1 Month Update!

  We'll we've made it exactly 1 month and 2 days in Bolivia!  It seems like time has just flown by and I knew it would be this way.  Everything is so new, people, surroundings, sights, sounds, etc..  We have been doing well in our adjustment phase - with the occasional moments of sadness and sorrow.  Kids have been making some friends and getting use to our new life here.
  Olivia started to pre-school at Rise & Shine and is loving it.  It is a bilingual school.  We did a meet and greet quarterly parent/teacher night last night and her teacher gave her good marks for having only been there 1 week.  We have been praying and feeling more lead to put our boys in a North American private school called Carachipampa Christian School.  The boys have already visited there twice and have several friends who attend there.  It's sort of a drive from where we live but the bus will come right by our house to pick them up!  They won't begin until next August.
  We have looked into language schools and will probably be deciding next week which one to begin with.  Shay, Lowell and boys will probably all attend some classes through the next 3 months.
  We have become great friends with a couple of familes.  The Discua Family in particular.  We celebrated with them and one other family (The Ross') last night!  Yesterday the Discuas were granted permanent adoption rights of their 3 yr. old Bolivian daughter Hannah Joy.  Olivia and Hannah are in the same class at pre-school.  They attend our church and have been fellow missionaries here in Cochabamba for 7 years.  Our boys and their boys have had multiple sleep overs at our home and Shay and Krista (the mom/wife) have also hit it off.  And the husband/dad - Gustavo has been extremely helpful to Lowell since we've first arrived.  He's been carting Lowell around all over the city to help him find a motorcycle to buy.  All of this has been great but since the adoption is final in 2 weeks they will be then returning back to Colorado :(  We will miss them greatly and will have to say one of our first goodbyes to someone leaving to return to the states.  Pastor Graham Porter and his wife Lori who've been here for 14 years are leaving very soon as well.  This Sunday will be there last at the church.  This couple has also been extremely helpful to us before and after we've moved here to inform us of many great details about life here in Coch.
  So - that is the update for now and we want all of you to know that we are extremely humbled by your prayers and financial gifts to allow us to live in this beautiful country.  Our goal is to represent Christ and his love for Bolivians and to help the great work of the CIC (Cochabamba International Church).  We are very excited about so many future opportunities that God has in store for us and we look forward to sharing as much with you as possible.
  A reminder that we use Facebook a lot for photo updates since it is such an easy tool for communication.  If you haven't joined yet we ask that you consider even if just to see our photo updates. How to join: just click here and follow the prompts: http://tinyurl.com/3pk5k6r
Thank you again for your gracious friendship!

The Ballews
(Lowell, Shay, Aidan, Liam, Jude, and Olivia)

Prayer Needs:
- Car: we have been surprised how expensive used cars are here and are praying for donations to help us purchase a car soon.  We need to raise $5000 to help with this.  Just an example - a 10 yr. old Nissan SUV goes for $10-12k.  Cars are a luxury here and people are very resourceful with driving cars for many years.  Parts and labor are very cheap here compared to the states.
- Language learning - as we begin to take classes soon.
- Bible Study - Shay, Lowell and one other American missionary couple just joined an all Spanish / Bolivian small group.  Pray as we learn to communicate more and that we form deep relationships with these 8 Bolivian couples.
- Music Ministry at CIC - pray God would allow me to help in the most effective ways with the whole Sun. morning program.  Pray for my communication with the nationals on the team to get better as I learn more Spanish.
- Kids adjustment - I made it sound in letter above that they are doing great and they are mostly are but pray for those sad days to diminish more and more.
- Health - Liam and Shay had the stomach bug from the food here - pray for the rest of our protection from sicknesses.
- Safety - that we will make wise choices since we are foreigners from US and are automatically a target because of our skin color.
- Unity - pray for us as a family that we have unity and peace among one another and that we give grace and patience to one another daily.
- Financial update - God has provided almost all of our monthly support but since we want to purchase a car we still welcome any financial gifts.

Pray for Shay

Shay has contracted Typhoid Fever and was in outpatient care since this morning around 9a.m. She was hooked up to IV to get her rehydrated and then given IV - this lasted for 9 hours. This will be followed by oral med. She went home about 7p.m. This came on suddenly at about 3a.m. this morning with vomiting every 20 min. until I took her to doctor at 8:30 this morning. The Dr. is from our church and is excellent. We covet your prayers. Typhoid fever comes from something you ate and can remain dormant for up to 20 days before presenting symptoms.  She is already feeling a little better from the first dose of antibiotics. 

