We were having a pleasant lunch at our favorite street side cafe. It has four things that make it my favorite:

1) It is on the most beautiful street in Cochabamba, “the Prado”. You’d think it was a street in Europe. The front is open, so you can enjoy the fresh air, and watch the people pass by. You also can be accosted by beggars, shoe shine boys and pushy street vendors, but that is part of the charm. And no, I didn’t buy the $10 “genuine Rolex”.

2) The prices are cheap. If you stick to basic sandwiches and stuff, it is less than McDonalds. You also can get more expensive exotic Japanese dishes, prepared by a Japanese chef.

3) The service is excellent. Friendly, smiling servers who enjoy chatting, even with my clumsy Spanish.

4) They get the food right, and take care of my miserable food allergies.

Back to today’s story. We were sitting at an inside table, because workers were replacing the front awning with a more durable but ugly aluminum structure. The construction noise was irritating, but we were enjoying conversation with a minimum of shouting (gestures and lip reading help!). We were at the railing next to the sidewalk, my back to the street.

Sparks were starting to fly into the restaurant from the worker’s welding torches. They were working above us, and the sparks were landing on the table to my left. The manager reprimanded the workers and they moved a bit farther to the street. As they moved, a box containing a few pounds of sharp, 8 inch metal spikes was dislodged and fell into the restaurant – on me!

The spikes were used to anchor the metal awning to the concrete facade of the building. Had the spikes descended vertically, I would have been impaled and you’d be reading about my memorial service. Instead they landed sideways across my neck and upper back. My wife assures my that my shout of pain and surprise was very manly – but I haven’t pressed her on that!

The workers gathered up their stuff and kept right on working, pretending nothing had happened, with furtive glances at us to see what we’d do. The servers and manager rushed over to a) see if I was all right, and b) if I’d make a fuss.

We determined that I was OK except for some scratches and bruises. A graphic reminder that we are immortal until God is finished with us, so be bold for Christ!

Now, you may be thinking that in the States, the resulting law suit and settlement would make me a millionaire. However, this is Cochabamba! The manager had a free soft drink sent over, and then presented me with the bill for our meal.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Dear Friends:
What a blessing to live in this beautiful and loving country. We have been working hard to teach ourselves the language. In the absence of tuition for language school, we have sought whatever opportunities the Lord brings our way to learn more about speaking Spanish. One of the ways the Lord is teaching us the language is through good Bolivian friends who speak Spanish. Through these friendships we learn culture and we share hearts and the needs, joys and sorrows of life, and how these life events are observed in our country of Bolivia.
This month we were blessed to be honored by our friends in both ends of the spectrum of life. One set of friends had their father die after a long, painful illness. This precious man was a Believer, as are these friends, and so his home-going was not a hopeless occasion! It was such an honor to be asked to attend the funeral. For the most part, only family and close friends are invited to a funeral. By the surprised and skeptical looks we received, it was obvious that few “gringos” were ever invited to funerals. But the welcome given to us by our friends, and by our own demeanor at the service, gave the rest of the group a confidence to relax around us. We were so honored by their acceptance!
A Bolivian funeral was a very different experience for us. The memorial at the funeral parlor was very brief, as the room had to be cleared for the next service. As we left, the mourners for the next funeral were crowding around the doors. Cemetery space is dear in Cochabamba, and so the dead are buried vertically in vaults, similar to New Orleans. What a shock to realize that the smaller squares facing the paths were for children! It’s the same kind of shock you have when you see those tiny caskets. It was heartbreaking to see how many of the vaults were child-sized.
Another shock came during the vault-side service when, after the “predicación” [sermon] and during the time of singing, the grave workers came by and began plastering over the opening where the casket had been slid inside. For some reason, it seemed more “final” than the burials we are used to. It seemed odd to seal the vault in front of the family, until we realized it was proof against grave robbing by the workers.
The last shock came when the cemetery “officials” demanded payment from the widow while the assembly was still singing. It seemed so cold and callous to us, as did the grave workers waiting for their “propina” [tip] for having plastered over the opening.
We learned a lot about our new culture through this experience and it brought us even closer to our dear friends, for having shared their grief and having given support to them in their time of sorrow.
Prayer:
The need for tuition for language school cannot be overstated! $300 per month is needed.
Please pray for the three ladies Cyn is leading in discipleship training. These ladies need to grow in the Lord. Also pray that our witness to Suzi (pronounced “Soosee”) will bare fruit and she will be saved.
Blessings!
The funds have been raised for the second phase of our visas! This is a vital step in our permanent residence status. We will have to do it again in two years, for the third and final phase.
Serving Christ in Bolivia
Steve, Cyn, Thomas, Nicholas, Staton and David Johnson

