Andy in South America

Hey everyone

Just to let you know my April prayer newsletter is now available on the prayer newsletter page.

Enjoy!

Bendiciones

Andy

Hey everyone

Yet another answer to prayer (isn’t God amazing?).we had trendomous amounts of rain yesterday!!!

Sounds a bizarre answer to prayer but it meant that the kid who had run away earlier in the morning made his own way back to the school because he didn’t want to stay out in the rain! Whoop whoop!

Please pray for him though as we try to work with him to see what made him run away in the first place, especially with the educators in the house and also myself as I am responsible for his development and individual action plan.

Please pray also for all the staff in the school. Every final Friday in the month we have a massive meeting where we discuss each student, student by student. Please pray as we look at ways to help those who are struggling. Today’s meeting was really productive!

Bendiciones y amor

Andy

Hey everyone!

Just to let you know we have more than reached our target with the climbing project and so thank you very much – it means we can now go ahead with ordering once all the money has transferred. The extra we have raised we still go towards climbing equipment – we intend to buy at least one more rope and also a couple more harnesses and helmets. 

If you still wish to give you can – any money raised from now on will go towards investing in some climbing shoes and possibly a set of half ropes.

Thank you so much for your support in this.

Bendiciones y muchos gracias

Andy

Hey everyone

Just to let you know I have set up a new JustGiving page for the climbing project. Please do consider giving to this project.

Bendiciones

Andy

Hey everyone

Okay, so last night was my first night on duty with the street team (a group of volunteers from a church in El Alto). I have to be honest I was petrified before going out last night, and really wasn’t sure what to expect. In the end it was an amazing night, but also one of the hardest experiences I have ever had.

The street team go out every Monday night to chat with the kids on the streets, and to give them hot chocolate and bread. They also go out every Saturday during the day to give them a full hot meal. The team entirely made up of volunteers and entirely from El Alto it is also self-sufficient – a very humbling experience when they have relatively little themselves.

So, the night was fairly ‘normal’ for the team. We met up with several youngsters, including a couple who had previously been within the houses in Bernabé. I wanted to share a couple of stories with you (names have been changed):

Eddy

Eddy is eleven years old and has already been in and out of the program we have here about a year ago. At present he lives on the streets, caring for his older brother, who is twenty years old and severly handicapped (wheelchair bound). Him and his brother are a comedy duo – hiding the hot chocolate flask with a massive grin, and generally trying to kid around – especially with me the newbie! We chatted with Eddy about returning to the Fundación, and he seems to want to, but these would leave his brother with problems as we cannot help him directly with this.

Jonny

Jonny is a kid of only nine or ten years old who works all night as an announcer for the minibuses – in other words he yells out to the people where the minibuses go. He won’t receive any food from the drivers, and is lucky, very lucky, if he earns 10bs in the night – that is a little more than $1.

Marco

Marco is thirteen years old and has been in and out of various organisations for the past few years. It was the first time the team had met him and he was happy to see us. After saying goodbye to him, we were followed by him and asked if he could move into one of our houses. Today he will be meeting with the team again to see if he is serious, and afterwards with the team here in the Fundación to see if he really wants to commit to moving into the organisation.

The hardest thing of all the night was returning back to my house at the end – I have to be honest I cried most of the way home. It was heartbreaking to know that those kids would be spending another night on the streets in really cold temperatures, after an afternoon of heavy rain, without clean or dry clothes, and there was nothing that I could do about it. We think we lack so much, but we have so much, we think we aren’t rich, but many of us spend in one day on coffee or beer more than they will earn in a week, or sometimes even a month, and yet they are happy.

Whilst we were working a young man came up to me, who lived and sleeped on the streets. He was slightly drunk, but because he was drinking to forget all the crud in his life. We had quite a bit of a conversation, and afterwards he grabbed me to embrace me, and with tears in his eyes he thanked me for coming to his country to look after the children that his country had forgotten. He understood the gravity of the situation here – he understood how serious the situation is – how many children are forced to live on the streets here – not just because of the politics of their country, but also because of the way we – the wealthy west – have raped this continent for our continual quest to satisfy our greed for me. We are so pre-occupied at the moment with our own misfortune, especially during a time of recession, but what it is doing to a country that is struggling to survive already – is impossible to imagine unless you see it firsthand. We may struggling to find jobs, we may even find ourselves having to reconsider the size of our houses, or whether we buy or sell a second car – but at least we have the roof over our head. We can try and blame a corrupt, socialist government in this country, but actually its our greed for more that is killing this country and causing many of the problems.

Bendiciones

Andy

Hey everyone

Thank you so much to those who donated money towards replacing the laptop. In the end I found a place that would replace the motherboard and upgrade my old laptop and I decided to go for this option as it turned out it would cost me a lot more than I had originally thought to replace it out here or get one sent over with a valid warranty. It also means I am not walking round with a brand spanking new laptop in La Paz…..

To be honest the cost of the new parts used up the majority of the funds that were donated – the little bit left over went toward a carpet for my new classroom in the school for ex-street children. (The classroom used to be a dingy very dirty basement – we have painted it and got a carpet for it).Will try and post some photos on facebook soon.

Bendiciones

Andy

Hey everyone

Please be praying for tonight. It is my first night out on duty with the street team. We will be starting at 9pm or so and staying out until 2am or so. We are going to be working in an area of El Alto really not advised to be frequented by foreigners at night so please do pray for my safety and that of the team. 

Bendiciones y amor

Andy

Hey everyone

This week I have been in more conversations with climbing suppliers in the UK about the climbing project and I have managed to secure a new quote from Needle Sports in Keswick who can supply everything we need plus a couple of extra things we were considering for about £1,200 – with postage to a UK address.

Because of this we are now asking only for cash donations via Latin Link if you are a UK Tax Payer or direct to me if you are not a UK Tax Payer.

We will then have everything shipped to the UK address and I will collect all the equipment when I come to the UK for several weddings early in the summer. This means we will be much later starting the project but save us about 50% of the original costs.

Please do consider supporting this project – so far we have had little interest which has been quite disheartening both for the staff at the project and also for the children who are really excited about the project.

Bendiciones y amor

Andy

Hey everyone

Hey everyone

Please pray for the youth talk tonight – its a bit fiesty! Lol – challenging the youth if we really are living radical lifes of love or not! 

Bendiciones

Andy