Facebook Photo Update

Thank for your prayers as we have been getting settled into our new home and getting it fully furnished.  We are doing well and appreciate your constant prayers for us as we begin our life here in Bolivia.  If you are a friend of Shay or Lowell on Facebook you can go view these photos.  If not then request our friendship on FB and you can view future photo updates.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=10150213128657189&id=637202188&aid=353198

Thank you for your support.

Lowell Ballew & Family.

We're Here!

Most of you probably know by now but if you haven't heard we made it to Bolivia last Thursday.  It's kind of hard to believe!  We are all so thrilled to be here and our kids are all doing very well thus far.  We arrived early last Thurs. morning and were greeted by some missionary friends who picked us up at the airport. We were all very tired - especially our oldest son Aidan who didn't sleep a wink on the flight here.  Since we couldn't check into our hotel until noon we were invited to our friends The Porter's home to rest and visit.  Both Aidan & Jude conked out on their couches for a few hours that morning. We've been settling in some at our hotel in the heart of the city.  Our bags are just laying all around the living room of the apartment/hotel we are in.  It's a spacious apartment layout with two bedrooms, living room, full kitchen with pots, pans, utensils and silverware!  We were able to see a potential rent home the first day we arrived which was great!  We decided to go with this home and paid our first month's rent yesterday and got the keys to the home.  We hope to share some pics soon. We will be trying to get moved in this week.  We will have to completely furnish the home with beds and all appliances (fridge, stove, microwave, washer).  Pray for us as we begin the hunt for at least all of our mattresses tomorrow and possibly a fridge.

Our second night here we were invited to a birthday party of a fellow missionary who we already knew and we met several other missionary couples there.  Our kids made a lot of friends as well which was a huge blessing!

Thanks to so many of you who kept up with us through Facebook as we posted updates on our trip here (in Panama) and for so many of you who have been faithful to pray for God's guidance and provision in this adventurous journey we're on!

Financial Update:
We have gained a little more support but still need about $600 more in monthly pledges to reach our goal.  If you would like to give you can click here to learn more about what to do to give.  If 25 people gave a pledge of $24 per month then we'd reach our goal.

Thanks again for your interest in what we are doing as we represent Christ to the people of Bolivia.

More to come soon!

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST!!!!

