Ballew Mission Journey

10 Month Update

2012-02-04T15:40:00.000-08:00

Today (Jan.31) marked our 10 month anniversary of being in Bolivia. One year ago we moved out of our home in League City to stay in a temporary duplex until our date of departure. It is truly hard to imagine that our 1 year anniversary of being here is just around the corner. Time flies when you're having fun, right? Or at least when life is crazy and you've turned your world upside down and started over from scratch in a foreign land and just tried to live moment by moment to survive and thrive. Whooh. Here we are...beginning a new year in our new country and wondering what on earth God has in store for this family of ours here in this place. Why are we here again?! Oh, yes! We did this crazy, insane thing because God told us to! No matter what, we said. No matter how hard. No matter how rough and tough and ugly it gets. And it has - gotten that way, I mean. At times. Otherwise, on the other side of the pesito ( that would be a little tiny coin...) there have been wonderful, beautiful, fun, productive, positive times. Moments when we feel all cheery and good and that things are just "right", you know? I won't lie, this life we have chosen isn't easy, and it's not all rosy and grand. However, we have to know that God is good. God is great! He called us here and He has a purpose for us. He is not going to leave us or forsake us. He is with us. He will lead us and guide us into His perfect plan and will for us. As we lean into starting a new year here in Bolivia, I have asked the Lord, "What do you want with us this year? What shall we do? What things, Lord, can we accomplish for you?" We want to make this time worth it. Worth all of the sadness and heartache and missing home and missing friends and doing without. Worth all of the leaving behind we did.
I (Shay) feel strongly that the Lord wants me (personally) to build more meaningful relationships with Bolivians and strengthen my Spanish speaking ability. The two really go hand in hand. I have a deep desire to focus on discipleship, specifically with students, considering that is the group of folks here that the Lord has clearly led us to minister to. He just continues to give Lowell and I both opportunities to serve these amazing kids here who need to know Jesus and grow in their faith. We are prayerfully considering ways to develop a leadership team within our youth group at the church. This kind of thing really excites me and pumps me up! I love seeing young people step up and be bold in their faith and become leaders for their generation. Please pray along with us that the Lord would lead us and guide us as we begin this new endeavor. Another incredible opportunity that the Lord has given Lowell is to be the Assistant Coach for Carachipampa's basketball team (www.carachipampa.org)! For those of you who know Lowell well, you know that basketball was a huge part of his life as a young student. He was a very talented and skilled player and now he has the chance to pour into these young men in yet another area - teaching them and encouraging them on the basketball court! Our oldest son, Aidan, has decided to join the team, making him the only 7-9th grader out there amongst a team of 10-12th graders! At CCS, high school is 7-12th grades and since the school is so small anyone has a chance to be a part of the team. We are so proud of Aidan, that he didn't shy away from joining, just because the rest of the team was older. Incredibly, he is now just as tall as many of the Senior players.
We enjoyed a wonderful three week break for the Christmas holiday and we were incredibly blessed to spend the majority of that time with Lowell's parents! It was truly amazing to welcome visitors here, when we still feel like visitors ourselves! I cried tears of joy seeing them step off the plane and walk through the gate to us. It was overall an enjoyable time, besides Lowell's Mother being very ill for a week and having to be admitted to the hospital. Lowell's Dad purely enjoyed every second of his time here in Bolivia, reminiscing of his peace corps days and visiting old friends, speaking to the locals of "the good 'ole days" of Cochabamba in the 60's. Christmas was different, but very, very blessed. The kids discovered that Santa really does make stops in Bolivia. For a few days after Christmas, we were able to travel to Santa Cruz, Bolivia by bus (quite the experience) and enjoy some fun family time at a waterpark called Aqualand and a beautiful butterfly and bird sanctuary called Biocentro Guembe. The climate in SC is very similar to Houston - hot and humid!
The second semester of school is in full swing and our grueling schedule continues. Olivia has gone back to her school, Rise and Shine, although the Bolivian school year does not officially start until next week (Feb. 6). She will officially be a Kindergartener!! She enjoys her playdates with her friends and will be taking swim lessons with them starting next week as well! Jude is a star student and we are so proud of how well he has done this year in this new environment. Liam and Aidan are still working hard and persevering through the changes as well. The struggles they have faced in the past 10 months have made them stronger and pretty darn tough, I think! They continue to make new friends and use their gift of music to help lead worship for youth group and chapel at school. Liam is excited to celebrate his 12th birthday next week with some of his friends from church and school with paintball and a sleepover. Speaking of birthdays....it's hard for me to believe, but this Monday, the 6th, is my 40th. The "big one". Mid life, right? Ha! I sure hope not. Lord willing, anyway! Looking forward to celebrating in Bolivia!

PRAISE AND THANKS:
1) Continued relationship building with our empleada, Miriam. She has lots of good questions related to God and is definitely seeking truth! She is attending church regularly.
2) A memorable visit with Lowell's parents
3) Growth within the youth group! We are averaging 40 students and more Bolivians are coming! Pray that the MK's will reach out to them and make them feel welcome and comfortable.

PRAYER REQUESTS:
1) That our Spanish speaking ability would reach a new level.
2) That we will be more intentional about building relationships with Bolivians.
3) That God would lead Lowell and I as we develop the student leadership team.
4) Continued transition and adaptation - it's an ongoing process and symptoms of culture stress and missing home and friends rise frequently. There are still tears and sadness and emotional breakdowns at times.
5) That all kids would do well in school and that they would actually come to really like it and look forward to it! Pray for good, significant friends for all of them.

God's goodness and blessings upon you ALL!!!

Shay, for all of us


Us with Lowell's parents visiting the Simon I. Patino Palace Museum


Being crazy on Christmas Eve in the pj's my Mom sent

Olivia, la Mariposa muy linda, at the Biocentro Guembe in Santa Cruz

FELIZ NAVIDAD DE BOLIVIA!!

2011-12-18T15:05:00.000-08:00

Greetings to all of our wonderful family and friends…. from South of the equator!!!

I just can’t seem to get Christmas in my head! It is difficult for me to feel “in the spirit” when it is 75 degrees out, the sun is shining bright, we’ve broken out our shorts and flip flops and it’s SPRING in Bolivia! This is all a new experience, indeed, celebrating the holidays in another country. By the time you all receive this letter, it will be summer here and full on winter in your half of the world. I pray that this greeting finds you all blessed and doing well. We miss you all so much and continue to feel extremely humbled at the blessing and opportunity we have to be here, serving the Lord in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

We have crossed the 8 month mark, which is somewhat surreal, considering how long we waited on the Lord to even get here. What a ride it has been. Adventurous, challenging, humbling, exciting, scary, glorious, fruitful, difficult – these are just some of the adjectives I can think of to describe our time here so far. There have been sad days and happy days; hard days and easy days; boring days and fun days; crazy days and calm days! God is good and He has been with us every single step of the way as we have strived to adapt to this culture, learn the language and customs, get a new home established and settled, determine our ministry goals and purpose, and learn to balance home, family, and service. Thus far, we have served at Cochabamba International Church (www.cicbolivia.org) – Lowell leading worship and helping to develop the worship teams and musicians – and us as a couple, leading the student group (7-12^th grades) on Friday nights. We have lovingly labeled our group “The Mix”, because it is a beautiful mix of many nationalities, languages, and local schools. Our goal is to build up these kids, help them come to know Jesus in a real way, and grow deeply in their walk with Him. Please pray as we develop relationships with these students – some are missionary kids and some are Bolivians, both of which have unique needs.

The opportunity for Lowell and I to teach at the boys’ school, Carachipampa Christian School (www.carachipampa.org) , came up several weeks after we arrived in Coch. There were needs for music and art teachers, and we fit the bill. We are both teaching high school (

7-12^th) two days per week. The majority of the teachers at this SIM (www.sim.org) established school are self -supported missionaries from all across the globe. We see this as an added opportunity for ministry with students – many of which also attend the youth group at CIC. Pray that in addition to passing on our passion for art and music to these kids, that we would pass on our passion for Jesus, most of all!

We can hardly begin to express our thanks and gratefulness for your prayers and financial support, which make this life here completely possible for us. We know that God is bigger than the economy and He has shown that clear and true! You make sacrifices for us, and it brings me to humble tears.

“Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy, and their extreme poverty welled up rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.” 2 Cor. 8: 2-5

As this year comes to a close, would you pray about making a one-time donation to our mission or joining our monthly support team? We are always praying for members to “share in this service to the saints…”! If you feel led, please use the enclosed envelope to send your donation or monthly commitment. We are praying that the Lord would be close to each and every one of you during this time of celebrating the birth of our Savior. May you enjoy His blessing, your family, and be focused on HIS mission for the world – reconciling them to His Son, Jesus!

Merry Christmas & A Blessed New Year -

Feliz Navidad y Un Año Nuevo Beato -

The Ballew Family in Bolivia! (www.theballews.org)

Mission Address: Stateside Address: Bolivia Address: (do NOT send $ here!!)

Ripe For Harvest c/o Robert Ballew La Familia Ballew

P.O. Box 487 P.O. Box 293 Casilla #6505

Monument, CO 80132 Frost, TX 76641 Cochabamba, Bolivia

South America

Beautiful Quechuan girls proudly showing off the Bibles we gave them on a one day outreach with our church


Olivia and her friend, Isabel, dressed up in their traditional Cochabambina outfits for the dance they performed at their end of school year program


The best family photo we could come up with recently. I decided it was appropriate for me to have my eyes closed.

6 MONTHS!!

2011-10-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true. We hit the 6 month mark last Saturday. Can you believe we've been gone from home and in Bolivia for 6 months?? Wow! It has really flown by and by God's amazing grace, it's all been good! No, these past 6 months have not been without their many challenges, but all in all, as we reflect on the transition period, God was glorified and we are truly amazed at how he has provided for us and allowed us to be here. We continue to be humbled by your love, prayers, and financial support. We love to pray for you all so please let us know how we can lift you up.

