Soul Trek

Life over the past number of weeks has been a journey of distance and of the soul. In Bolivia we had many adventures of going 4x4ing and getting stuck in the jungle, taking a group of kids to the zoo in Santa Cruz and building great friendships. But for me it was travelling from Bolivia to Los Angeles that really made me think and realize many things about life and the culture of Central and South America and also the culture of North America. In South America we live in a mentality of orphan children, it’s a place where many have no father to look up to and have been abandoned to the streets or abusive homes. The country of Bolivia has so much beauty that is hidden behind a veil of poverty and oppression. And these things people think can be solved with money and economic development. But then when I return to the United States I see a different view. It is a country of beauty hidden behind a materialistic and shallow mask. A country that has the money and a developed economy. But what they lack is the same as those that reside to the South of them. It is a lack of love and acceptance. We all feel the insecurity of being vulnerable and therefore we put masks over our true selves. Whether it comes across as a tough street kid who will never let himself cry or as a man driving a new Bentley and only thinking of himself and his world. Maybe we all try to hide behind a mask of some sort to protect our true self. When what we need is to open up and be vulnerable to the only person that can save us from ourselves. I am really not sure of the answers but I know that I want to make a difference in people’s lives. I want to love people unconditionally just as I am loved and who knows maybe it will rub off and create a chain reaction where we all begin to let our true beauty hang out. Hey I also want to just give a big shout out to Ken Switzer our friend and great host, also to Jake and Dorothy for the great home cooked meal and last but not least our family in the United States the Trosts, thanks for the short but so sweet fellowship while we passed through and also to Jackie and Danny, thanks for putting up with all of our antics! Much love, Lehmann.

Dream

Have you ever had one of those moments where you have to keep pinching yourself because you could swear that you were inside one of your dreams. These last 2 months I have seen things I never imagined and found myself in some pretty amazing situations that I will always look back on with a large smile but this past weekend for me was a completely different story. I was literally inside one the dreams that I kept having. Tears fill my eyes sometimes when I think of the people in my life. I have heard the saying that a true friend is someone willing to lay down their life down for another but how often does that really happen, I mean really we throw that off like some distant ideology of a friend but when it comes down to it many of us are not willing to take the worst seat in a car for a friend. However I do have a friend who takes this to a whole new level. Sacrifice describes him in so many ways. He has done something for me that I never thought possible. He may never understand how much it meant to me and I have no way of telling him. I would say this. When God puts amazing people in your life, don’t look over their shoulder but cherish them, sometimes the people we idealize are right in front of us. I had the best weekend in my life! We had a great breakfast with the Trosts on our way through Orlando before spending the weekend in LA with Jordan's really cool cousins. Our plane ride to L.A. was the longest one I have ever taken not in literal time but in mental time. I found myself 30,000 feet up in air and shaking uncontrollably, my hands sweating, and my heart taking the liberty of beating double time. I don’t know if I have ever been that excited in my life, and I must say that I get excited often. We landed and I found myself in the arms of a beautiful young woman, My very lovely girlfriend Kendall, Yep its true, at least I think it was cause I pinched myself enough that I still feel it. Walking the streets of Los Angeles and running our toes through the sand of Santa Monica beach was a memory sure to stick in my mind. Renee and Kendall flew down to meet us for the weekend and what a refreshing, heart wrenching weekend it was. Talk about being in the moment of your wildest dreams and that was it! Words do not do any justice to say how much I appreciate the people in my life and the sacrifice some of them make. So Nigel here's to you, I couldn’t ask for a more true friend and Renee you rock any time you want to swim in sub degree ocean water I am by your side and I must tell the world that I have the best girlfriend in the world She is the most beautiful, sensitive and understanding person that I know and the whole world ought to know it, So thanks Kendall. What I am trying to say is I am a blessed man. I don’t deserve any of this and yet I have a heavenly father who delights in giving good gifts to His children, He Loves to do things like this and smile down on His kids. I am finding that the more we make ourselves vulnerable to our God He does things like this that really blow a person away and question the reality of their existence. In moments such as this past weekend I have to really question dreams vs reality and how phenomenal it is when the 2 become one in the same.

