SURVEYORS VISIT

Every other year, Bill Richardson, former co-worker of ours in Santiago, Chile, organizes a survey group made up of students from Harding University. Their objective is to gather information about possible mission points of South America. As a matter of fact, one of his teams scouted out Cochabamba, Bolivia, and shared valuable information with the Austin Ave. church and the Cochabamba Mission Team not too long ago.

Well, as we all know, God works in mysterious ways, and now he returned to Cochabamba with a group of 11 to continue gathering information, but information offered by the team here. It was great to be on the other side of the table for a while, and be the ones answering questions (questions we actually had answers for) and not the ones asking them.

We had a great time, and enjoyed a couple of meals together. We are excited about the possibility of six of them returning to La Paz to work in that city. To one of their questions Drew answered, "we'll help you out if you choose to target La Paz!" It would be great to have yet another team of missionaries in Bolivia.

Please pray the God will continue to open doors for more laborers in this part of the world that has been neglected for such a long time. Thank all of you who make it possible for us to be a part of such a work!

Another exciting aspect of Bill's visit was to lay some groundwork for an internship program here in Cochabamba. Nothing has been set yet, but both the team and Bill are excited about the possibility of bringing summer interns to Cochabamba and helping them get excited about mission work in South America.

As a matter of fact, in a way we have already begun the program in a very informal manner. Lance Wiser, a Harding student, has decided to stay in Cochabamaba for 2 weeks to go through the Runa Wasi Language School homestay program. He enjoys his classes, the family he is staying with and hanging out with us, including JD.

Butch and Trish