We are getting settled into a routine now that we have been in school for more than 6 weeks. The boys are all doing well - they are true champs! It has been a hard season for them, getting used to being in a formal school setting again and having so much homework, but they are really persevering through the daily challenges. I am so proud of them - they are my heroes! Last week and this week the boys participated/are participating in what their school calls "Outdoor Education Camps". The elementary camp was last week for 3 days, so Liam and Jude went to a camp nearby to participate in that. This week is the high school camp (which is 7-12th grades) and they are going to a camp about 2 hours away called "Camp Kewina". Aidan and Lowell both went - Aidan as a camp participant and Lowell to help lead the worship and supervise the approximately 80 kids that are attending. Aidan also has the opportunity to go with a small group of students on an overnight hike and tent camping trip for 2 of the days of camp this week. We are so thankful that the boys got this opportunity considering they had to miss church camp with our home church and family camp this past summer. Small things that ease the pain of homesickness just a little.

Lowell and I are enjoying the student ministry at CIC. We named the group "The Mix" because of the great mixture of nationalities, languages, and schools that are represented by the group. Lowell and the boys are still leading the music and we are hoping to take the group through the Crazy Love study by Francis Chan soon (as soon as it arrives in the mail!). We are both busy teaching at the boys' school as well. I am enjoying using my art abilities and knowledge to teach the high schoolers plus minister to them as I do it! Lowell's ministry there is a bit more involved, as he helps lead the worship for the chapel days and is teaching the entire high school (7-12th gr.) Christmas music for the school program. Lowell was able to take a group of the students recently to an event to raise money and awareness for a local ministry that helps support all of the "street kids" here in Coch. There are hundreds of kids, all ages, that live on the streets and hang out in the streets during the day, trying to beg for money to survive. Many of them will try to wash your car windows for you to make money, or even juggle rocks or do cartwheels in front of your car so you will "pay them for their entertainment". Sadly, many of these kids use the money they "earn" to buy glue that they sniff and get high on. I have seen kids as young as 7 or 8 years old sniffing glue, and even a young pregnant girl doing it on the side of the street. Please pray for this ministry that reaches out to these kids and that they will respond well.

Olivia is struggling a bit with wanting to go to school every day. She would so much rather stay at home. She has also been quite homesick and is missing her dear friends so much. She literally holds a photo of her best friend from back home and cries. Please pray that the Lord will comfort her and help her to feel happy and content and safe here. She has made some good friends at school and church, but needs a lot of reassurance and love still. She is speaking Spanish up a storm, though!

I must admit, that I too, have been quite homesick lately. I believe it is the "6 month mark blues". I have really been missing my dear friends, my home church, and my family. I also believe that when you are on the mission field, one of the most difficult times emotionally is the holidays. As you all approach the fall season and the two major holidays of the year in the states, we are here...thinking of it all. I love autumn and everything that goes along with it, especially Thanksgiving. It has just turned spring here in Coch, and it is beautiful. The rains have begun (with much more to come, we hear) and everything is "springy"! It will be very strange to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas in warm, sunny weather. Well, ok...I know we're from Texas and all, but you know what I mean!! Praise God, we have made some dear friends who are also missionaries struggling with being away from family throughout the holiday season, and we plan to celebrate with a big Thanksgiving feast in true American tradition!

Praises:
**We asked for prayer for one of our empleadas (maids), and she has begun to attend our church regularly now!! She is becoming a dear friend and I pray that our lives will exude the joy and love of Christ to her!
**A good vehicle! Pray we can get our Bolivian drivers licenses soon.
**Persevering and strong kids!

Prayer Requests:
**Continued strength and perseverance through the schoolwork - for all of us!
**For the feelings of homesickness to subside and be overcome with the joy of being here - doing God's will!!
**That the Bolivians we encounter every day would know we are Christians by our love. And that they would DESIRE that love!
**For God's continued restoration for challenging issues in our lives.
**Spiritual growth, deep love, and strength for mine and Lowell's marriage.

Blessings upon each and every one of you!!! We love you!

Shay, for the whole family :o)

August 2011 Update

2011-08-26T06:16:00.000-07:00

Wooh! We're almost through August and haven't written an update yet. Not going to let this month get away from us, though. We have had quite the whirlwind of activity this past month (really, 6 weeks). A lot has happened and a lot is going on! For starters, the boys began school last week at Carachipampa Christian School. That's the biggest change and transition we've had so far since we've been here (Aug. 31 will be 5 months!!). After homeschooling for the past 4 years, this is an entirely new world for them - and us, as parents and teachers as well. Yes, Lowell and I are teaching part time at the school also! Lowell is teaching high school music (7th-12th grades are considered h.s.) on Tues. and Wed., and helping lead the worship for their chapel once a week. I am teaching high school art on Mon. and Tues. mornings only. This is a really neat blessing in disguise, and I believe one way God wants to use us here in Bolivia. First of all, since we are leading the student ministry at our church, it is only natural and fitting that we are now teaching high school students. We have an open opportunity to invite ALL of our students that we teach to our youth group meetings, called "ThE MiX", on Friday nights! Many of them already attend CIC and ThE MiX, so we can encourage them to invite their fellow classmates as well. Another plus is that, while filling needs that the school had for music and art teachers, we in turn will receive a discount on the tuition for the boys. This is indeed a huge blessing!! We do not receive a salary as teachers at the school, the majority of the staff at CCS (excluding a few Bolivian staff members) are full-time, self-supported missionaries, just like us. Many of them are from different parts of the world - South Africa, Canada, Korea, England, and the states. CCS is a beautiful mix of cultures and languages, with one unifying factor - Christ! To learn more about the school and it's history, please visit www.carachipampa.org.

The boys' on their first day

Lowell's music room

Before the chaos of the new school routine began, we wanted to take a little trip to the jungle. There is a small town, about a 4 hour drive from the city, deep in the Amazon rainforest, called Villa Tunari. We hired a van called a "surubi" to drive us on our little adventure, expecting to enjoy some hot, humid, bug infested jungle weather. Not to mention the large pool and slide at the hotel we had booked. However....much to our dismay, the weather was VERY cold and rainy. We tried hard not to be too disappointed, and still enjoy the simple fact that we were in the Amazon jungle for the first time in our lives!! We were still able to visit two parks while there, one called Parque Jungle (par-kay hoon-glay) which had some really fun ziplines and huge swings that were a blast, and the other called Parque Macchia. Within the boundaries of this park, is a animal refuge called "Inti Wara Yassi" where they rescue and care for endangered or hurt animals. There is long hiking trail up the mountain that we took and all the while, were searching for monkeys to play with and hold. We didn't have much luck until our way down!! They are adorable, constantly digging in people's pockets for treasures! Needless to say, though, we cut the trip short and headed home after only one day.


Finally! A monkey!

I seriously wanted to take him home!

Another really amazing opportunity the boys and I had, is getting to go on a one day mission trip (outreach) with our church last Saturday to a very small Quechuan village on the other side of Mt. Tunari. We took a bus and the drive was about 3 1/2 hours, up the mountains, over the mountains, and down the other side of the mountains! There were many times I had to hold my breath and pray that the bus would not go over the side. This was a truly amazing time, talking with, playing with, and reaching out to these people who still live such very simple, yet very hard lives. A dentist was able to give dental care to many of the Quechuan women, we made gospel bead bracelets with them and explained the meaning of the colors (with help of a translator that can speak Spanish, English, and Quechuan!), gave them bibles in their own language, listened and prayed while two men shared a message, and even shared in a traditional meal that they so very graciously cooked for us - many different types of potatoes, llama jerky (yes, I ate a llama...), and lamb meat. Please pray that these villagers will read their bibles and supernaturally understand the passages and ultimately come to know Jesus!


Sweet young Quechuan girl with her gospel bracelet

Two major milestones we were able to celebrate is Jude's 10th birthday and Olivia's 5th birthday!! For Jude's birthday, we spent a fun day together with friends, going to the slide park (a park with HUGE concrete slides) and eating out, and for Olivia's birthday we had a blast celebrating Strawberry Shortcake style with friends at the house.

Birthday morning pancakes!

The 5 yr. old beauty with her authentic Strawberry Shortcake!

Major praise!!! We now have a vehicle!! Although it is not officially ours yet, we have been able to drive the car that we waited on for about 2 months to get out of the shop. The owner just recently returned from furlough from the states, so we will be able to "seal the deal" so to speak. This is such a major blessing and we are so unbelievably thankful for such a good car at such a good price with the market being the way it is here in Cochabamba right now. God is good!

Praises:
1) A vehicle!!
2) Ministry opportunities falling into place! (student ministry, music ministry, teaching positions)
3) A good start to a new school year at a new school!
4) We have our one year visas! However...still no carnets (which is a required i.d. card).

Prayer Requests:
1) That we would obtain our carnets very soon.
2) A good transition into this new world of private christian schooling with many other MK's, native Bolivians, and kids and teachers from all over the world! It is all very overwhelming for them and us and we are dealing with some challenging issues. But I know God is bigger than all of them!!
3) Finalizing the purchase of our vehicle.
4) That the student ministry (ThE MiX) of CIC would continue to grow and that the Lord will lead us as we lead these kids. Pray that leaders will arise and begin to take ownership of the group.
5) The music ministry of CIC. Pray for Lowell as he uses his gifts to lead the congregation in worship and as he works with other full time missionaries planning and organizing the band and vocalists.
6) That the relationships we already have with non-christian or unchurched Bolivians will continue to grow and develop into trust relationships in which we can share the love of Christ with them. Please pray specifically for Irene and Miriam.
7) Continued language learning. We are no longer at the language institute, because of school starting, so pray that we can get plenty of practice with native speakers!

We love all of you tremendously and miss you terribly. We covet your continued prayers and thank each of you who are a part of our financial support team. We could not be doing this without you! There is not a day that I do not thank God for this incredible opportunity he has given us to serve Him here in Bolivia!

Con un abrazo fuerte y un besito -

Shay, for the whole family :o)

July 2011 Update

2011-07-13T04:17:00.000-07:00

Getting In A Groove

As we are amidst our winter season here in South America and experiencing unusually cool temperatures and a recent big snow on the mountains many of you in the USA are experiencing record HOT temperatures! We have been enjoing the recent snow on the mountains which came unusually early this winter. Bolivian school kids are in the middle of their third week of winter break here and the North American Schools are on their summer break since they are on the same schedule as USA schools. We've decided to put our boys in Carachipampa Christian School here in Cochabamba beginning August 17. Shay and I are planning on teaching at the school a couple of periods per week on a part time basis. The school needs music and art teachers and Shay and I are considering teaching a couple of classes each week for grades 7-12.

