Hargroves In Bolivia: Our Jobs

Sorry it has been so long since our last post, but we have been busy. This post will be short and is mostly to let you all know what our jobs are at this point down here. First we will start with Natalie. Natalie is the communications director for the team down here. Mostly this entails sending out the team prayer requests every week, typing up the meeting minutes and planning group outings and get-togethers. My job is the short term team coordinator and accountant for IOU (International Orphanage Union). Basically this entails tracking the finances of the eight orphanages and the construction and maintenance costs as well as helping coordinate short term teams when they are here. So far we have had no teams, and I am in the process of setting up the accounting system.

Other than our official jobs we spend a lot of time volunteering with another orphanage called Casa de Amor, and we are in the middle of starting a new ministry with another one of the families that is down here with us. We will give you more details on that as we get it setup. Natalie is also helping to tutor the Timmers' youngest daughter in reading twice a week. Starting next week we will be helping tutor two other missionary kids where I will be helping with Algebra and Natalie will be helping with English.

We spend our off time exploring Cochabamba and establishing friendships with a few Bolivian couples that we really enjoy spending time with. If you are praying for us, we could use prayer for health, as Natalie had amoebas again this week. Natalie's family also lost their dog of 17 years this week, and it is really hard for her to be so far away from her family during this process. We've definitely experienced more home-sicknesses this week than any of the weeks before, so pray that we can enjoy the time that we are here.

Thank you for your support and prayers! Below are some pictures of some of the kiddos at Casa de Amor. They have 17 children currently with five full-time workers, so they are definitely overwhelmed and have appreciated the extra hands. The kids are all under the age of four, and ten are under the age of one, so it's a busy and exciting place!