so many people have so little but just have such giving hearts towards you and have so many needs.  It's just two completely different lifestyles but thank God that they do not stay seperate. Thank God that we can all be together, we can share, be friends and worship the same God together.

Cake...
this week has again been another completely different week! My Spanish teacher's son turned 11 yesterday.  And I was asked to make her a cake.  So I said sure...as many people have told me since the correct answer is no haha.
It then came out it was a cake for around 25-30 people.
Next came the shock when my housemate said so what decorations do they want...Bolivian style right?
This is a Bolivian cake....


So I asked what decoration she wanted...and she was surprised and said oh you can do decoration too?!
*note to self this is where I should have said no again*
instead I said sure again...
So this is what I have spent my week making since Monday. No joke. 4 days of stress, trial runs, 5 supermarket trips,2 market trips (3 including someone going for me) food colourings that take ages to turn to red...no I do not want a pink football shirt! Realising how much I miss waitrose! But finally I finished the football cake two hours before it had to be ready...

Luckily they were pleased with it!  Also the sweet thing about this party was that all the children invited were from the children's home two doors away from us because that is who he plays with.  And this was there first birthday party they have been too! Vicki. my neighbour said they all loved it :)

Hope you have all had a good week!

the craziness of bolivian traffic!

Someone asked me in a call the other day what the transport was like in Bolivia.  I was alittle thrown off by the question, not expecting it and just said umm crazy, busy but some how it just works.

So I thought I would write about how I get around, the micros (buses), taxis and general traffic!

The traffic is crazy here, it is busy, lots of traffic jams, fast when there is not traffic jams, each roundabout has its own rule with red lights not counting for much lots of the time! But it some how works.

Normally now I get micros.  Any journey costs 1.80 bolivianos (bs), the equivalent of 18p!  A taxi on the other hand could be anything.  Normally to get to church it is 15-25 bs (£1.50-2.50) depending on the taxi driver.

There are not bus stops here, you can flag down a bus anywhere.  Depending on where I am going it takes 5-15 mins to walk out of my barrio (neighbourhood) and get to the street where the buses are. You can be waiting for 1-25 mins depending on the buses!  

Tonight I walked out and it was already getting dusky.  I make a rule that I do not get buses when it is dark-just for the safety factor of walking from the bus to wherever I am going after.  But when the bus finally came it was dark.  When I say bus, this means a mini bus with a short roof (I'm ok!) I jumped on-literally (the bus did not properly stop!) and it was packed.  Luckily a man let me take his standing spot while he hung out the door (seriously!) With one arm I am holding onto the bar above me, the other hand tightly on my bag zip so noone can steal whilst trying not to slip around too much with my flipflops which have no grip!  

The smells on the bus are interesting-lots of sweaty people packed up together in the heat is not pleasant, not forgetting the various food items, market bags people have on the buses as well-oh and the odd chicken or puppy! Its rush hour so the traffic is slow.  Finally we get to the Ramada-one of the big markets nearing the centre of town.  This is good, it means some people will get off.  I finally get a seat-25 mins into the journey thanks to a nice man at the back of the bus!  I am now in the furthest seat from the door though, squashed into the corner-but by a window and sitting down! There is so much to look at, you notice so much more when you are on a bus instead of a taxi.  There are ladies each side of the bus selling anything you could want through the windows, food, drinks, electrical items!  The bus gets less packed and a guy comes on and starts playing the guitar,then goes around the bus collecting money.

At the end of the market the bus fills up again,  20 mins later it is time for me to get off-it would be so much easier to just jump out the window than try and get to the front but do not reckon that would be appreciated-a white girl jumping out the window!  So I squish and squeese pass lots of people and finally am able to shout pare por favor to the bus driver and get off! I cross the busy road and I am at church!

So that is a usual journey on a Bolivian micro, I actually do enjoy them-its better when less packed-but they are so cheap, interesting (people watching is so fun on micros) and you get to see parts of the city you would not normally see!

My taxi on the way home tonight (too dark for the bus!) cost £1.80-ten times more than the bus. It was driving at 100mph (no exaggeration I was looking) causing lots of praying going on-it was a very scary ride! But did only take 15 mins! It also skipped quite a few red lights-at the big intercessions-that was the most scary part!