Youth Group
Shay and I have accepted the opportunity to be the youth leaders for Youth Group at CIC. For the past two weeks we have been having Friday Night Youth Group meetings at the church from 7 to 9 in a room called The Cueva which is a cool room with 100 yr. old walls. We play games and have snacks and then have a time of music and worship and then have some teaching time from The Bible. We have been having about 12 kids the past two meetings and will have many more once school begins in August. There are a few families moving back from furlough in August and we look forward to connecting with those kids also. As you can see my boys and I plus Tee Ross who's 17 are able to lead worship for our youth meetings on Fridays. This is a lot of fun for me as my whole family is able to serve together!

Family Life in Cbba

We have moved into another rent house here in Coch and are super blessed with more space and a better location on the west side of town near the suburb of Sacaba. Another missionary family lived here before us and were the ones who told us about it. We also adopted their two dogs Maddie & Midnight. They are both sweet dogs and do a good job at helping us with security with their deterrant barking at late night strangers and passers by. On the weekends we have a Bolivian college student living with us. Her name is Kendra. She is from the city of Santa Cruz and attends bible college at Palabra De Vida (Word of Life) which is located in a town about 1 hour south of the city. Kendra is one of our youth interns here and helps us with our Friday night youth meetings. She also helps us practice our Spanish on the weekends and she plays with Olivia a lot too! We've been waiting for a car to buy a car and found one that some missionaries are selling. Only problem is that it was wrecked right before we were told about it being for sale and we've been waiting for about 6 weeks for it to be repaired so we can test drive it. In the meantime we will continue to be patient and use taxis and truffies. A truffi is a mini van that drives a particular route like a bus. The 121 trufi taxi comes right down the street in front of our house which is very helpful since we still don't have a car. There is about 20 or more trufi taxis that all drive the 121 route thru the heart of the city. We take the 121 three times a week to language school. We can also take it to go eat at mine and Shay's favorite restraunt.

CIC
The church has been going through changes some good some sad. Former founding and Senior Pastor Graham Porter and his wife Lori left back in June which was very sad for many in the church. They had been here for 12 years and had a deep impact to so many in the city of Cochabamba (Cbba). With Graham leaving Tony Murrin has stepped up to teach more on Sunday mornings with the help of Assoc. Pastor Edwin Almanza also. Tony and Joanna Murrin have both been very key leaders at CIC for all 10 years! Joanna has been a leader with the music ministry and planning music for services and playing piano and singing as well as leading the chior. They have four kids. Two sons in college at Lancaster Bible College in Pennsylvania, USA and two daughters here in Cbba. Tony has an avation ministry called Mission Air Bolivia which supports missionaries in the tribal areas of Bolivia. He flies regularly to the Chipare Jungle region of Bolivia to bring medical and material aid to indigeneous Bolivians. In particular Tony has been helping a pastor from the Oromomo region of the Chipare. Pastor Inocencio and his wife Daria have been leading a group of new christians in their village and they trying to build their first church facility there deep in the jungle. In particular there are some prayer requests below for these particular ministry areas:

Pastor Inocencio and his wife Daria need help in maintaining the missionary work in Oromomo. A full time couple is needed who could learn the language and stay with the Yura and Chimane people teaching them Biblical truths, and giving them medical care.

Mission Air Bolivia - The aviation training center for Latin Americans in Missions need to consolidate this project soon. They need instructors for training latin Americans aviation mechanics and missionary aviation. Churches from Venezuela and other countries have required pilots and skilled workers to give them support in remote areas.

The radio station for the Bolivian Amazon basin that should broadcast BBN programs, as well as other radio programs in five different languages need a full time missionary who could be in charge of running the radio station project.

These particular areas are an indirect ministry of what we are here to support through the ministry of Cochabamba Internation Church. We hope to go and visit these particular ministries in the Chipare in days to come.

4th of July
We had fun celebrating the 4th here with a bunch of expats and Bolivians. Our friends Osvaldo and Alice host an American style 4th of July celebration since she's a native of the USA. Her parents live here as well. We met other Bolivians who now live in USA and some are married to gringos. Close to 100 people gathered in the backyard of the Montaños to have hamburgers and Coca Cola (which is the national refresco/softdrink of Bolivia by the way). It was a fun time complete with American Cheesecake and fireworks!

Prayer Requests For Ballews
-That we continue to learn the language and take language classes that we retain what we're learning and that we get plenty of chances to practice with the locals.
-For us to conitnue to deepen the relationships that God has given us with Bolivians. Young Couples Bible Studies (twice a month) and others within the church.
-For the boys as they go back to organized school from being home educated for 4 years. This will be a big adjustment especially just waking up early every morning.
-For us to recieve our Carnets soon. These are our Bolivian ID cards which will allow us to then get our Bolivian drivers license.
-For Shay and I as we teach at CCS that we will know the best things to focus on teaching the students since we will not be using a cirriculum. This is the first time we've taught art and music in a school/classroom setting. Pray that we will be able to connect with many kids while teaching there and that it will mesh well with our Friday night youth group meetings in getting more kids to attend those meetings.
-For Shay and I as we lead the youth meetings every Friday night that we will build strong relationships with the students and that we will have wisdom in leading them the best way possible.
-That more Bolivian kids begin attending our youth group meetings. We have 4 young Bolivian leaders who will work with us in trying to minister to more Bolivian students.
-That we receive our car soon and that the mechanic will finish the work WELL.
-That we find a empleada to come work for us part-time in the mornings every day as we approach the fall. We want someone who can help us with our home chores and someone we can build a relationship with and practice Spanish with on a daily basis.

We feel so humbled to be able to be living here in Bolivia on foreign soil and we realize we couldn't be here without the financial support of so many back home in the USA who are giving sacrificially to allow us to represent the gospel of Jesus Christ to a beautiful culture of Bolivian people. We thank all of you so much for your concern and prayers that we feel on a daily basis as we are here living so far away from you.

Bless You All with the Love of Christ!

The Ballews
Lowell, Shay, Aidan, Liam, Jude, & Olivia

*To view all of our recent photos you can go to our Facebook pages. http://www.facebook.com/lowell.ballew
http://www.facebook.com/shay.ballew

June 2011 Update

2011-06-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to give you guys a 2 month update on us!

We are doing pretty good. Still adjusting here but it's going well. We’ve made a lot of friends and contacts thru the church and all of them have been extremely helpful to all of us as we’ve been getting settled. We’ve been in a temporary home for 2 months now and will be moving into another home in a couple of weeks. I got a motorcycle about 3 weeks ago and it’s been fun and very helpful also since we still don’t have a car. Getting closer to finding a car but they are all just SO expensive here it’s made it harder than in the states...

Shay, the 3 boys, and I have been going to Spanish classes 3 days a week for about 3 weeks now – we just need more time to actually practice speaking... We are praying for people we can meet with every week 1 on 1 to just speak Spanish with for an hour or so... Olivia goes to pre-school every day from 8:30 to Noon. She’s hearing a lot of Spanish there every day. The school speaks about 60% Spanish and 40% English. There are about 6 other North American or English MK’s who attend. She’s made a few friends and had 2 play dates already with an MK girl named Madison who’s family if from Dallas. The boys are still homeschooling but might start to a school in the fall – we’re still praying about that. Shay attends a weekly bible study on Tuesdays with other missionary wives and they are doing a Beth Moore study right now on the fruits of the spirit.

Shay and I attend an all Spanish young couples bible study every other Monday night and are getting to know those couples better each week. We attended a one night retreat last month and that was a good time away with all of them. I’ve been continuing to help with the music ministry every week by either playing guitar/singing or filling in on drums when we are short. I am slowly learning to better communicate with the band – usually there is a couple of other “gringos” who can translate words and phrases I haven’t learned to say yet.

Shay and I have just decided to take on leading the youth ministry at the church. We are going to work with a few other Bolivian leaders to come up with a plan to relaunch the Friday night youth meetings at the church in 2 weeks. Last week was our first week to attend the youth meeting to just meet more of the kids. There are only about 10 to 15 kids coming each week right now and most of them are MK’s (missionary kids). There were about 4 Bolivian kids but they spoke very good English also. One of our goals is to get more Bolivian kids to attend and we hope to accomplish this by having more Bolivian leaders which seems to be happening right now. We want the Friday night meetings to be bilingual as much as possible so the Bolivian kids feel a part!

Anyway – I am at home sick today with a mild stomach bug (no throw up thankfully). This is my first time in 8 weeks to get sick at all and I’m very grateful I’ve made it this far!

PRAYER REQUESTS:
- For our continued health from stomach bugs. That we make wise decisions when eating out.
- For us to continue build relationships with the young couples.
- For us to find a car soon for a good price – or for one to be donated from the States and shipped here. Looking for something with a 3rd row seating - midsize SUV. FYI: has to be 2008 or newer to ship here.
- For us to make good strides in learning the language better.
- As we prepare to move in 2 weeks.
- For a spirit of unity in our family.
- For peace as we decide if and which school the boys should begin attending.

Financial Update:
Our regular giving was down this past month by about $600 from the previous month of April. We are not hurting financially but just want to remind you how much we appreciate your gifts that allow us to minister
to folks here. If you'd like to sign up to give regularly or just want to send in a one time gift you can do so by clicking here - you can follow the directions on the web page.

Thanks for reading this LONG update from us. Please let us know how we can be praying for you as well!

Thank you!
Lowell Ballew & Family (Shay, Aidan, Liam, Jude, and Olivia)
theballews.org

Our Bolivian address:
Ballew Family
Casilla 6505
Cochabamba, Bolivia

Care Package List:
Starbucks coffee (ground Pikes Place)

French vanilla liquid creamers (the little individual ones - you will have to ziploc them in case one or two burst!)