June 2007
What’s Happening in Bolivia?
The economy of Bolivia takes terrible toll on families. Many homes are divided as one spouse or the other seeks work in other countries and [sometimes] send support home to Cochabamba. One family, for example, hasn’t seen their husband/father in over two years. In worse cases, children are abandoned and left behind by both parents.
The outcome of the political struggle in Bolivia is far from certain, but the conflict hurts the poor. For example, a recent dispute between the national and local government resulted in liquid gas being diverted from Cochabamba to other cities, even though the production facility is here. For many, many homes, that fuel, which is delivered in small tanks similar to Propane, is the only source for cooking and hot water. The local folks set up barricades in the streets to call attention to their plight. Even so, it took nearly a month for the situation to straighten out.
What’s Happening with the Johnson’s?
Have you checked our web site? At www.exhort.com, we keep you up to date with the ministry here in Bolivia, as well as sharing news with our friends.
Cynthia has started discipling two ladies here, a Bolivian and a Chilean! Both ladies speak Spanish. Cyn has been studying Spanish on her own, using her previous language/linguistics training from university and God has blessed so that she does not need an interpreter. That is, unlike I, who have never taken a foreign language before now, and continue to need interpreter help. Pray for these ladies as Cyn works with them.
Though it will still be some time before we begin Phase Two of our work here, we are scouting the best places to plant new churches. Two areas show great promise and need. Pray with us as we lay the foundations for the work to come!
Prayer Needs:
• Cynthia has broken a tooth! It is an old root canal, so she isn’t in pain. However, it has to be fixed immediately! The dentist is recommending an implant instead of a bridge, so there would be no damage to the adjoining teeth. The good news is that an implant here will only cost $300 (a bridge would cost more)! However, if too much time is allowed to pass, more extensive corrective work will be required. We must act now!
• Steve has had to stop language school temporarily. Only one quarter of the funds needed for my language study were raised. Those have been exhausted. This is the most important job we have at this time: to learn the language of the people. Please consider making a one time gift to pay for our schooling!
• Our second phase of the visa process was supposed to start in July. However, ever changing government regulations require $350 now! We will need an additional $1,500 by July. That first payment must be made immediately!
Thank you for your faithful support!
Steven and Cynthia Johnson, Thomas, Nicholas, Staton and David!

That is to say….

The “gripe”, pronounced “gree-pay”, is worth a “GRIPE” (a grumble, a moan and groan).

This last month of April has been, essentially, “lost” to me. Early in the month, I got the “gripe”. We don’t really have another word for flu, or cold, or virus…. it’s pretty much just “gripe”. I can now understand why my good friend Mary Nevius, missionary to Argentina for forever, came up with her own word, “epizudics”. But anyway, back to our “gripe”.

It started with congestion… no biggie, I’m used to that. Then a HUGE headache that not even 1000mg of Ibuprofen could dent. Of course, the pain MIGHT have been augmented by the fact that this very day is the one where we find out that our double-stage patch on the waterbed mattress did NOT hold. [Not only did it NOT hold, but the glue that we found locally had weakened the vinyl AROUND the hole, and we now have a HUGE GASH in our waterbed mattress!]

So perhaps my “gripe” was intensified by the hours of bailing and tossing of water, the picking up of the mattress end to get the water away from the chasm and in wondering what in the world could we do to fix it. And of course, there was the ever present concern of “where WILL we sleep”!

