Out There with the Beams: February 2009

Dear Prayer Partners,

Fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, sore back, skin rash, stomach problems – these are all symptoms of Dengue Fever, a illness that is running rampant through Santa Cruz right now. As many of you found out through Vanessa’s postings on Facebook, I too suffered through this for about two weeks. Thanks for your prayers and notes. They say about 50,000 people have contracted the disease in Santa Cruz over the past couple of months. Thankfully I had a wonderful wife to look after me and a nice bed to lay in. Please remember in prayer the many people who live on the streets and don’t have anyone to look after them when they fall ill.

All considered, we are doing well and charging ahead with our projects. Vanessa is still working to get the Girls Transition Home up and functioning. We are waiting on just the right house to become available. Last month, I helped facilitate getting three little Yuqui girls out of their village in Bia Recuate (where we have been drilling water wells) and into the Talita Cumi home here in Santa Cruz. They were living in extreme poverty and in abusive situations in their village so it was encouraging to know that in Talita Cumi they would be well fed, educated, and taught God’s Word. They have been in Santa Cruz for several weeks now and are adapting well. Unfortunately, family members back in the village have called recently and said they want the girls to come back to Bia Recuate. I’m not sure of the motivation behind this request. Please be in prayer for Sonja, Mirian, and Katarin. You can see pictures of their village at: www.pbase.com/beamsclan/yuqui.

We are really looking forward to the arrival of a team from Crossroads Christian at the end of March. They will be going with us to drill a water well in Vida Nueva, a community on the Chapare River in Cochabamba. We will be drilling a well for a missionary intern school where kids from 19 different Indian communities go to live and attend school about six months out of each year. Right now they drink rain water, or when that isn’t available, they drink directly from the muddy river. Because the school is only accessible by river, they have never been able to bring in a big truck to drill a water well. We will bring in our manual drilling rig and tools by boat and drill a 150 foot well that will provide clean drinking water year round. We look forward to getting to know the local Yuracare community leaders as well on this trip so we can set up future well drilling projects in many more of the isolated communities of this region. We still need supporters for AguaYaku (our well drilling project), so if you or your group would like to sponsor a well, installation costs about $300 for each one. We also need our own boat to drill bring tools and materials into these river communities. So if you have $10,000 sitting somewhere not being used… we can put it to good use here in Bolivia.

We are excited about our visit to the States this summer. We will be in Kentucky and Texas mostly, but are willing to travel elsewhere as well. We would love to visit as many friends and churches as we can over the summer vacation so we can share with you our work, and to just hang out with friends. If you would like us to come by, please let us know so we can begin arranging our schedule.

Thanks so much for your prayers and support. We would not be serving in Bolivia if not for the support of our precious friends and family back home.

Blessings,
Danny