Daniel

Rubbing Shoulders

Last night we had a great opportunity. We me up with some Ywam'ers and hit the downtown streets of Santa Cruz. Walking down those dirty streets rubbing shoulders with the poorest of the poor is one of those things in life that you will always look back on in life when you are complaining about your food not being hot enough or too much sugar in your coffee. Its the flashbacks to those images that I know will pop up next time I open my mouth to complain. The poorest people in Boliva live here. Bolivia is the poorest country in the America's next to Haiti. So you can imagine despair. Most of the people we interacted with in our short time were having their wounds properly cleaned by the Ywam'ers or leaning up against cars sniffing some illegal shoe glue in order to get a high and escape their world while the missionaries spoke words of love to them. These words of love go a far way. People need to know they are loved by something greater than their world. It would be great to rip them off the streets and put them up in a beautiful home but reality be known, many would wander their way back in a matter of days. It breaks my heart to see the pull of drugs on the dear lives of God's children, and not just drugs but toxic glue! It opens one's eyes to see this hurt in the eyes of Gods dear children. It makes the ministry of Nacer and so many other children's homes in Bolivia come alive when you see where these kids are coming from. Just 2 nights ago I was sitting playing worship songs in Spanish with the very guys who have successfully walked away from this world. Jordan and I also had an epic water fight with two of the guys late at night, (how many times can you say that about January huh?) Well Bolivia has been great, hard to believe in less than a week we will be on the West coast, and from there the tiny Island of Tahiti. The adventures ahead are intimidating but exciting we look forward to what God has ahead in the next few weeks. Daniel

Seeing More

Hearing from home has been awesome, it turns out that since we´ve left everyone has decided their gonna get married. This must have been the most romantic Christmas holidays ever. Maybe it was a little something like this Latin culture we are seeing; in the parks, the restaurants, back streets, front streets. They let everyone know they´ve found romance. "It´s not wrong it´s just different." That is something Ken has reminded us of often, usually when we are in traffic or paying more then their advertised price. (ALWAYS... probably cause we´re white) Right now the boys from the home are at camp for the week, and Ken has taken us to Cochabamba, to show us this very beautiful city. It was a 9 hour drive through incredible mountain scenery. The road varied from smooth pavement curves, that you would simply love to drive a sport bike through, to a wash out with rocks and mud and no pavement. We had a nail pop into a tire when we were near a summit (far from anywhere) that we had to hurry to some village to find a tire guy before we got flat. When we finally did stop to fix the tire, we had it fixed with a plug and were charged $1.50 and Ken also gave him his coke. These mountain people are very often poor, working very hard for very little. They have a short stature often with round wind burnt faces. Many of these women come to the cities to beg on the streets with their children. Unlike Canada, there are no government social programs for these people to get money. It seems that instead of welfare we are all faced in person by the people that we should all contribute to. This poverty is very unavoidable and forces to you ask yourself if you will give to the poor, and how much. A very difficult challenge day to day. This lack of money seems to disprove the old saying `money is nothing´ for these people the importance of money is very real, and quite sad. Because I find that with the constant worry of having enough money, and it having such an importance, other valuable and important things are lost. Some have lost joy, hope, and their faith is tested. Some of these people need to find someone to lift them up. I have prayed that they would receive the hand of God in their lives, and bless them, with faith, hope, and love. God may want to do this through people that are able and I also pray that we would all respond to our calls. Jesus´ life example and message of the `The Kingdom of God´ is much more than a personal message of how I should live. It should also apply to how we should all work together as a church, community, province or country to live that example. Perhaps greater than ourselves, we may have a calling as church, town, country that is very real and not to be ignored. Lets pray for these people. - Kenton- (Feel free to comment more on this more.)

Pictures

Hey ya'll we finally got our pics figured out. They are a little out of order but that was kinda part of the process of figuring out how to get them on the blog again. Well enjoy and be blessed. Lehmann

Feliz Ano Nuevo

Well it is the new year. I can hardly believe that 2006 has slipped through our fingers so incredibly fast. I can remember back to the beginning when I was thinking about the fact of going back to school. It was a very exciting time, where I did not know what to expect or how things would go. But that semester went like a flash, from getting my sweet dorm room with an incredible balcony that overlooked a sea of openness. To the excitement of ditchboarding behind Mavis' truck and the epic feeling of graduation. Then there was the summer of working different jobs and dreading work until I was taken under the wing of Daryl Bueckert. All of a sudden waking up in the morning and going to work was a chance to go be with some of my closest friends. A place of encouragement, somewhere that made time speed by from day to day. And soon after we were moved out of our place in saskatoon and prepping for this trip. This journey has been a blur of latin culture. People that speak from their hearts, and are filled with life giving energy. These past two months on the road have humbled me and taught me the love of Christ. A love that stretches to all people and needs to be shown by us the body in practical expressions. I have seen the need for father figures, financial aid, political changes, social programs and more importantly a church that lives out their convictions. I have seen how beautiful she looks in places and I have seen nothing in places. In all I am so grateful for the experiences of this past year. They have developed a depth of character in each one of us that excites me and will hopefully have prepared us for whatever lies ahead. Lehmann