So, several hours later we have removed enough water to be able to get a good “seal” around the chasm so that the hose could do the job of removing the water. OH… did I mention that I did a couple of hourse of siphon duty to try to get the water to drain, only to discover that until we could get some sort of seal pressure going on the mattress, it was NOT going to work? I can’t help but think that the mossy chemical water of the waterbed mattress contributed to the severity of my flu.

That night started the “gripe” for real. I won’t bore you with HOW the symptoms felt or were perceived , but here they are, listed:

* severe, debilitating headache
* nausea (but vomiting is NOT necessary)
* head congestion that feels like a brick
* chest congestion that feels like a vise grip
* rib-cracking coughing jags that last for minutes
* overall body ache and “organ ache” (I’ve never had a flu that made your INSIDE body hurt!)
* secondary bronchial infection that went into walking pneumonia before we finally found some Zithromax

Then… Nicholas got it… then Staton… then Thomas… then David… then Lorien… and finally Steven. Thankfully, by the middle of the 2nd week, we had found the right meds for me to help. So the others got on the right meds right away. By the time that it hit Steven, most of the “steam” had gone out of it. But Lorien still got a REALLY bad dose of it.

So we pretty much “lost” our Easter. I missed singing in the cantata, then missed our P/W group’s week to sing the next week. By the 3rd Sunday, I was able to sing most of our songs, and only had to lip sync during one. I knew that if I tried to make a sound, I would dissolve into coughs. ummm… Coughing into a microphone is, um… BAD! lol…

This flu was sure a DOOZY! I haven’t been this sick since the last flu season in K.C. and we can’t remember a time in recent years when the WHOLE FAMILY was down like this. The house was a wreck and it took us almost a week to recover, especially since many of us were still sick.

We don’t know about the rest of the world, but THIS part of the hemisphere got a good strong dose of the GREEPAY!  It’s SO good to be healthy again.

We hope and pray that YOU have stayed healthy this season. [Remember, this is Fall for us, working into Winter!]

Here’s the news from Bolivia:
Lorien’s arrival
Thank you for your prayers, and the numerous churches who met our need in crisis, our daughter Lorien is safe and sound in Cochabamba. She’s caught her breath and is working with our kids for their schooling, and starting her studies of the proposed new Bolivian government.
Build a Bed funds completed
Thanks to you, our dear friends, the Build-a-Bed project is completed! Only one bed remains to be built, and then there will be no Johnsons sleeping on the floor! Even the dog has her own cushion to sleep on!
Freezer from WMS at Central
As we shared in a previous letter, the blockades of January made it clear that we were not prepared for a siege! Whether it be political blockades, or roads washed out by rain, Cochabamba can go days or even weeks without fresh meat or veggies being brought to the city. We needed a freezer! No sooner had we made that need known, than the Women’s Missionary Society of Central Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas and the folks at Canon Community Baptist Church in Canon City, Colorado sent us the funds to get the equipment. Thanks to Cyn’s bargaining skills, we got a large chest freezer AND a microwave oven. We’ll have photos on the website soon. Thank you, ladies!
Typhoid
They say you aren’t a veteran missionary until you’ve had an exotic disease or a parasite large enough to name. In early February, I was diagnosed with Typhoid Fever. The treatment was no big deal, two weeks of antibiotics, but I was unprepared for the recovery. The Dr. prescribed three weeks of bed rest; you know THAT wasn’t happening, so I haggled him down to 1 week of bed rest and another of reduced activity. However, the second week found me falling over from fatigue. As the Dr. predicted, it was a full three weeks before I was up to speed. This is not something we recommend for your 3rd World experience!!
Ministry
Our language studies continue. We attend classes as long as we have the funds to pay for those classes. God may be opening up an opportunity to move into the city, which will greatly increase our chances to hear/speak Spanish in everyday life! But we still need so much more training. We’ve only been able to pay for 4 hours of instruction per week, and this is just not sufficient. Please pray that more churches will follow through with their commitments to fund our language acquisition and that more will come on board for this purpose.
While we have been focusing on learning Spanish and inserting ourselves into the Bolivian/Cochabamban culture and mindset, we have had the freedom to be involved with an English speaking local church in Coch. They have activities for our teens, which is great. This ministers to the family and I have the freedom to examine the needs for ministry among the indigenous peoples in Cochabamba and in Bolivia.

