Dear Friends and Family,
I'm sure you are all preparing for a wonderful Christmas
season, traveling to see friends and family near and far. We send you season's greetings and a basket
full of "Thank You's" for
your faithful support of our work here in Bolivia over the past year. Both prayers and financial gifts are
essential for us to continue providing clean water through Agua Yaku, ministering to hurting families through El Alfarero, and sharing Christ's love
every day. Please consider a special
gift for your Bolivian family during this giving season. Click on the links in this email and follow
the steps. It's easy!
This year we will be spending Christmas here in Santa Cruz
with Isaiah, and then traveling to Peru for the New Year to visit Vanessa's
family for a few days. Please keep our
grown-up kids in your prayers. Nat will
be working through the holidays in Fort Collins, Colorado, and Luciana will be
traveling to London with her college roommate.
Update on Agua Yaku:
We have had a busy Fall full of volunteer teams and travel
to many rural communities. In the last
month we have hosted two teams. First
Baptist Church of Benbrook, Texas traveled with us to Iguembe, a small village
located in the department of Chuquisaca (southwest of Santa Cruz) where we
worked with Felix, a local Guarani pastor, to distribute water filters and
Clean Water Stations in a half dozen isolated Guarani villages. It was rough trip, with many long hours
riding in (and at times pushing) our project trucks. The need for, and the interest in, the
filters was huge. We look forward to many return trips to the area so we can
help pastor Felix reach these communities for Christ.
Last week we hosted our first team from Creekside Calvary
Church in Lynden, Washington. This team
of three brave men accompanied us up to the Guarani village of Itayu where
attempted to drill a water well. The
springs that they normally rely on for water in Itayu have completely dried up
in the past couple of years. The families
who live there now have to collect the scarce rain the falls. Many families have left the community, so the
government has closed the health post and will probably be closing the
elementary school. Honestly, our attempt
to drill a water well was a last ditch effort to save the community. The government did a study and said we could
find water at about 330 feet below the surface.
Other drilling companies said they could not get their rigs up into this
high mountain valley. We contracted a
tractor to drag our drilling rig up to Itayu.
Sadly, after four attempts at drilling a well we could not get through
the hard layers of rock. We did leave
water filters in the community. Please
pray for Alcides, a local pastor and development worker who is trying to plant
the seeds of the Gospel in this community.
We will be returning to the area with a Bolivian youth team in
mid-January to continue our work distributing water filters and sharing God's
love.
We are still finalizing the production details on the new AquaSiv water filter. They should be available in the spring of
2017. Anticipation is building around
the world! We will keep you updated.
Update on CAFA:
It is a joy to say we’ve just finished the second Alfarero
Family Care Center (CAFA) training for volunteers, we had 13 this last
time. It was a joy to get to know
them. The training involves topics like
shame and hatred, a hatred that most of us develop to cover the shame we feel
from lies from our past. We encourage
both participants and facilitators to share personal stories.
Even though this group includes wonderful Christian people,
this doesn’t mean we don’t have problems, or sad childhoods, or battles. How beautiful it is to see and hear the
footsteps of Jesus coming to rescue you.
When I say rescue, I mean to rescue from a life of sadness, depression,
self-hatred, and mistreatment of those you love most. How wonderful to
recognize His presence even in our darkest most painful moments and to hold on
to Him and be free from the enemy and his so common question: why?
We are also two sessions away from finishing our program
with our first group of clients! We have six wonderful precious women whose
faces I cannot show you because their stories must remain confidential, but
please pray for all of them. We have
young single women and older married women.
They have all experienced first-hand violence from those who should have
loved them, protected them and cherished them.
They are all learning to forgive and to guard their hearts so they can
in turn be like Jesus in their home and not be driven by bitterness. They are
also learning to choose better, to make their voices heard (in wise ways), and
to see themselves in the eyes of an ever loving, careful, sweet and respectful Dad. His name? Jesus!
The Ruth and Noemi doors remain open, so if one of our
ladies needs a safe place to live she and her kids will be immediately taken
in. They will become a part of Alfarero
by doing hours at the Café and making and selling jewelry with Marizabel and me
(Vanessa) at Chance.
Many thanks to the Holy Spirit for adopting us and keeping
us faithful and joyful every day. And
thank you for your support: your prayers keep us safe, your intersession plus
Jesus’s power heals those we work with.
And your support allows us to be trained, to provide child care during
sessions, to provide snacks at each session, and to be ready to host women at
the Ruth and Noemi House.
The Beams love you and are praying for you today!
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