Well I hope you enjoyed hearing about my Bolivian traffic experiences..I also got to ride a motorbike for the first time the other day-that was fun-and there was 3 of us on it for part of the journey.  So different to English traffic-do not know how it works but as I said before it does!

xxx

answered prayers and the importance of slowing down!

This week I have been relearning the importance of slowing down and spending quality time with God (and others!)...

Two weeks ago now we had a prayer morning at church (read below).  As part of this we had to make personal goals and prayers which we want to see the fruit of when we look back in a months time.  It has been exciting (/frustrating!) to see how God has answered my prayers already in this time.

My first prayer was the opportunity to reach out to others in the area, to be able to share the gospel with them and invite them to church.  This Friday  Dave Gillard from Biggin Hill church in England arrived (or as one of my friends in Uckfield asked me the other day, is that the guy who always wears converses when he preaches?).  One of his main focuses whilst he is here is evangelism.  To start this off we had an evangelistic meeting Sunday-we all were given invititations last week to give out.  Perfect way to have my answered prayer and be proactive in reaching out to people!
Tuesday evening, I was late leaving my house which meant I could not get the bus like normal to church as it was dark and rush hour.  So I called a taxi.  As usual he asked what I was doing here in Bolivia, and I had the privilage of explaing what I did and about Jesus and everything he has done for us.  This guy asked about the church and said he had been looking for a church to go to. God had planned this, I was just worried that I was spending extra money on a taxi and that I was going to be late but he used it for his purposes-amazing :)
Also two people from my English class, not in the church; both younger-around 15 and 19, said that  they both wanted to come as well! None of them in the end were able to come, one had to travel on family illness and the other was ill.  But please pray that these classes will be a really good way of reaching out to them! And I am thankful to God for the opportunity to take a step of faith and invite them!

My second prayer was to really seek God more in the next month about my future, have more quality time with him, reading my bible and in intercession for others...and to discipline myself to do this in Spanish.
This week I had a jammed packed week planned with Spanish classes every morning, visiting people from church, english lessons, marking, worship practice, seeing my housemates (not something that happens much when everyone is out at different times!) and meeting up with friends from church and YWAM who I have not seen for awhile.
Monday, turned out that the lady I am starting visiting families with was taking the day off.  So after classes I thought I would have an afternoon off- (or not as it seems!) after 7 hours of homework later it was time to head into town for English class-this means an least an hour journey door to door on a micro (bus) at this time.  The bus took only 35 mins door to door (amazing!) so I got to church at 6.20 and waited for the class to start at 7 30. Only 3 people turned up as lots were ill or late working and the 3 did not turn up until 8.30 so I had two hours being able to pray for the class and church, worship God with the keyboard and read my bible.
Because only 3 people turned up,  my plans for the next afternoon (visiting again) had to change because I had to redo all my lesson plans for the 11 people I was expecting Tuesday evening.  I was so irritated that morning that I had to give up my plans but God had a purpose in this.  I finished my plans alot earlier than I thought, had extra time to spend with God, then got to church early to find three friends already there, one being the one I was looking forward to visiting with that afternoon.  So we had an awesome hour spent together chatting about life, church and general God amazingness! One guy also was not a Christian and he seemed  really interested in what we were talking about.
Wednesday and Thursday were pretty much the same, with Wednesday night my piano student not turning up until the end of our time (5 mins before) leaving me with an hour jamming and worshipping with two of the guys in the worship band before our practice started which was awesome.
Thursday day-the whole of my day changed completely, I got to see a friend for Icecream and catch up and then straight onto seeing another friend and their family. In the night I got to hang out with my housemates-we went out for Mexican and icecream, just so nice to actually get to see them-the problem with working in the evening as I don't get to see them as that is when they are in the house.

It has been an odd kinda week-but good to see how God has used it to answer these prayers and work in me.  It also has been a very tiring but good weekend as well so...

I am going to write another post about the weekend sometime this week as it is getting late and this post is getting long! Thanks for reading my rambling thoughts from my week :)
xxx