Skintimate shave gel (any scent)

brown sugar

gum and candy (no chocolate)

legos for boys (check with us on which ones they already have)

bath toys and crayons for Olivia (put in ziplock bag also)

leapster games for Olivia (pre-K)

yummy smelling lotion and antibacterial hand soap (bath & body works, etc...- we actually found some at a local grocery store that imports many American products, but it was expensive!!!)

BOOKS! I know books are heavy, but we were not able to bring any with us because of weight. If you can fit any small paperbacks for the boys (chapter books, books about legos/star wars/skateboarding/music/etc...) and picture books for Olivia that would be awesome!!

1 Month Update!

2011-04-30T06:16:00.003-07:00

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)NEW MAILING ADDRESS IN BOLIVIA:

Ballew FamilyCasilla 6505

Cochabamba, Bolivia S.A.*NOTE* We would love to receive a care package from you (see list below) KEEP WEIGHT BELOW 4lbs - or else we have to pay a LOT of money to get it out of customs.

Starbucks coffee (ground Pikes Place)French Press (all metal/aluminum, glass will break in route)

French vanilla liquid creamers (the little individual ones - you will have to ziploc them in case one or two bursts!)

Skintimate shave gel (any scent)

microwave popcorn

brown sugar

gum and candy (no chocolate)

legos for boys (Star Wars - check with us on what they already have so we don't get same ones)

bath toys and crayons for Olivia

xbox games (appropriate for boys ages 12 and under please)

leapster games for Olivia (pre-K)

good quality 100% cotton towels (bath, hand, and kitchen)

yummy smelling lotion and antibacterial hand soap (bath & body works, etc...- we actually found some at a local grocery store that imports many American products, but it was expensive!!!)

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.

whee!

in the gondola - Livi being bossy

Grupo Alpha & Omega playing at CIC 10 yr. Anniversary Service

Our famous summit pic - notice how close Aidan is to being as tall as me...

almost half way down

Looking back at the city from the gondola.

Saying goodbye to Tia Viqui

Shay with her new friend Francis Ross

Livi's first day to Pre-School at Rise and Shine

1 Month Update!

2011-04-30T06:14:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-18T19:53:00.001-07:00

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

2011-04-13T11:01:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-04-03T20:40:00.000-07:00

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!!!!

2011-03-15T11:58:00.000-07:00

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

2011-02-23T11:22:00.000-08:00

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

February 2011 Ballew Mission Update

2011-02-09T08:38:00.000-08:00

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)

Movin' Out & Movin' In

2011-01-24T11:24:00.000-08:00

We had 2 very productive garage sells the last 2 weekends and we have been selling a lot of our big items through forums, word of mouth, and Craigslist. We are getting the remainder of the items boxed up and out by this Thursday so we can have the home cleaned on Friday. Then we will move in to our new temporary duplex by the end of the day Thursday. Please pray that we make it through this chaotic week.

More News

2011-01-09T15:38:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to share that we now have a temporary place to stay after we move out our house by the end of Jan. We had a couple offer for us to stay in their duplex that's for sale and it's rent free! This is a huge a blessing to us. We appreciate all the prayers all of you have said on our behalf for this part of our journey.

We Have NEWS to Share

2011-01-04T13:14:00.000-08:00

After 9 months of trying to sell our house - God has answered our prayer to release us from our home so we can leave for Bolivia soon.

We have some friends who want to rent our home beginning Feb. 1st! We are trying to get everything out of the house by the end of this month. Gonna be crazy!

We have a prayer request - that we can find somewhere in the area to stay for a month or two until we determine our official departure date. We still need to get as much support in as possible before we leave- our goal is that we need $1600 more each month to be at our goal.

**If you live in the League City/Clear Lake/Galveston area let us know if you know anyone who has a place we can stay for very little rent or possibly for free for a short time. Feel free to contact us if you have any leads on anything.

Thank you so much to all of you who have prayed for us and we continue to welcome your prayers as we enter a chaotic yet long awaited season.

More to come later,

Lowell

December 2010 Update

2010-12-10T14:09:00.000-08:00

Seasons greetings from all of us to all of you. I hope this update finds all of you well as we near the holiday season and look forward to gathering with our families and friends.

Family Update
During the week Lowell is helping with home schooling the kids and teaches music lessons every afternoon. He has about 15 students per week. On Sundays Lowell stays busy leading worship on Sunday mornings at a local church and playing guitar in the worship band at another church every Sunday evening. Shay continues to concentrate on keeping meals on the table and upkeep of the house, home educating our 4 children, and when she has time she loves to work on her art journal, read, or craft. Our 3 boys Aidan (12), Liam (10), and Jude (9) all love to play music, build legos, skateboard, and have sleep overs with their friends - oh yeah, they love playing their Xbox too! Olivia is 4 and goes to a homeschool pre-K class on Wednesdays. She loves to play with kids in the neighborhood, sing, dance, and play pretend with her dolls.

Home
A lot of our focus and energy the past 9 months has been on trying to sell our home- but, alas, it's still for sale and there are no hopes of any offers yet. However, even if it sold or leased within the next few weeks, we'd still need a place to live temporarily until all of our support money comes in. So... we are not as stressed about it selling and realize it's been a blessing in disguise for us to still be in our home since Lowell teaches music lessons here in our front study/music room. We realize that if we had to move into a temporary living situation, this would make teaching lessons a lot more difficult! We are now turning more of our attention to raising the remainder of our support.

Financial Support Update
It has been just over 1 year ago that we sent out our initial mission support letter asking folks to consider what they could give to help make our vision to move to Bolivia as missionaries a reality. We are officially past the half-way mark in our support with 62% of monthly pledges in. We received many one-time financial gifts in the last year which has been wonderful. This up front money has gone in our savings account and will help us with our initial move to Bolivia with things such as plane tickets, visas, etc. So far we have had to use very little of our mission support money and hope to not have to use any more until we purchase plane tickets to leave. We realize many of you who will read this update have already either given us a one-time gift or made a monthly pledge and we are so thankful for the sacrifice you are making toward our vision to serve in Bolivia. Since WE STILL NEED 38% WORTH OF MONTHLY PLEDGES we are humbly asking the rest of you to pray and ask what amount you might be able to pledge monthly to get us closer to our goal. We want you to know that we are trying to plan on leaving in 6 mos. or sooner but this is contingent on selling our home and how close we are to our financial goal. We can't leave until we have 100% of our monthly pledges given. Our remaining need is $1700 in pledges per month to reach our goal.

Here is one way to think about how we can get to our goal:
136 people giving $12.50 per month = $1700
68 people giving $25 per month = $1700
34 people giving $50 per month = $1700
17 people giving $100 per month = $1700
8.5 people giving $200 per month = $1700
4.25 people giving $400 per month = $1700
*Reminder our total monthly goal is more than $1700 - this is just the remainder of what needs to be raised to meet our monthly goal.
If you decide to make a monthly pledge, feel free to begin giving now or defer your giving until we are on the field. We will keep you informed of our progress by future newsletters.

How To Give
There are 3 ways you can contribute financially to us.
1: ONE-TIME GIFT
Mail check to:
The Ballews
3023 Manor Bay Court
League City, TX 77573
OR - Send money to our PayPal account: *Instructions: Send to: lballew73@gmail.com then click on the tab that says PERSONAL then click GIFT.

2: MONTHLY PLEDGE
RIPE FOR HARVEST
PO BOX 487
MONUMENT, CO 80132-0487
*Note Accnt. #304 on check.
-Click on Monlthy Bank Draft Form below and mail in with a voided check:
MONTHLY BANK DRAFT FORM

3: GIVE ONLINE - click on the link below to go to website to give.
GIVE ONLINE
*NOTE - once you get to the website please click the drop-down tab at the top "please select one" and select Ballew Lowell - #304

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for us this past year. We can't do this without your continued prayer support. We look forward to hearing from as many of you as possible in the days to come!

In His Time & By His Grace,

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

Waiting Quietly

2010-11-12T06:44:00.000-08:00

Shay and I, this past week, have been feeling some unrest with what we are to do. We're sort of feeling like our reality of going to Bolivia is slowly fading. We have felt stuck with not being able to do anything about our situation as we still wait on our home to sell. The following quote from a book I've been reading called "Humility" by CJ Mahaney really encouraged me. "Please don't misunderstand this. Waiting is not resignation; waiting is an active trust in God to provide fulfillment in His perfect timing, according to His ultimate purpose of glorifying His Son.

So we are actively waiting in trust of God to sell our home even in this slow housing market so we can be freed up to be able to GO.

September/October 2010 Update

2010-10-29T13:42:00.000-07:00

"They will be reached only if someone from outside their culture is willing to sacrifice his or her own comfortable community to reach them with the Gospel of Christ. And to go and do so, that person needs believers at home who will stand behind him with prayers and finances."
K.P. Yohannan Revolution in World Missions