Thank you for your faithful support!
Steven and Cynthia Johnson, Thomas, Nicholas, Staton and David!

… thanks to the generosity of the Women’s Missionary Society of one of our beloved churches and the heroic efforts of the Youth/College group of Canon City, CO. Our supporting churches are such a blessing to us. It goes so far beyond the needed monthly support. The love they have for us and the prayers for our success for God on the field… these blessings are a comfort and an encouragement to us and enable and empower us to do what God has called us to do in Bolivia.

But back to the blessing from the ladies and those dear young people!

After the past bloqueos (blockades) and paros (work strikes), we have been praying for a chest freezer to store up food against such times. Then the rainy season came and we discovered even MORE reasons why we need frozen storage. In the height of the rains, the crude roads (aka “highways”!) between the major cities get washed out and impassable for many days. That means that meat cannot reach Cochabamba from Santa Cruz and many fruits and veggies can’t get here from Beni and the Chapare (and other locales).

So it was an exciting day when the leader of this ladies’ group wrote me an email to find out which need was most important for our ministry. I outlined the various needs and reasons behind them in a return email. Well, those ladies met that night and voted to get our freezer!

But WAIT… the blessing gets even better! The details of the freezer were based on the research we did when we first posted the need. In the time between the point when we KNEW that we had to have a freezer, through the times of the blockades and the rainy season, by the time we went back to the store with the best deal from before, the unit that we had chosen and priced was gone!

O NO… but there were still two freezers left in town and this store had them both! They were within $20 of each other, so we went with the white (over the red freezer that looked like it needed a Coca-Cola logo!). This freezer was smaller than the one we had wanted, but was deep enough to store enough meat and meals for the family, AND it had a separate section with a retaining wall for freezer bags of blanched veggies and conserved fruit.

So, with the offerings of the WMS and the young people in CO, we had enough left over for a microwave TOO! Microwaves are getting more popular in Bolivia and our favorite grocery store was promoting microwave popcorn. So now Steven has a “treat” from time to time. We don’t have microwave popcorn very often because EACH bag of popcorn costs about $2 USD (@15 Bolivianos). But the children have been so blessed by it. It’s worth the splurge now and then, just to give the kids a little taste of “home”… yes, the microwave popcorn is American! In fact, we are able to get our favorite ActII flavor here.

Due to the washed-out roads, it has taken a bit longer to start filling up the freezer. But with the few days of “sin lluvia” (rainless days), we’ve been able to get a bit more than we need per week. With the help of a transformer and the meat slicer that another of our beloved churches got for us, we’ve been able to buy “bulk” and slice at home in leisure. It also means that I am able to cook more successfully for Steven, which has been a huge prayer request for some time!

Yesterday, the news announced a blockade for transit workers and taxi drivers, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday of this week. — we STILL can’t get over having “scheduled spontaneous protests”! lol… –

So, armed with this news and experienced in what it meant, we went to our favorite butcher shop and stocked up as much as we could. Already many people had been to the shop and the meats were picked over. But they know me at this butcher shop and I have achieved “mamita” status with the owners and the butchers [YES! Thanks to the Lord!!!], so my favorite butcher went to the back and brought out a couple of quarters. He trimmed, sawed and sliced out the cut of meat I had asked for, and then bagged them up for me.
But… because of the FREEZER, I was able to buy enough meat and veggies to last my family though this blockade. Even if it goes longer, as can always happen, we are PREPARED for the blockade… for the washed out roads… for the political demonstrations… for whatever Bolivia can toss at us!

Right now, I have frozen veggies and fruits and sliced/bagged frozen meat, enough to last us for about a week. My goal, upon advice from other missionaries, is to have a month-long pantry/freezer. With the resources God has given us, I now see this objective as a reasonable, and REACHABLE, goal! We have shelves in the large closet for a pantry for dry goods. And we have a good-sized freezer for freezables.

