I didn’t send out a Jan update as things were hopping with having to make arrangements for our annual time together, and then coming home and getting Dwight off to Paraguay two days after our return home, and also filling in for Jenny office work  for a week so she could take a break. So this letter is for both months.

Our annual time together (in Jan) was a really good.  We had two main speakers who were Bolivian Pastors from two churches in Cochabamba.  Also I got a ladies’ meeting organized and we had the wife of one of these pastors speak to us.  I also arranged for a refreshment time for a very special couple who was retiring after many years of service here in Bolivia.  Many individuals shared their memories of the Snyders, whether they were serious or funny, and then Dwight presented them with a gift from the field.

This year the leadership made up a list of people to invite, so it was really neat to see so many people from different walks of life sharing the Lord’s supper together on the last evening together.  We had Canadian, Quechua, Simba, Bolivian, German, Ecuadorian, Paraguayan and American.  Wow now that’s international!

We flew home  in time to get Dwight off to Paraguay once again to renew his pilot’s license.  He returned home after one week.  It has taken almost two month in Bolivia, but we are pretty sure that next week his renewed Bolivian license should arrive.  This will be the last time he can do this until he gets a permanent visa.  His renewed license runs out again in July and we probably won’t get our permanent visas till sometime in Oct. Pray that NTMA will have wisdom in knowing what to do in that gap of time.

Well, better go.  We have some other things we need to do before going to help clean the church.  We are also in charge of the refreshments after the morning service tomorrow, so we bought some cookies and two cakes. Another couple will make a cornstarch drink with cinnamon and lemon. Interesting?!

Prayer requests:

-Please pray for our son. He has three classes this semester and works 6 hrs a day, and has tons of homework.  If he can get through this semester, he has only one more to go; which will be less classes, but will be working on his internship hours.

-Pray for Darlena that she will not be laid off, as her company considers re-organizing.

-Safety for Dwight as he begins to fly once again.

-Pray that our kids and a friend will be able to come to see us in August of this year.

-Pray for my mamita’s salvation and that of her friend, Doris.  Today Doris really started asking me questions about God’s Word.

That Sunday morning, we had a lot of visitors. Some had come from as far as La Paz and Santa Cruz. There was a new sign hanging above the church platform. Most of us ladies brought some kind of cake and took it to the kitchen to be cut up and put on plates. The special speaker was our Ecuadorian co-worker, Carlos. The special occasion? The commissioning service for the missionary group that is just getting established amongst the Yuracaré.

Dwight has already flown out to their new location. Right now they are clearing land, and the people in the community have said they want to help them build their houses. They can get out there by a boat ride of 34 hrs just travelling time, to get to a town where they can catch land transportation whenever something is available, for another 4 hr drive. If they would call for the Mission plane, the plane would take an hour to get there; shuttle them out to a larger strip about 20 min away in two shuttle flights, and then fly home another hour. Which would you rather take?! Well, sad to say these guys can’t always afford to call the plane even with the subsidized price. Twice now, they have attempted to go in by land and water, and have taken a week or more because of delays with the owner of the boat. Pray that God will supply the needed funds to help this team to be able to call the plane when they need to.

Dec. 20^th was a special Sunday for kids. Dwight borrowed the Mission van to help bring in kids from one of the two areas that the church ministers in, and I helped in the kitchen with getting the flavored milk and fried bread ready to serve. Dwight ended up helping in one of the games that were played and became one of the 3 “wise men” that helped pass out the gifts that had been collected for the kids. We had little kids with sticky hands and a floor with sticky honey; but it was amazing how well behaved they all were! There were over 100 kids! I wish you could have seen the smiles on their faces!

It is so neat to see what God is doing here in Bolivia! We are so excited to be a part of helping to reach “the hard to reach” places with the Gospel! We continue to pray for more laborers as there are many other places that still need missionaries.

PRAY: -for the new missionary team (there are others from the church that want to join them).

-for safety as Dwight flies in this rainy season with constantly changing weather.

-for our NTM annual time together in January to be a time of refreshment spiritually and physically.

-“mamita” and her friend have agreed to come to the musical at our church on the 27^th; pray that God willspeak to their hearts through what they see and what they hear.

-for more laborers to help us reach out even further with the Gospel