I begin with this quote from the latest book I've been reading because I want those of you who are "standing behind" us to know how immensely thankful and grateful we are for you. We can not do what God is calling us to do without your help. We remain here, in our "comfortable community", for now but are longing to be on the field, in Bolivia. For whatever reason(s), God has not allowed us to GO yet. Our home has now been on the market for over 7 months, with not one single offer. As you all well know, it is the worst housing/real estate market in many, many years (some have said 30 or more...). None of this is a surprise to God. He knew very well that this is what we would be facing. He has a divine purpose for us, still, during this seemingly hopeless season. He wants us to continue to prepare our hearts, minds, and souls for the journey ahead. He wants us to continue to trust in Him and seek Him and know his mind. We are {trying} to live life as normal as possible as we wait. WAIT. God is simply telling us to wait. To be STILL and know that He is God. We must be patient, as this journey we are going to embark upon is not light. It is very,very heavy. We face many challenges that we can not even comprehend yet and God is whispering to us, "Wait. Prepare. Pray. Seek Me. " We will need much strength to go on this journey. It takes time to muster it up, and be ready. Really ready. God knows when our time is right. When it is a part of His perfect plan. We do not doubt {although we've struggled to keep that emotion at bay} that He called us. We KNOW that this is still something He wants us to do. We, in our limitless minds, think that our home is the only thing holding us back. But, if God is in ultimate control, then he is apparently holding us back and will send us at just the perfect moment and not a moment too soon.
In the meantime, we continue to educate the kids at home and try to stay in continual learning mode. It has been a neat blessing to have Lowell home to help with the schooling. We are having some amazing family devotional moments each morning, struggling through math problems together, quizzing each other on Spanish vocabulary, reading about ancient history - Greece, Rome, India, China (which is immensely interesting to me!), making messes with crazy Science experiments, and reading the classics (we read The Hobbit in September and are currently reading Farmer Boy). The boys continue their love of LEGO building, playing music, and skateboarding. Olivia is soaking up every single moment of life and just started attending a homeschool "kindergarten" class for an hour 1/2 one day a week. We chose not to sign up for any activities this semester, assuming that we could "pack up and leave at any moment". This awkward season of waiting has been a little difficult on the kids, because of the uncertainty of things. We have already sold so many of their material possessions and sold our suburban. We are blessed to be able to borrow my Mom's car, but it is so small that our entire family can not fit! As we enter the holiday season, they are anticipating "decorating" for Christmas, and it was quite sad to tell them that all of our decorations had been sold or given away! We had every reason to believe last Spring that we would be in Bolivia by now, celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas in a new culture, with many new traditions (and during the summer!).
Lowell has been in full blown music lesson mode for the past two months. We prayed that God would send more students for him, and He certainly came through! He has about 20 students to whom he teaches guitar, bass, piano, and drum lessons each afternoon at our home. The Lord also provided an interim Worship Leader position at another church here in the Clear Lake area for him. He leads music for a contemporary service at a traditional Baptist church each Sunday morning, helps rehearse their student band, and plays lead electric in the worship band at a different church on Sunday evenings. These are all ways God has provided for us financially during this season of preparation and waiting! Amazingly, we have not had to touch the funds that we have been raising (and continue to raise) for living and doing ministry on the field in Bolivia! We continue to be humbled at all of the financial support we have received for our mission journey. We are very close to 100% of our financial goal! Our prayer is for God to raise up 10 more families/individuals to support us with a monthly gift of $100, or 5 at $100 and 10 at $50, or 20 at $50....well, you get the idea! We need $1,000 more of monthly commitments basically.

Please continue to join us in prayer, Oh faithful friends, family, and fellow servants!

*For the remainder of our financial support to come in
*For our continued perseverance and preparation during this season of waiting
*For our home to sell or lease asap!
*That we would be united as a family and that our love and support for one another would not grow weak. To die to self daily, living in HIS spirit.
*For the vision that God has given us for the people of Bolivia to not die, but grow ever stronger in our hearts and minds!

Saying goodbye to the 'ole suburban :o(

We were the featured missionaries for a friend's son for his Awanas class!

Olivia and Daddy are "morning buddies"

Our "Roman Meal" we reenacted when studying ancient Roman history

Lowell got to play a gig at Ethos Place Live - a coffee house located inside a church

Celebrating Lowell's 36th birthday!

A nature walk with Dad - the boys in their element

Olivia at Zoo Boo at The Houston Zoo

The kiddos at the Pumpkin Patch!

The whole fam at the Pumpkin Patch

God is Faithful - July/August Update

2010-08-10T10:55:00.000-07:00

Hola! We just wanted to touch base with all of you who are keeping up with our journey as we try to make it to Bolivia. We apologize for it being so long since we last sent you an update.

HOME - For Sale OR Lease

We decided to list our home for lease in addition to it being for sale back at the beginning of July in hopes that we might find someone to lease sooner than buy. We have had some interest, but no contracts have materialized. We have had at least three open houses this summer and a few showings, but again, no success. We have reduced the sell price of our home several times and are considering reducing the rent price as well to hopefully heighten interest in this difficult market. God is still in control and His timing is still perfect. He is never late in providing, but always right on time!

SUPPORT
We have been praying for God to bring in the last $1000 of monthly support as we get close to leaving. We have had a couple of people join our monthly financial support team recently but need more. We have been asking God to prompt those who have given us a verbal commitment to begin giving now. We are trying hard not to use any of the money given thus far toward's our mission support but may need to in order to get through the next two months. On that note Lowell has been praying for more music students (guitar, bass, drums) to help provide for our needs while we wait. He's also been able to lead worship for some local churches which has helped provide money to pay our bills and put food on the table for the past few weeks. Praise God for this provision! Click here to know how to give: http://ballewmissionjourney.blogspot.com/p/give.html

DOWNSIZING
We continue to downsize and simplify our life by selling household items, musical equipment, and toys. We recently put our 1998 GMC Suburban up for sale and have been looking for ways to cut back on our bills - cutting cable down to the bare minimum, cutting back cell phone service, living with AC on higher settings, keeping our blinds shut during the day, and not eating out just to name a few. With all these changes we hope to decrease our current living expenses several hundred dollars a month.

HOW YOU CAN PRAY
-For Lowell to obtain more music students for the remainder of our time here.
-For the rest of our support to come in as we try to get to 100% of our goal.
-For our home to sale or lease
-For our Suburban to sell quickly
-For our continued preparation while we wait patiently (spiritually, emotionally, mentally)

PRAISES
-God's provision financially
-An offer to borrow a friend's minivan once we sell suburban
-Continued confirmation that we are in God's Will
-A fun, memory filled summer with lots of travel, swimming, and summer camps!

We swam so much the kids started to groan when we said we were going!

This car has served us well for 9+ years!

We were blessed to visit San Antonio with Lowell's parents while Aidan was at Jr. High Camp

Boys leaving for YMCA Camp Cullen

Boys coming home from YMCA Camp Cullen

The now 4 yr. old beauty

Moody Gardens - Galveston with Shay's sister and her family

enjoying a week at the YMCA pool - League City

fun at Discovery Green Spray Park - downtown Houston

Jude's 9th bday cake!

the morning after Jude's sleepover

ice-skating at Moody Gardens - Galveston

Shay's 20 yr. high school reunion

Creek Kids' Camp

Summer News #2

2010-06-13T18:11:00.000-07:00

It's official. We will be here through at least mid-August now. So many of you have asked "So...when are y'all leaving?" and we have answered over and over "When our house sells!" I have to admit that it is a frustrating thing to know you are going, but to not know WHEN you are going! Our house has been on the market now for two months and 3 weeks and not a single offer has come in as of yet. We know that God is in control and that His timing is perfect, as Lowell mentioned in our last update. I've known that there is obviously some good reason why God has not allowed it to sell just yet, although it has been a test of our faith waiting and wondering. Most of you know that summer is a time of fun in the sun, relaxing, swimming, bbq's, hanging out with friends, and most of all - CHURCH CAMP!! Several months ago, when the news of summer church camp was announced at church, we had to sadly tell the boys that they would not be able to go this year, assuming that we would be gone or at least very close to leaving for Bolivia. However, realizing that we would indeed be here for Jr. High camp made us re-think allowing our oldest, Aidan, to go.

This presented another issue, though. If Aidan was going to be allowed to go to camp, then we had to make the decision to stay long enough to allow Liam and Jude to go to Kids' Camp in August. Did we really want to do that? Well, the more we thought about it and talked it over, we came to realize that this may be one of the very good reasons God wants us to stick the summer out here at home. It is truly worth waiting and delaying our departure by a month or so for our boys to have one last opportunity to have the church camp experience with all of their friends.

On another positive note, I (Shay) will now be able to attend my 20 year (gasp!) high school reunion in July! And the last positive thing about being here through the summer, is that Jude and Olivia will be able to celebrate their birthdays with family and friends.

In spite of our decision to stay until August, WE STILL NEED OUR HOUSE TO SELL ASAP!!!!! We know our God is a big God and that He is faithful to meet all of our needs. Lowell was blessed to receive a "severance" pay when his time with CCCC ended (*sigh*), but that is swiftly running out since it has been nearly 3 months (Wow!). Our obvious hope would be that we would not have to start digging into the funds that we have raised to do ministry/missions in Bolivia. If our home sold by the end of June, this would put us in a good financial position - not having to pay another mortgage payment, for example, or bills related to our home. Please continue to pray that God will bring a buyer or someone to lease the house by the end of June. Pray for temporary "housing" for the weeks before departure if the house indeed does sell soon. Pray that we would have the "summer of our lives" so to speak, one that would hold fast in the memories of the kids and that they will be able to deepen their friendships with the lifelong friends they've had here in LC. Pray for their lives to be transformed at camp and that God would even use that time to prepare them for the journey ahead, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. We will also be taking one last little trip to San Antonio at the end of June to be part of a Bolivia Peace Corps Reunion that Lowell's Dad planned for his group he served with there in the 60's. It will be neat to hear the stories of their time together in Bolivia.
We are so very thankful for you - our family and friends who love and support us! We could not do this without all of your prayers, financial gifts and encouragement!
With much anticipation, The Ballews

Birthdays, Travels, & Water Days

2010-06-01T06:24:00.000-07:00

Our eldest son Aidan just turned 12 on May 10th and managed to have 3 birthday cakes and celebrations. May has been a time for us to take a few trips to see family and friends as we near the end of our time here in the states for the next 2 years. As we wait on our home to sell we are spending time enjoying family visits and time with good friends.

NAWLINS
We went to see Lowell's sister in New Orleans in early May which was a lot of fun for our kids since it was their first time to see the Crescent City/NAWLINS/The Big Easy/NOLA... so many ways to refer to this unique and beautiful city. We enjoyed time eating some good food, seeing many sights, including a ride on the Creole Queen Riverboat to see an old plantation.

Galveston
After New Orleans we spent a couple of nights in some friends' beach house in Galveston. The water was slightly cold but we got plenty of sun and got to have an unexpected dinner with some long-time missionary friends of ours who had just returned from a trip to Africa who have a beautiful new home in Galveston.

Brenham
Last week we did an 11 day trip that started in Shay's hometown of Brenham where we attended Maifest - German festival. This was a time to see all of Shay's siblings and their kids and enjoy a parade and an evening at the midway carnival. We celebrated Aidan's birthday the first time (a day early) here and celebrated Mother's Day as well.

Frost
Then on to Lowell's hometown of Frost where we saw his parents and 2 nieces - we spent 3 nights there. We celebrated Aidan's birthday for the 2nd time here (this is where the top pic was taken). The kids had fun going to the city park and playing and Lowell got to witness his mom being sworn in as the towns first female mayor.