So… my thanks to the wonderful women of the Women’s Missionary Society and the young people of the College & Career Class! You have filled a serious need for this wife and mom. And my family can already see the difference!

-Cyn
Cochabamba, Bolivia

10 Jan 2007

Yesterday we had another adventure in Cochabamba. We had to be downtown, for a brief errand at the government office. Our driver thought it would be safe, as long as we were in and out in a few minutes. As usual, we were delayed by the local bureaucratic requirements to go to Table A, then to Table B, return to Table A, go to Desk C, do not pass Go, etc. we completed most of our business, however, we were not able to complete my motorcycle license. The good news is that my international driver’s license is good for another 5 months.

By the time we returned to the street, the streets were blocked by a march of “protesters”. An army of “Campesinos” were marching to the Central Plaza, in an attempt to force the pro democracy Prefect of Cochabamba to resign. In the distance we could hear the crack of tear gas grenades. A slight burning of the eyes and nose were all we experienced. We joined the parade and angled across the street towards our taxi. We received many glares – not too many 6 foot tall gringos there! – but safely made it across. As we got in the taxi, one man paused and gestured toward our taxi as he apparently considered smashing the windshield; he carried a wooden plank with several nails protruding. Pressure from the crowd behind pushed him on. Whew!! After a long wait, which allowed for us to closely observe the marchers, our driver negotiated for us to be able to back out of the danger zone and retreat down a side street.

The city folks just watched the march in puzzlement and dismay. They just did not know how to respond. They assume the police are there to deal with such matters. However, the police, who are under national government control, were providing escort to the marchers, blocking traffic and keeping the residents back.

Some observations, this is NOT a peaceful protest. While pinned in our taxi, we personally observed at far too close a range that the marchers were armed for an assault. Aside from the boards with nails, we saw men carrying baggies filled with black powder – which probably was old style gunpowder. Modern gun powder will not explode if lit, but the old fashioned powder makes a powerful explosive. Others were carrying baggies of gasoline, partnering with men carrying old tires. A rubber tire doused with gasoline makes a nasty fire that is difficult to extinguish- in South Africa it was also a tool of execution used by the followers of Winnie Mandela. In an article published yesterday, the Prefects of the pro-democracy departmentos (states) are advised to “carry their wills under their arms”.

Amazingly, there were some women in the march with babies!

We did not see anyone who appeared to be residents of the city. The marchers were brought in on buses from the countryside. According to a local resident, the country folk or “campesinos” were paid in cash or cigarettes and liquor. The funds reportedly come from Venezuela to the pro-communist MAS party, who are the force behind the drive to redefine Bolivia in the mold of Cuba.

It is hard not to too closely identify with the people of this endangered nation. With the benefit of history, it is all too easy to predict the future here. Still, it is an exciting place to be! I do think that history is better when it smells of musty books instead of cordite!

Violence in Cochabamba

Yesterday saw serious outbreaks of violence here in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The ruling party “Movement toward Socialism” (MAS) sponsored marches throughout the city that turned to riots. The main city plaza was assaulted with rocks and Molotov cocktails. The Prefect’s office was burned out, and several private vehicles were destroyed. One image that sticks in my mind was one ladies’ car being burned. Later she was interviewed standing next to the burned out hulk, sobbing that it was the only possession she owned. The rioters had callously draped their flag across the hulk as a trophy of their “victory”.

The issue is communism vs. democracy. The president and his MAS party want to establish a Cuban style dictatorship, following the precedent of his mentor, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. The Prefect of Cochabamba supports autonomy of the departmentos (states), along with 4 other departamentos – even through succession if necessary. Representing more than half of the geographic portion of Bolivia, and over 80% of the wealth (mineral resources, natural gas and oil), if these departments do form their own nation, what is left of Bolivia will have little to work with.

The pro-democracy groups are holding polite marches and protests, the communistic forces are staging riots, violence and attacking those who disagree with them. Frankly, by the time the pro-democracy groups realize they are in a real fight, the communists will probably have a stranglehold on the country. The wealthy are moving their assets to other nations, and applying for visas elsewhere.

