Out There with the Beams -- May 2008

Dear Family and Friends, It is so much fun to be able to communicate with all of you. Especially because I know that you guys are always reading our letters and praying for us. We have started a very busy but at the same time very fun time of the year. So far it looks like we will be hosting four missionary teams and several friends are also coming to visit!!! We are all excited and can’t wait to see you, hug you, and take you out for some good Bolivian food! I hope each one of you all is doing great and enjoying the beautiful season! We love hearing from you and praying for you. I always feel like we are covering each other’s backs when you guys let us know how we can pray for you all. As I write this letter, Danny is frantically trying to pack for a mountain trip he and Nathaniel are taking together as a special time before Nathaniel has to go back to the US for a whole school year. Please pray for them, for safety and fun. Also pray for all five of us as we again have to say good bye. Today was also Nathaniel’s and Luciana’s last day of school. Isaiah has officially graduated from Kindergarten. He is not very excited about first grade, instead he wishes to go back to KY. I think this is due to some comment about the new principal being really mean (not true). Thank you so much for praying for our kids. We are very proud of them, we are proud of the people they are in and outside the school. Nathaniel is now a Junior, Luciana is an 8th grader and Isaiah a 1st grader. Wow! Time flies! During the time that Nathaniel and Danny are gone. I will be working as an interpreter for a wonderful lady called Bernadette Todd. She has a very touching testimony about the healing power of God. She is from Jamaica. We will be going to the local jail (men’s and women’s), also to a factory, a couple schools, three churches and several ladies meetings. My two other kids will be home with a sitter. So please pray for them and for me as we pull through this coming ten days. Right after Nathaniel leaves we will be getting our first team and heading for the jungle to drill some wells. I will be cooking because I still don’t know how to drill wells and to be honest with you I don’t really enjoy playing in the mud! My dear friend Erna Friesen and I have a dream. We have felt and seen a huge need for a half way house for girls who are too old to stay in the orphanages but not totally ready to get out into the world on their own. This is the dream: To somehow purchase or rent a building in a good central location where we could use the first floor as a coffee house and a big apartment on the second floor where about three to six girls could live with a couple of house parents. Erna is a wonderful chef. So she would train the girls in culinary arts while I would in managing and dealing with clients. The girls would have to attend a technical school and work at the coffee shop, pay rent and pay for their own food while they have a safe place to come home to. Through this project the Lord would also be providing a really cool and safe place where both Christian and non Christian youth could hang out without having smoke blown in their faces (hard to find here in Santa Cruz). We would have games, books, ping pong, yummy foods and snacks…I even thought of some dancing classes with Christian music of course. And of course we would link all the people who came here to our church that will be by then bilingual. As you can tell I am really excited! That’s it so far. I am sure there is a lot more to it. Erna is going to Canada on furlough for six months so we (us and all of you) have that time to pray, plan and pray again! Two other ladies from our mission have a very successful coffee house in Tarija, another city in Bolivia, that would serve as a model for ours. So the first step would be to visit Tarija as soon as Erna gets back. I better let her know! I know that I can always count on your prayers so here are some requests:Please pray for the safety and protection of all the people who are coming here to work with us.Please pray for Danny and Nathaniel on their trip.Lift up Nathaniel as he readjusts to the USLift Luciana and Isaiah when the miss their big brother.Pray for Lily, Fernanda and Shirley. All three of them have recently made really poor choices which the Lord has used to show me the huge need of a half way house!Pray for Bernadette and I as we share her testimony. And for the Lord to open the hearts of those who are not safe yet who will hear her message.Pray for protection for our family in general ( traffic, robberies, etc)Pray for our friends Lucy and Pedro who are going through really tough times in their lives right now.Pray for the coffee house dream to come true! Thank you so much for your faithful support of our ministry. We could not be hear without you all backing us up. We are still a somewhat short of meeting our budget each month. If you would like to make a monthly pledge or send a one time gift to help support our ministry, please print out the appropriate attachment and send a check to our mission office. Blessings,Vanessa Daniel and Vanessa Beams EFCCM -- Casilla 3740 -- Santa Cruz, BoliviaEmail: beamsclan@yahoo.comBolivia Telephone: 011-591-3351-1087Blogs: www.beamsclan.blogspot.com, www.simplewatersolutions.blogspot.comPhoto Gallery: www.pbase.com/beamsclan