Denton
We drove from Frost to Denton to stay with Shay's sister Traci and family. Denton is where Shay and Lowell met and went to college. We met some old dear friends at a park and shared a meal together and did some catching up.

Dallas
Big D is just a half hour drive from Little D. Here we met some old friends for some good Texas Barbecue and did some much needed catching up. We got to share more in depth with these friends about our calling to go serve in Bolivia. This evening ended with some good frozen yogurt next to the famous Inwood Theater. We also got to take our boys and a friend to a concert music festival in Richardson to see their favorite band MUTEMATH one more time before we leave. This was a fun time together with me, Shay, and the boys!

Mansfield
We ended our trip seeing more friends in Mansfield. First, we stayed at our friends', Jeff & Kristy's, home with with their 3 lovely daughters. We got some great laughs and good food time with these longtime friends! We also got to enjoy a great home cooked TexMex meal with our longtime friend Melody and finally met her husband Steve and baby Jude.

This was a great time to see so many friends we have been very close to for many years and to share more 1 on 1 with them about our mission journey as well as just enjoy good company and fellowship together.

Last week we spent 4 days in the water at various events such as home school water day in Galveston, Pee Wee School water day, Aidan's birthday at the beach. Lowell is excited to get more opportunities to get rid of his "farmer's tan" lines and get more sun.

As we mentioned earlier we are in a season of waiting in faith for our home to sell which will then allow us to move to Bolivia to live. We appreciate all of you so much and are very grateful to call you friends. We appreciate your continued support and prayers for us as we follow where the Lord leads us.

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

"when our house sells"

2010-04-30T06:11:00.000-07:00

The biggest question we get is "when do you guys leave for Bolivia?" and our answer is "when our house sells". So we just want to let everyone know that we would appreciate you saying a prayer for our home to sell soon so we can move forward. We know God's timing is perfect and that we are in a unique season right now. We are enjoying a lot of quality time together as a family as Lowell is no longer employed at the church and is at home until we move. Other than continuing to teach a few guitar and drum lessons Lowell is spending as much time with the kids and Shay as possible. We have also been going on mini trips to see friends and family to say our goodbyes before we move (hopefully sometime this summer). We have our last scheduled trip to Brenham, Frost, Dallas/Mansfield/Denton area coming up May 6-14. This will be a time to see a lot of family and friends and we are looking forward to it! If you live near any of those areas and would like to try and see us let us know. Thanks again for keeping up with us - we covet your prayers and friendship!

Benefit Concert Success!

2010-04-20T20:40:00.000-07:00

We just want to give an update to everyone and say that the concert that Clear Creek Community Church (home church) gave us was a huge success! Our Sr. Pastor Bruce Wesley approached me about 2 months ago asking me what I thought of the church doing this for us and I said "YES - this would be a perfect send-off and fund raiser for our family!" And that's exactly what it was. It was a time for me to play music with some very talented musicians from CCCC who I've been able to do life with over the past 11 yrs. and provide a really fun concert close to 800 friends from CCCC who came to the show! The guys in the band were: Jamie Chambers (drums), Richard Denson (drums), Russ Hatcher (bass), John Boyle (guitar), Rob Brownfield (fiddle) And as well other music staff like Brad Loser (piano/keys/vocals), Keri Lilley (keys/vocals), Kevin Hester (vocals), Duane Theriot (vocals), and Daniel Vencil (guitars/vocals). And there were countless others who helped volunteer tons of hours in the tech arts - Lighting, Media, Video, Sound, Greeters, Ticket & Support Table hosts. I want to say a huge thanks to these guys for making this an incredible and memorable experience that was an amazing blessing to our family. One of the most memorable moments of the night was me having the opportunity to play music with my three sons, Aidan, Liam, and Jude! We rocked the stage with a mean blues riff with Liam on drums, Aidan on bass, and Jude on electric. It was a truly proud moment! The concert raised $18,000 for our family to help us in or support raising efforts to live and serve in Cochabamba, Bolivia. We have been given enough money thus far to almost have 1 yr. worth of salary. We will continue to trust God to provide ALL of our needs along the way.

Sell That House

2010-04-10T21:45:00.000-07:00

Well we have just spent the day fixing a few broken doors and drawers and have also been cleaning and organizing the house like mad and are dog tired now. Tomorrow is open house and we have been praying for a buyer and hope tomorrow shows some results. Our main prayer request is that we could sell the home by the end of April. This would be ideal to help us save as much money as possible toward our support raising efforts.

January update

2010-01-21T07:46:00.000-08:00

For those interested, I thought I'd post a quick update on our journey. We have been hard at work raising the necessary funds to move to Bolivia. It has been an interesting season for fundraising - during the holidays and now with the urgent needs at hand for the people of Haiti. In spite of these circumstances, God has been good and folks have been committing to support us. Many have committed to a monthly monetary amount and even more have sent in one time gifts to help us get to where we need to be to follow God's call. We are so very humbled and grateful by these gifts and commitments, considering the current economical state so many are in. We are now at approximately 36% of our financial goal - so we still are in need of much financial support before we can make hard plans to return to Bolivia. We are preparing to put our house on the market, hoping that the sell of it will allow us to save more and have less material responsibility as we prepare ourselves spiritually for the field. Obviously, if the house sells quickly, we will be looking for a place to live temporarily until we leave. This is a little nerve wracking, but again, just one other way we can put all of our hope and faith in the Lord to provide for us. Our goal is to be able to return to Bolivia by the summer - June or July preferably. In order for us to realize this goal, we will be meeting with individuals and hosting "Dessert and Coffee" meetings for groups to share more in depth about our journey, our needs, and our goals. We are praying for those folks who are able to commit to help us financially to be raised up between now and then. If you have received a letter from us or read our letter online, please continue to pray about whether or not God would have you help us. EVERY GIFT, NO MATTER WHAT AMOUNT, WILL HELP US GET TO BOLIVIA SOONER TO BEGIN CULTURE ADAPTATION, LANGUAGE LEARNING, AND MINISTRY!! We determined that we have contacted approximately 900 people, through letters, email, and facebook. My wonderful Mother-in-law who loves math, figured that if all 900 contacts could commit to giving us just $5.00 a month, we would be at or over our monthly goal!! Wow! So cool. And hey..if just 450 of those contacts could commit $10 a month, voila! Done!
We could even take it farther and say 225 of our contacts giving $20/month, or 112 giving $40/month. That is VERY doable! We are just so excited to see what God is going to do with this journey. He has already shown himself true and real. We are trying to remain faithful to a very clear calling on our lives, and He will remain faithful - no matter what. "For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies." Psalm 57:10

With much anticipation -

Shay

2009-12-16T20:31:00.001-08:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Waiting

2009-11-23T07:17:00.000-08:00

We are in the season of waiting..waiting...waiting. Now that our support letter has gone out - by email, facebook, and mail, it is now just simply a waiting game to see how God is going to provide for us. There are still some letters we need to send out to folks out of town, but for the most part, we feel that the majority of the people in our lives know that we are deep in the throngs of trying to raise our financial support for Bolivia. It is all really a matter of serious prayer. God is ultimately the one who will work on people's hearts and move people to give, or make it possible for them to. We are also praying for His perfect timing. It is difficult to know how long it will take to raise the funds we need to make our move. It is difficult to know when to put the house on the market or to sell a lot more of our belongings. The future is certain, yet uncertain. For now, we will try to focus on living in the here and now, taking care of daily things, enjoying the holidays, educating the kids, and continue to share our story with folks who are interested and praying for God's provision! Raising financial support is one of those things that can REALLY grow your faith and strengthen your dependance on the Lord. It is out of our control, HE must work and move and provide. It is exciting, yet nerve-wracking! We know that He is good, He has called us, and that He will remain true to His promises. He is faithful. We must remain faithful and not fearful. We must not begin to doubt when it seems things are not going as WE plan or during the waiting period when Satan can do his nasty work on our minds. We are so thankful and grateful (during this season of Thanksgiving) for the people in our lives that have already committed to support us and that are praying for us. Please, as the Lord brings our family to mind, pray a simple prayer that He would provide financially for us to follow His calling, and that His timing would be perfect. Also, please continue to pray for us as we prepare -physically and spiritually - and that we would be empowered and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. May God bless you all this Thanksgiving. Take time to reflect on all of your many blessings!

Shay

Next Steps #2

2009-10-29T21:07:00.000-07:00

I just realized that we more or less left you hanging after our post "Next Steps"! We have begun taking those steps - tiny as they may be. We have written an official support letter and posted it on our website, which is www.theballews.org. We are in the process of mailing out hard copies of those to many people as well. Mass emails have been sent. Facebook notifications have been posted. We are in the throngs of raising our financial support! It is exciting, and hard to remain patient as well. We are also making preparations to put our home on the market. You know...doing all of those fun little projects that you've been meaning to get around to but haven't bothered because they don't really effect your daily life. Well, now that other people are going to be considering your home to buy, you put forth tons of effort and money to get it just right. Just the way you'd like it to be while YOU are still living in it! Ha! The irony of it all. We will wait to officially list it until we feel God is guiding us to do so. We are hoping the timing will be perfect between raising the needed funds and the house selling. A matter of prayer, please. We don't want to be "homeless" before being able to leave for Bolivia! Please continue to pray for our spiritual, physical, and emotional preparedness as well. It seems each day is a roller coaster of emotions and feelings, always caught somewhere between "totally excited, thrilled, giddy and motivated" or "really stressed, overwhelmed, afraid, and doubtful". Thanks so much to those that are already supporting us, both financially and prayerfully. We love you and are indebted to you. God's Blessings -

Shay

Out of the mouths of "babes"

2009-10-29T20:48:00.000-07:00

I know my boys are not exactly "babes" anymore, but I was reminded of this quote/verse this morning as I listened to them pray. We (try) to have a devotional every morning to start our day - I say "try" because sometimes we are scrambling to get out the door to a field trip or dance class and we don't get to it. Not every time, but sometimes I ask the boys to each say a prayer and then I close. I do not prompt them at all concerning what to pray about. I let them simply pray about whatever comes to their minds or what's in their hearts. I was very humbled and pleased this morning listening to them pray for our journey to become missionaries in Bolivia. I dare say I was even a bit convicted. I was reminded first of all, about how often and how fervent we should be praying for our journey, and also not to place low expectations upon our children. That may sound odd, because most parents tend to place very high expectations upon their kids. As far as spiritual things go, I feel that every time one of my boys does something or says something that seems overly spiritually mature for their age, I am shocked or surprised. This is a pleasant and joyful "problem" to have! They so impressed me with their sincere prayers this morning, that I really wasn't quite sure how to respond! It really helped confirm in me that God has given them a deep understanding of what we are doing and why. Kids are incredible beings, driving you crazy and misbehaving one moment, and the next impressing you with their knowledge or making you proud of their character choices. Guess God feels the same about us. It's just awesome to know that God was there with us, listening, heeding their requests, and he was pleased with them! He knows their hearts and their capacity to learn and grow. He has such mighty plans for each one of them - in Bolivia and beyond!!