Thomas (my son) and I were downtown, eating lunch 6 blocks away as the assault on the Prefect’s office was winding down. We then proceeded through the area on various errands. We were only inconvenienced one time, as our taxi had to detour around an overturned dumpster. On TV last night I saw that same street corner as a camera filmed a confrontation between five police and about 20 “protesters” – the protesters were throwing large softball sized rocks, the police were simply using their shields and blocking the advance.

In spite of the large fires on the main city plaza, with government offices in flames along with several vehicles, and the protesters attacking with rocks and Molotov cocktails, the police did not open fire; they only used tear gas, and not on a great scale. In spite of this, the national minister (MAS party) fired the police chief for the use of the gas. MAS wants the Prefect (mayor) of Cochabamba out of the way. The violence organized by MAS was intended to drive him out. The police are between a rock and a hard place, as they report to both the local AND national governments, and those two forces oppose each other.

Note that the police did have a riot vehicle equipped with a water cannon on the scene. They were using it to put out the fire in the government office, until rioters attempted to interfere with them, the cannon was then briefly turned on the attackers.

Thomas and I were fine, though we did get a taste of diluted tear gas – not bad, clears the sinuses! Most of the city was business as usual by 3:00 pm. In an economy where you eat on what you make that day, business goes on!

I’ve written elsewhere about my concern that the northern half of South America is going to fall into the cycle of domino revolutions that have devastated Africa for 40 years. The Southern nations, Chile and Argentina have formed a defense pact ala NATO to resist any migration of violence from the North. No one denies that the governments since 1980 have failed to allow the benefit of “trickle down economics” to reach the poor. Free Trade Markets have not been good for the nations who did not have industry and distribution networks to compete. However, moving to Communism and dictatorship will not relieve their plight.

January 2007

It rarely hits the news in the USA, but Bolivia is in serious turmoil. Our city has been under siege for a week, as a showdown between the national government and the state governors has heated up. Detailed reports are on our web site: www.exhort.com

We have not been in real danger, but I now know what tear gas smells like! Cynthia and I spent some time pinned in our taxi as rioters marched by, carrying clubs (with nails), gunpowder and gasoline. Fortunately, God is on the Throne and our lives are protected in His mighty hands! When we talk about missions being exciting, this isn’t what we had in mind! This has given us new opportunities to share the Gospel. Pray particularly for Adriana and her family.

Blessings on blessings!

Thanks to individual contributions, we were able to purchase the motorcycle that we’ve been praying for! This will save us over $100 a month in transportation costs. A taxi will still be needed to transport the entire family, but many of our trips are one or two people, so the “moto” will do very well! I was teasing with one of our Bolivian friends who is a motorcycle enthusiast. I asked him why, since a motorcycle is such a “macho” vehicle, the proper word for it was feminina (motocicleta). He assured me that in Bolivia, it was called a “moto”, which is masculine and very macho! Thank you again for this tremendous blessing!

The picture is from the day we took delivery. Richard (the dealer) is explaining the operation of the alarm system to me, while our friend Marco looks on.

Our language school has picked up after the Christmas break. Again, thanks to a private gift, Cynthia has been able to start classes once a week, until that gift runs out.

Challenges!

The violence in the city made it impossible to get around. With the city blockaded, no food could be brought in, even for the small markets that were able to stay open. We are unable to stock up enough meat to get by for more than a few days. A chest freezer has become a necessity.

We have access to well water for emergencies, and our water filter can clean it to acceptable levels.

Our daughter Lorien was to join us for Christmas, to begin her studies here. Her passport and money was stolen as she began her journey at the KC airport. Thanks to several churches helping, we have ordered her replacement passport, and if the bureaucracy moves smoothly, she will be able to join us by Valentine’s Day. All of the kid’s Christmas presents were in Lorien’s luggage, so their first Christmas on the field was a bit thin, without sister or presents, but they were troopers!

Thank you for your faithful support!

Steven and Cynthia Johnson, Thomas, Nicholas, Staton and David!