Hola family, friends, and all prayer warriors!!!
  We have an urgent prayer request. We humbly ask that you all fervently pray for our visa situation. We have been diligently trying to receive our special purpose visas for almost 2 months now. This is a special visa which Bolivia requires for those who are going to be staying longer than 90 days in country. We must have this special visa to enter the country on March 31 (our flight leaves the 30th, we arrive in Bolivia the 31st). After we arrive in Bolivia we begin the process of applying for our one year visa (which is the first step....after one year we apply for a three year visa). Because there is not a Bolivian Consulate in Houston, we are having to do everything via mail, phone, and email with the Consulate in Washington D.C.  We can not even begin to explain to you how frustrating and challenging this whole process has been. After doing all we {thought} we needed to do and sending our applications in along with our passports and all required paperwork and fees, we received it all back within 6 days or so with NO visas, no explanation as to why there were no visas, and the money orders had been taken. This is just a small example of how communication has been with them all along. And, we are guessing, just a tiny foreshadowing of things to come :o) After numerous phone calls to the Consulate, Lowell received some clarity on what the issue was. We apparently needed to send more paperwork that was not included. These are papers that were not listed on the requirements list that we were checking off and that no other people had mentioned that we needed. So, for almost another week now we have been working on getting these other papers in order. Lowell made an emergency trip to Austin last night to take these papers to the Secretary of State to be authenticated so we could save time on mailing. He will fly to D.C. tomorrow to take the papers to the U.S. Dept. of State to be authenticated and then personally hand deliver our applications, passports, and all paperwork needed to the Bolivian Consulate. Praise God for a wonderful friend who is donating his frequent flier miles to Lowell and for another wonderful friend he can stay with in D.C.!!
  Ok....here's the clencher. Here's where some major prayer needs come in. Even though Lowell will be hand delivering these papers, he apparently can still not receive the visas while he is there. The consulate in D.C. has to fax our paperwork to the Bolivian office IN Bolivia to be approved for the visa. They are saying this could take up to two weeks!!!!! Our flight leaves exactly two weeks from tomorrow. However, we are leaving town two weeks from TODAY to stay in a hotel by the airport so that we do not have to get up very early on the morning of our flight and drive there. We need to have these visas in hand in less than two weeks. We need to have them by Monday, March 28 so that we can leave as planned on the 29th and fly out the morning of the 30th!!!! Please, please, pray very hard that we will indeed have these visas in hand by the 28th! Please pray for travel safety for Lowell, that he could get the paper authenticated in a very timely manner at the U.S. Dept. of State (like within a day!), and that he would find total favor at the Bolivian Consulate in D.C. - that they will understand our urgency and take care of our time constraints. Lowell has been communicating with a wonderfully helpful Bolivian man at the consulate. Please pray that he will be able to talk to him personally and that he will realize our situation and take it upon himself personally to see that we get our visas VERY very quickly. I believe this is just a great opportunity for God to show himself very real - to us, to all of you, and to many who are helping us along the way that need to know HIM. We did purchase trip insurance when we booked our flight, however Lowell discovered yesterday that it does not cover having to change flight times due to visa delays! If we had to change our flight time, it would cost us nearly $1,000. So, again... pray that we will not have to change our flight, and that we will indeed have our visas in hand by the 28th (if not before!). To top it all off, I (Shay) have been very sick with sinusitis/upper respiratory infection. Bad timing to say the least. Lowell is truly carrying the load here. Pray for supernatural strength and energy for him, too please. We love you all and just can't wait to share how God works through all of this craziness!! One day soon we will indeed be in Bolivia, doing the work that God has willed for us to do...and the enemy will be defeated!! Glory to God!!

Believing with you in prayer -

Shay

Tickets Purchased

It's official - we have a departure date of Wednesday, March 30, 2011.
More to come later!

February 2011 Ballew Mission Update

Reality Setting In

"I don't wanna go to Bolivia... and I don't wanna learn Spanish..." - were the words that our 4 year old daughter Olivia said the other night to her brother Jude in a sad, pouting tone.  Jude said - "but you will like it there and you will make new friends, and it won't be all that bad... and we are going there to tell people about Jesus..."  I was amazed and so proud to hear these words as I was in the next room listening in as Jude comforted his little sister as the reality was setting in to her of what we were about to do as a family.  This is why we are going to Bolivia - to share the love of Jesus to those who need to hear as we partner with a local church in the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia. 

Duplex/Next Steps

Well we made it in to our new duplex 2 weeks ago and are enjoying it.  We are so blessed to have this cozy, comfy place.  We are very grateful to our friends for letting us use it.  Lowell has been winding down his music lessons with his students which has been harder than expected - to tell many of these young students goodbye. We are currently working on getting some paperwork together for our 1 year. visa - which is much more tedious and time-consuming than we expected.  All of our birth certificates and and marriage license have to be certified by several state, and federal agencies.  It looks like this could take 6 weeks or longer.  Once this is complete we can then book our flight to leave.  Please pray for us in this phase as we prepare to leave as well as tying up all the lose ends on so many details.  Lowell needs to sell his car - pray a buyer comes along for that as well.

(front of duplex)

(Aidan upstairs working on math)

(kids rooms)

(kitchen, dining area - Liam & Jude working on school work)

Thank You

We want all of you to know that we could not be on this journey to go serve and support the local church in Cochabamba, Bolivia without your prayers and financial support.  We are very grateful for so many of you who have given sacrificially to help support our family in this effort.  We realize that God our Provider is ultimately in control and meets our needs as He sees fit and as we have need.  He has proven faithful every step of the way in this entire process.  If you feel led to give a one-time gift or pledge a monthly amount toward our mission efforts then we welcome your gifts as we still strive to reach our goal.  Click on the give tab above for more details on how to give a one time gift or make a monthly pledge.

Praying For You
We want to be able to pray for you as our support team and welcome any and all requests.  As you pray for us we also want to be praying for you on a daily basis.

Grace and Peace to you all,
The Ballews
(Shay, Lowell, Aidan, Liam, Jude, Olivia)