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

Three Yuqui Children in Talita Cumi

Today we helped get three Yuqui indian girls into Talita Cumi. Sonia (10), Miriam (9), and Katarin (6), came from Bia Recuate to live at Talita Cumi. Sonia's mother died several years ago, and her father doesn't have the means to take care of his children. Pray also for Sonia's sister Miriam (14), and brother Isaias (6). Miriam and Katarin are sisters. Both of their parents are living, but the father cannot work after a machete injury. They have five kids, but cannot take care of all of them. So, now that they are being cared for at Talita Cumi they will go to school and get three meals a day.

Water Well in Tres Islas

Click on the title above to see a gallery of pictures from our recent water well drilling trip to Tres Islas, a community of Yuracara on the Chimore River in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Yuqui Girl from Bia Recuate

Out There with the Beams -- January 2009

Dear Friends and Family,

This is Vanessa writing this month. It is a beautiful day here in Bolivia. It is cloudy and windy and we haven’t turned our air conditioning on because it is finally cool enough!! We pray that you too are enjoying a nice day and that you are blessed with loving and healthy family and friends. The Lord is faithful and good. Despite the somewhat complicated political circumstances, we have been able to continue to work and have a very normal life here in Santa Cruz. We would like to ask you to pray for Bolivia and its new Socialist Constitution. We are concerned about the effects this may have in our work as Christian missionaries and in our personal lives; for example, we don’t yet know exactly how the new Constitution will impact the school that our children attend.

We do have a lot to praise the Lord for. The water well project continues to progress and more and more people continue to benefit from the project. Last week, Danny and his “Agua Yaku” team, our Bolivian pastor, and a team from YWAM (Youth with a Mission) went to a Yuracare Indian community in the jungle called Tres Islas and successfully drilled a well for them. The only access to these communities is by river. Danny takes the drilling equipment in on dugout canoes. Because it is impossible to even get the larger truck drilling rigs into these parts of the jungle, these are the first water wells these communities have ever had. The pictures Danny took are absolutely beautiful and you will soon be able to see them on our web page www.pbase.com/beamsclan.

Danny and I have been attending a marriage course. I love it! It is difficult sometimes but it is good stuff and I thank the Lord for providing an opportunity to refresh our relationship, heal our wounds and strengthen our bond together. We have been married for 11 years! And I want to make it public (since Valentine’s is coming) that I love my husband with all my heart! He truly is the man the Lord had for me, and through him God has showed me what it means to love unconditionally and patiently.

Luciana went to Junior High camp last week too. The Lord protected her. When I picked her up she sat next to me in the car, with her little sunburnt face and she talked and talked nonstop until she sat on the floor and I sat on the couch and then all of the sudden she stopped! When I looked I realized she was fast asleep and remained like that for two days!

During Danny’s and Luciana’s trip, Isaiah and I had a lot of fun. We went swimming and had a sleep over, we read a lot together and as a special treat we went to Burger King together with some friends.


Plans for the Transition/Refuge House are still going despite few setbacks. We had a meeting with seven Bolivian friends who are considering being part of the board, so please pray for them as they make a decision. And I would like to thank (I would hug you if I could) to all of those who have already been donating money towards this new project. You guys are part of the confirmation that the Lord has given us to do this. Please continue praying for the girls: Gaby, Teresa, Viviana, Julia, and Betty (pictured above lt. to rt.) to remain in Jesus, for the Lord to protect their bodies and minds, and to show them clearly that He does have a plan for their lives.
We are now looking for a house (that we can afford) where we can begin for the first year. We also need a name for the ministry, so if you think of that perfect name, please let me know.
I praise the Lord that in Him, despite circumstances all around us, we are not hopeless!

As special prayer requests please pray for Danny’s dear uncle Alan who is battling illness and also for my beloved aunt Jacinta who is in the same situation.

Thank you for always being there for us. Thank you for not just being our financial partners but our true and faithful friends and prayer warriors. You mean a lot to us. We love you.

Vanessa for all the Beams

Out There with the Beams -- December 2008

Dear Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Wish we could celebrate Christ’s birth with all of you at once. That would be such a great reunion. One of the hardest things about being missionaries is the long stretches of time away from friends and family. It feels even less like Christmas in Santa Cruz in December because this is the hottest month of the year. Rather than throwing snow balls and drinking hot chocolate, we are laying by the pool, working on our tans, and drinking ice cold lemonade.

I know this has been a tough year financially for many of you and that your priority should always be your family’s immediate needs, but we also pray that in the coming year you will renew your commitment to support God’s work here in Bolivia. I have no doubt God will reward your faithfulness and multiply your investment in His Kingdom work. I am not preaching prosperity theology, saying you will be wealthier if you give—I’m just saying a financial sacrifice and a gift to His work in Bolivia can make a huge impact in the individual lives of less fortunate people in Bolivia. We pray that you can continue with a monthly commitment to our ministries, or if you prefer, make a special year end gift. Our two primary ministries are the Agua:Yaku water well project and the Girl’s Transition Home. If you would like more details about these projects please visit our website at: www.aguayaku.org, or write us an email with your questions.

You can donate a water well for a needy family for as little as $300. Agua:Yaku staff train people in rural communities how to drill their own water wells, and build and maintain simple hand pumps. A typical professionally drilled well costs anywhere from $2000 to $10,000. But by using our manual drilling system and local labor we can install a well for as little as $300 (the cost of materials). Additionally, the Agua:Yaku project would like to expand into new areas in the Cochabamba and Beni departments (two other eastern Bolivia departments bordering Santa Cruz) in 2009. It would be great if several people could contribute larger gifts to help us equip additional drilling teams in these areas.

As well, the Girl’s Transition Home needs a good bit of capital so we can get cranked up for 2009. So many missionaries and other people in Santa Cruz are asking us when the home will be up and running. There is a huge need for a place where older girls can transition out of orphanages, but still have a safe place where they can study and work and begin to stand on their own two feet.

So if you feel God is leading you to give a gift to missions this year, we hope you will consider one of these two projects. Also, please don’t forget that we need support as a family as well. We need to raise about $5000 a month to cover our salary, insurance, travel, and administrative costs.

God has blessed us with wonderful partners over the past couple of years. Thank you so much for your prayers, sacrificial giving, and visits. We enjoy hosting mission teams and look forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones in the coming year.

Please note that we have recently changed how we accept donations. Because my father, Ronnie Beams, retired as pastor of the Owingsville Baptist Church, we will not be channelling our donations through OBC. Instead, we ask that you begin sending your donations through the EFCA (Evangelical Free Church of America) if you need a U.S. receipt for tax purposes, or if not, please submit donations directly to the EFCCM (Evangelical Free Church of Canada Mission), our primary sending agency. We save a substantial amount on administrative fees when donations go directly to the EFCCM. The details of how to make donations are included in this mailing.

Love and best wishes during this Christmas season,

Danny, Vanessa, Nathaniel, Luciana, and Isaiah