Dear Family and Friends,
Hello from Santa Cruz-Bolivia. This is a special letter because Danny is dictating to Vanessa due to a broken hand which happened last Thursday at a well site. Praise the Lord he is fine and does not need surgery at the moment although he is not able to type, drive, write, ride his bike, tie his shoes, button his shirts or spank our kids for the next six weeks. He needs me and I love it!
We have enjoyed working in the community of Nueva Esperanza this last month where we have drilled three water wells and are helping get a church started. Nueva Esperanza is a community of about 120 families of flood victims from flooding in 2006. They all come from nine different rural communities along the Rio Grande River where they were all peasant farmers. The flood waters took away their homes, animals, crops, schools and churches. The town of Cuartro Canadas gave them some land to build a new community, but these are only small lots so they cannot continue to farm for a living. Each family has been given a small garden plot, but these are not nearly big enough to support a family. Several have tried to return to their flooded farms to begin planting again but the old communities flooded again this year. Most men are now having to spend weeks or months away from their families looking for wage labor jobs on big farms or in the cities. They first lived in tents but soon built one room wooden structures. Now through the help of a Spanish charity they are building small brick homes. They hope to soon have electricity and water in each house. Nueva Esperanza is now overflowing with kids. The new elementary school has 180 students. They do have a nice health post (where the nurse took care of my broken hand). And now an older gentleman named Juan, is meeting with a group of believers in his house. They will soon begin construction on a church on the plot of land we bought with a donation from a Bible study group of some faithful supporters in Texas. We were also able to pay for the wells with several designated gifts from supporters in Canada. This is truly a team effort. If you would like to see some pictures from the community and the work please visit our photo galleries at http://www.pbase.com/beamsclan/nueva_esperanza. I will continue to add to the gallery as the work continues.
Prayer Concerns
Our EFCCM mission family is meeting this week in a conference (April 9-12) with a team of directors and staff from the home office in Canada. Pray for a great time of sharing, planning and spiritual renewal.
Two volunteers are in Santa Cruz this month learning to drill water wells using the manual percussion method. Jake is well driller from Canada, and Mario is a mission volunteer from Sonora, Mexico. Pray that these men can use these skills to provide water and spiritual enlightenment for thirsty people around the world.
Continue to pray for the girls that Vanessa is working closely with, especially Fernanda, Shirley, and Lily who are all leaving the shelter of the Cristo Viene home and beginning to live on their own and to make critical decisions about the direction of their future.
Danny’s grandmother, Margaret Beams, passed away last week in Texas. Pray for his family as they grieve this lose. His grandfather, Blackie, passed away a little over a year ago. Both Margaret and Blackie were wonderful grandparents and were such an encouragement to me through their examples of Christian commitment, love, and courage. I am so glad they have now been reunited in heaven, but I will miss them dearly here on this planet.
Blessings,
Danny
Daniel and Vanessa Beams
EFCCM
Casilla 3740
Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Email: beamsclan@yahoo.com
Bolivia Telephone: 011-591-3351-1087
Blogs: www.beamsclan.blogspot.com, www.simplewatersolutions.blogspot.com
Photo Gallery: www.pbase.com/beamsclan
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