Shay

Next Steps

2009-09-12T19:17:00.000-07:00

We are in the process of determining what our next step in this long journey will be. We know that we must begin building our support team and raising our financial support, but the task seems daunting. Especially in light of the fact that we must continue living our normal daily lives (Lowell working and me schooling the kids, not to mention all other household duties), plus ready the house for sale. I (we) know without a doubt that Satan is going to be working on our minds and trying to place many a doubt in our hearts during this season. Please pray for our strength and that we would stand fast upon God's original calling and the promises of his Word.

Romans 11:29 states "For God's gifts and His call are irrevocable."

Shay

Ballew Photo Album on Photobucket

2009-08-29T08:43:00.000-07:00

Visit http://www.photobucket.com/ballew to see our Bolivia photos.

2009-08-27T06:08:00.001-07:00

(click on link above to view all our pics from Bolivia trip)

Wow! What a trip! It's great to be able to post a picture of El Cristo statue since this is the picture I used to start this blog a few months ago. It was great to get to show this to the family in person. Besides what better symbol for our trip than this image of Christ with his arms outstretched for the world - this is the reason we are doing all of this - all in Jesus' name and for his purposes!

We got back Tues. afternoon - plane touched down in Houston exactly on time at 1:12p.m. We got home around 3p.m. We were so blessed to be hosted by Edwin and Carmen Almanza while in Coch. Edwin carved out almost all of his time to be our personal tour guide. He used his car to drive us all over the city and on 3 trips outside the city to see very beautiful places like Lago Angostura where we all had fish for lunch and rode the zip line (even Livi!).

Most of our time in Cochabamba was spent seeing as much of the city and surrounding areas as possible. As well as having several meals with key church leaders and elders. I also met with a group called Red Musicos Artistas who is a group of musicians and worship leaders for local churches in the city who come together to write new songs and encourage each other. This was one of my best contacts that I am really excited about. Rodrigo Arteaga is the one with this vision and he and I had fun dreaming together of how I might be able to help with his vision. Here is there web site so you can see what they have been up to - I realize it's in spanish but you can still lear alot from pictures. http://redmusicos.com/

The entire trip was great from the guest house (hotel) we stayed in (which was a New Tribes Missionary Guest House facility). We are so so glad it worked out for us to stay there because we got to know another missionary family named the Hess Family very well who just returned from furlough - they had 4 kids who were all the same ages as our kids and they played a lot together the whole time. They were very helpful in encouraging us as well as giving us good tips about living in Cochabamba.

We want to tell all of you who have been supporting us through prayer and financial gifts that we would not have been able to have nearly as great of a trip without all of YOU that we were even able to go on this trip to begin with. THANK YOU!

You can see all of our recent photos at the link above this posting.

We Made It

2009-08-11T07:09:00.000-07:00

¡Hola de Cochabamba!

Just wanted to let everyone know after a 24 hr. commute, 3 flights later - we finally made it to Cochabamba! It's just as beautiful as I remember it! The kids are doing great - they are enjoying the guest house - which is more like a guest hotel with multiple rooms. There is another family with 4 kids here and their 3 youngest kids are playing great with our kids. They have a 2 girls and 2 boys.

Well I just wanted to give a quick update for anyone who hasn't already seen our Facebook updates and photos. So - I am posting a few photos for you.

God Bless,
Lowell

Parting thoughts from Shay

2009-08-07T21:42:00.000-07:00

My goal is to relax and enjoy the day tomorrow. Therefore..I am writing my parting thoughts this evening so that I am not constantly thinking about writing another post tomorrow. I had a very stressful day today, trying to cross off everything on the "to do" list and pack. I became quite irritable and snapped at the kids (and Lowell) a couple of times. Getting a family of 6 ready to travel to another country is no small task. I feel like I have done a fairly good job of slowly getting things ready over the last few weeks, so that I wouldn't get stressed! Well, I suppose even the best planners and "do-it-ahead-of-timers" have that last minute struggle of making sure absolutely everything is done and ready. Especially when you are also planning a birthday party for the night before you leave. Am I crazy? What was I thinking? Oh...right, it was our ONLY option. We'll be celebrating O's birthday tomorrow night at the pool with a ton of wonderful friends for a couple of hours. I am hoping that we can all relax and enjoy. As I was beginning the bedtime routine for O tonight, which included a bubble bath, I realized that what I needed was a hot bubble bath myself! I handed over the wet, slippery little gal to Lowell and took some time out for myself to breathe, relax, have a drink, and get re-charged a bit. It was the best thing I could of done. When we were saying goodnight to the boys later, we had a pow-wow in which we "regrouped" and reminded ourselves of exactly why it was that we were doing this, told them about what to expect as we travel, and unfortunately had to say some apologies (on my end). Lowell also led us in a great prayer which was so encouraging and refreshing. I think WE ARE READY!!! I will end by humbly asking all who take the time to read this to pray. Pray tonight as you go to sleep, that we would be fully prepared. Pray tomorrow that we can relax and enjoy the day and one another, and make FINAL preparations. Pray Sunday for safe travel, on-time flights, good weather, and that the kids would travel like champs. I ask that you would say a prayer for us each time you think of us throughout the next two weeks. Pray for health and safety, clarity and vision, divine appointments, language ability, Lowell as he shares with CIC, happy, flexible, and content kids, positive attitudes, and for FUN long-lasting memories to be made. We are hoping to come home with a clear vision and purpose, a timetable for moving there and being there, and with hearts full of confirmation and compassion for the people of Cochabamba, Bolivia. We love all of you dearly, and we will be anxious to share with you all about our time there! See you in two weeks!

Shay

PASSPORT HAS ARRIVED!

2009-07-31T22:21:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone - all you mighty prayer warriors out there! Jude's passport arrived yesterday, Thursday, July 30. I seriously did the happy dance all around the house and was yelling and screaming and praising God! O was looking like at me like I was crazy, and then she was putting her hand up in the air and saying "Thank You, Jesus"! Blessings to that govt. employee who understood our urgency and got right on it. We so appreciate all of the fervent (and even simple) prayers that went up for us on this specific issue. Just one road block to overcome. We leave in exactly one week and one day. I am slowly preparing - gathering up items needed for the trip, paying bills due while gone, making sure the kids have enough winter clothes that fit them to take, etc. I also have a bday party to plan and get through. O will be 3 on Monday and we are having a pool party the night before we leave. Crazy, huh! Oh, well. It was the only option and maybe it will help us be more relaxed.

Our continued request is that you pray for our preparedness, our safety in traveling, our health before and during the trip, and another possible road block - obtaining our visas. We have learned that the only option is to obtain them once we get there, in the airport in Santa Cruz. We will have a connecting flight to Coch, only an hour and 1/2 after landing, so our big prayer now is that the process would go smoothly and quickly and that they would have no problems issuing us the visas. Lowell and I will most likely have to communicate in Spanish to them, so please lift us up! That will be Monday morning, Aug. 10. We will try our best to post one more time before we leave, and it's possible we will be able to post from Bolivia once or twice.

I leave you with a scripture the Lord gave me a few days ago when I was thinking about and praying about Jude's passport:

"Yet he (we) did not waiver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God. Being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised." Romans 4:20-21

Shay

Passport Scramble

2009-07-25T07:19:00.000-07:00

Our youngest son Jude celebrated his 8th birthday this past Wed. and has been getting birthday cards in the mail every few days. Yesterday he went and got the mail and found a letter that was addressed to him. I had been outside working on our lawnmower and came in to find him opening this letter. When I got to him he said - "hmm this isn't a birthday card!..." Instead it was a letter addressed to him from the U.S. Passport Processing Office. This past Wed. we had just received 3 of our 4 kids passports and Jude's was the only one we didn't get. We just figured it was on its way... until we got the letter yesterday. The letter said that they needed a "long form birth certificate"... The one we sent them obviously wasn't sufficient even though it had an official seal and looked like all the other kids'. So after calling the passport office to clarify this I realized that I really was going to have to get another copy of his birth certificate... Ugh! With our trip being only 16 days away - who knew how long this might take! So... I called the number to the Texas Health Records Dept. and it sounded like my only "quickest" option might be to drive to Austin and stand in line to get a copy of this form. I was not very happy after learning this so I started to think of other options. Shay had told me she had filed for the kid's birth certificates through the local county health records office (which I was unaware - showing my naivety). So to make a long story longer... After talking on the phone to a very helpful lady at the county office she told me she would locate his birth certificate (which she did) and then she sent it (electronically) to an office that was located closer to where I live. So... by now it was about 3:30 and I headed to this office to pick up this form and thankfully it went smooth other than the rain/lightening storm and train I had to get around. After obtaining the form I had just enough time to drive back home and put the form in the mail and overnight it to Charleston SC where it can get back into the system for reprocessing. Whew! All this to recognize that if I had not see the mail when I did that I would've had to wait til Monday to do all of this (which would've been hard to do). Instead - I was able to miraculously get a jump on it and have the perfect amount of time in one day to get it all done smoothly! If Jude had not been nosing around in the mail looking for more b-day cards this would've delayed me seeing the mail - I'm sure. So a big thanks goes out to Jude for opening the mail.

