Praise the Lord! After a major detour to Chile, Carey Akin, Jon Ponders, and ten other MBUMC members are safely home from Quesimpuco, Bolivia. They said it was a truly amazing mission trip but the most physically exhausting thing they had ever done!
After landing in LaPaz at about 13,000 ft altitude and riding a bus for 12 hours, they had to pack down about 4,000 feet in altitude to the worksite and then pack back out again at the end. In between they moved 1500 lb. cables from one side of the river to the other. SIFAT will send future teams to finish the bridge.
SIFAT did a great job of getting them home when their flights were suddenly canceled and by the Grace of God, no problems but extreme fatigue! Their families are greatly relieved, since they were supposed to be back on Saturday!
The following e-mail was sent to us last night from Rev. Carey Akin, who is currently in Bolivia with our mission team:
Dear Family and Friends of the Bolivia Mission Team,
The mission trip has been a great success. We all can´t wait to get back and tell you all the wonderful things that have happened. Unfortunately due to very recent political issues the US Ambassador has been asked to leave the country. As a standard precaution, American Airlines has suspended all incoming and outgoing Bolivian flights. The unrest is currently isolated in a distant part of the country, and both the mission team and SIFAT feel that we are safe with no need for worry; however, this has caused us to make alternate arrangements to return home. Together with SIFAT, the following itinerary has been scheduled:
- Depart La Paz via Lan Chile Flight 965 to Santiago on 9/14/09
- Depart Santiago for Miami on American Airlines Flt 912 on 9/14/08
- Arrive Miami at 5:10am on 9/15/08
- Depart Miami Flight 1664 at 8:15am arrive Atlanta 10:20am on 9/15/08
We are all looking forward to coming home and seeing our loved ones. Right now we are headed out the door to go eat lama kabobs!
In Christ´s Love,
Carey Akin
Our men’s mission team has just left for Bolivia, to build a bridge high up in the Andes mountains. Please keep them in your prayers for the next 10 days.
Our summer teams have returned but we actually have four trips scheduled for this Autumn. Our Costa Rica Women’s team is full for Sept. 25. We are also having our first ever trip to Macedonia on Sept. 20. In November we are going all the way to India for the very first time. Just three years ago, we made our first trip to Africa and now we are moving into Asia!
Our first trip to Bolivia on Sept. 4 is in need of more team members! This is a very unique trip that requires backpacking and camping high in the Andes. If you are an adult male with an adventurous spirit and in good physical shape, we could use you! We have never done a men only trip before but this is truly unique! The SIFAT organization has been working with the village of Quesimpuco, that is isolated by a rushing river. The only way the children of this village have of getting to their SIFAT sponsored school is to cross this river by gondola. This is very dangerous so our mission is to build a footbridge for the villagers to get across the river safely. Please join David Dollinger, leader, and two of our pastors on this one of a kind mission trip from September 4-13.
We have a great group of Short Term Mission Trips going in 2008!
- The Romania/Deborah/House team is completed, ticketed and ready to roll. They leave June 21, the same day as our Costa Rica team who are also ticketed and heading for VBS and construction in the Barrio Mexico region of San Jose.
- Carey Akin is helping to lead another group to Kwambekenya, Kenya, our partner village where Randy worked in April. We hope they can be working on the Medical Center sponsored by MBUMC. He can add someone to the team if you are ready to go!
- You will have to wait until next year if you wanted to go to the camp in Austria; that team filled very quickly and they leave July 2.
- Contact Becca Hood if you would like to go to Ecuador on July 26 to Aug.3. There are some spots open for adults of all ages! Ask anyone who has been there with SIFAT-it is a wonderful trip-not too far away or too long away!
- Two trips coming up in September have a few spaces. Men only are invited to go on a rugged treck to the Bolivian Andes on September 4, also a SIFAT trip. The Boyces are leading a team to Macedonia September 19 to work with the Methodist Church there.
- One brand new trip is planned; Gaylyn Kelly is leading a trip to Kenya for college students only on December 26-January 4, 2009!
- In November, we are going to India for the first time to work with widows and children with the Hope For Today ministry, spawned by ILI.
- One of our most popular trips is to work with the Life Academy kids in Timisoara, Romania and we go again on July 12.
- Our Costa Rica Women’s trip is so popular that it is filled up and we are not going until September!
- We are sorry to say, we had to postpone our Estonia trip until next year as we did not have enough people going at this time.
- Looking ahead: the Honduras trip will be in July in 2009 instead of in the spring!
Sherry Reed
Praise the Lord! After a major detour to Chile, Carey Akin, Jon Ponders, and ten other MBUMC members are safely home from Quesimpuco, Bolivia. They said it was a truly amazing mission trip but the most physically exhausting thing they had ever done!