This is where some of you come in:
Please pray for the rest of this process to go in a timely manner so that they will get that passport to us ASAP. The people at the passport agency said that if we want to increase our chances of getting it on time that we should expedite the processing by paying another $75 - which we will do of course! But they said it still would not guarantee we get it by the time we need it - which I don't understand. So... there again - your prayers are highly coveted.

Thanks for painstakingly bearing with me on this long post. If anything maybe this will help some of you if you ever get in this same situation some day.

Another step closer,
Lowell

My two cents

2009-07-21T15:25:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Just thought I'd let you all know that the boys shots went very well this morning! We were there for two hours - it is a lengthy process, but they did great. The nurse also HIGHLY recommended we all get typhoid fever shot as well. So, all three of the boys received 2 shots and now they have sore arms! O and I receive our shots in the morning (Wednesday, July 22), which happens to be J's birthday. We were given prescriptions for an anti-malaria pill as well, but not sure if it's absolutely necessary to use that??? Don't think it's a huge risk in Coch. I think I will be more cautious of the swine flu than anything. We love all of you guys and are so humbled by your support already! Look for information soon on our formal, official fundraising to begin!

Shay

Update 2 - We Have Tickets

2009-07-20T21:43:00.000-07:00

Well I just wanted to inform everyone that thanks to numerous financial gifts from friends and family we have purchased plane tickets last week and the dates for our trip are Aug. 9 - 25th. Woo hoo - God is good and we feel so blessed at how soon this trip is coming together.

Prayer Requests:
-We need you to help us pray that our four kid's passports will come in soon. As of this Friday it will be 4 weeks since we sent off for them. They said it would take from 4-6 weeks but we are hoping no more than 4. Aug. 6th would put us at 6 weeks.
-Kids get yellow fever shots tomorrow morning early. They are not too excited about this (as you can imagine)...
-We still need to nail down our accommodations for our stay - need to wrap this up this week.
-There is currently a swine flu virus going on in Bolivia that we are asking you to pray will end so that it decreases our chances of coming in contact with it.

Thank you to all of you who are keeping up with our journey to Bolivia.

Update 1

2009-07-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

A brief update... I first want to give thanks to God for moving people to give generously to help support our first trip as we explore the possibilities of moving to Bolivia to do mission work. As mentioned before in our initial blog post our first goal has been to try and raise money, have garage sells, etc. for our first trip to Bolivia which we hope to be in mid August. Thus far we've received several generous financial gifts to assist in defraying our travel expenses which has been overwhelmingly encouraging. We have enough money to go ahead and purchase tickets next week. Financial support is definitely a need but PRAYER is just as much a need and we covet your prayers in the days to come.

A few prayer requests:
-Passports process on time and will come in soon.
-Kids would be mentally prepared to get shots.
-Kids would be prepared physically & emotionally for the long flight down.
-Travel arrangements to be made - details of airfare purchase and lodging in Bolivia to go smooth.
-That God would bless and guide conversations we have with Bolivian church leaders and elders as we discover together a way we can partner with them in ministry.
-For God to begin to prepare our whole family for this experience.
-For us to be healthy upon leaving in a month. (Shay has a cold right now - pray it goes away soon)
-Finally - that we not forsake praying together often as a family and asking God to give us guidance and wisdom during this process.

Thanks for all your support and interest in our journey of obedience.

The Ballews

A Profound Calling

2009-06-29T13:20:00.001-07:00

How do you typically respond when you hear God’s voice? I mean like really clearly. Crystal clear. When it’s obvious He is telling you to do something (or not)? Do you respond with immediate obedience? Do you think about it awhile and then respond? Do you ignore Him altogether and justify it by saying that God couldn’t possibly mean what you think you’re hearing? Or maybe you tell yourself it’s all a figment of your imagination and you’re crazy!! Well, the Bible tells us that Our Father does indeed speak to us and that He does indeed clearly call us to do certain things. It also says that we must obey - that we must respond to His Word and to His calling. At all costs - no matter what. Are we bold and brave enough to trust Him when He speaks clearly to us? Most of us, I believe, are not. Most of us are too fearful or comfortable to do what God is really telling us to do. We miss out on blessings because we won’t step out in faith. We give up the “great” for the “good”. Believe me, I know. I’ve done it many times. But, wow! Those times that I have trusted in God and taken that huge step of faith when I know that I know that I know He has called me to do something – what incredible blessings and growth I have received! If only we could have BIG faith and trust EVERY time. Imagine. Just imagine.

Imagine with me: A not-so-typical American family of 6. Mom, Dad, 3 boys, 1 girl. Texans - tried and true. Love the Lord, serve Him in ministry, and blessed with a big heart for missions and other cultures. God gives them a vision. God clearly speaks to them. He is calling them to something deeper, something amazing, something wild and adventurous!! He has put within them a passion for the people of South America. He has put within them a desire to live among those people, learn the language, the culture, and build relationships that will eventually lead to those people knowing Jesus. It is CRYSTAL CLEAR the calling that God has placed on their lives. They feel the stirring, the urgency to answer the call. They feel the great battle of choosing between stepping out in faith into the unknown and unfamiliar and challenging adventure or staying within the comfortable confines of their American suburban lifestyle. Whew! What a choice. Can you just imagine? By now some of you will have figured out that the family is us! A lot of you know our desire to do mission work and our history with missions. By now, many of you have already heard the incredible news of our “Great Adventure” – some of you may be in shock right now and might need to stop for a while and breathe! Yes, it is true. We are feeling called to the mission field on more of a long-term basis. We have a strong connection with Bolivia and feel this is where God is leading us. More specifically, Cochabamba – a city of about 600,000 on the western border of Bolivia, at the base of the Andes Mountains.

Obviously, this is HUGE for our family! This is not a decision that has been taken lightly or made hastily. It has been in the works for a while and we have prayed and saught the Lord’s will carefully. We have simply tried to be obedient and walk through each door that God has opened. If He closes a door, then we will seek out an open one. We are in the preliminary application process with a couple of mission agencies and are excited to see where that leads. One of the next BIG steps we need to take is to sell many of our belongings and eventually sell our home. This will be a long process, but it needs to begin now. We are planning to take an “exploratory” trip down to Cochabamba as a family sometime soon. This is going to be a costly trip, but an extremely necessary trip. It will be an important time to see how the kids react to the culture and language, learn about the city and its inhabitants, meet with some key church leaders and missionaries we have been in contact with, and possibly look for a place to live. After our exploratory trip, we will better know how to prepare, what to expect, and how to pray.

Meeting Edwin
Back in early April I was feeling a restlessness on what God would have me do to best serve him and just felt like he was calling me to a new work. The idea of foreign missions had already been on our minds months prior since returning from a mission trip to Ukraine last July but put on the back burner for a few months. The 2nd week of April I went by our mission's pastor Chad Clarkson's office to ask him about some friends of ours in the church who recently moved and I brought up to him that we were (again) feeling lead to pray about missions. Chad asked if we were still feeling lead to South America and I said "yes". Chad said "I'm meeting a guy for lunch tomorrow from Bolivia - you wanna go?" and I said "yes!" So that night I went home and told Shay about this and we thought this was very interesting. Now having Bolivia on our minds again, together we looked back at a website from a church in Cochabamba Bolivia that my dad had sent me to 6-8 mos. prior. From that website I made a contact with a guy from that church who is an American missionary there who founded the church 7 yrs. ago. His name is Graham Porter. One of the last pages we looked at was the staff page and there was Graham's picture who I had spoken to already and another Bolivian with his family who served as Assoc. Pastor. So the very next day was Wed. April 15th and I went to lunch with Chad and Nate Wirt - who was a friend from old CCCC days several years ago. Nate had actually set up this lunch meeting for us to meet Edwin. As soon as I walked into Nate's office I saw this Bolivian guy setting there who I immediately recognized and began to tell him that I recognized his face from his church website that I had just looked at the very night before!! This was an amazing time that I felt HAD to be from God. It was as if God had sent a beam of light of confirmation into the room as I was meeting Edwin. I couldn't wait to tell Shay so I immediately sent her a text message that said: GOD WANTS US TO GO TO BOLIVIA. She replied "when?" I began to tell her the events that had just transpired and she too was amazed. Just days before we had been praying again about missions and asking God to show us what we should do and then this happened! Below is the picture of Edwin that I saw on his church website. Church web address: http://www.cicbolivia.org/

We feel like God might have us partner with the ministry of CIC in some way to help them reach the professionals of Cochabamba Bolivia. The church has a vision for using the arts to connect with people and have already seen many opportunities accomplish this. As we make our initial trip to Cochabamba we will better understand if this seems to be a fit for us and for the church there. We will be having more conversations about how we can contribute and serve with them in the days to come to further the reach of the gospel in this city and country.

How can you get involved to help us?
We would humbly ask that you begin to pray earnestly for us. As you can imagine, it is going to take an immense amount of time, energy, and patience to prepare ourselves and the kids for this major life change. Pray for our financial provision, first of all. We will be living on total support once we get on the field, and will be doing more formal and official fund raising once we know more details from our first trip. However, we need financial help to get there initially for our exploratory trip which is expensive since all 6 of us will be going. Secondly, pray for our spiritual preparation. There are certain areas in which we desperately need the Holy Spirit to strengthen us. Pray for God’s divine provision and for the hearts and minds of the kids to be readied and prepared for the journey we face. We are convinced that their lives will be changed for the better in incredible ways and their view of the world will expand immensely. We would love to chat personally with each of you if you have any questions or want to more of how we came to this place. One of the most important assets for us is going to be our support team. If you are receiving this, we already consider you a supporter of our family, therefore we want you to be part of our “team”! If you feel a leading to help us financially get down to Bolivia for an exploratory trip, then please contact us directly. Again, this will just help us defray some costs on our exploratory trip which we hope to make in August. Our trip will cost us roughly about $8000. Any financial gifts we would simply consider a love offering in support of our calling. Each of you means the world to us and this new chapter in the Ballew’s family story will be bitter sweet as we part one day.

By God's Grace,

Lowell & Shay Ballew
(Aidan, Liam, Jude, Olivia)

contact info:
3023 Manor Bay Ct.
League City, Tx, 77573
281-455-3694
lballew73@comcast.net