March: The Mission Trip

The big event for March, and one of the biggest for the school year, is the school's mission trip to the village of Buena Vista in the Amazon jungle. This year Mark and three other teachers led a team of 24 students on a weeklong trip to serve the Tacana people. Buena Vista is a closed community of around 80 families, but the school has been invited year after year to come and serve the community thanks to the influence and work of a local pastor and missionary, Pastor Benjamin(pictured below). Meanwhile Audrey held down the fort and watched Adeline by herself during the week of the trip.

During the week the team put on two different vacation Bible schools centered around the story of the lost sheep found in Luke 15. One group stayed in Buena Vista while the other group went to another village called Bella Altura and put on the same vacation Bible school. Three of the nights the team held church services where Mark preached a sermon series on Luke 10:38-42. Other times throughout the week the students did a small work project for the church and connected further with the school community.

It is always so encouraging for Mark to serve alongside his students and see them in positions of leadership and servitude. They did amazing in leading their groups and different stations. The team was mostly seniors and there was a lot of experience that they had working in their favor. This was the fourth year of going to Buena Vista since the pandemic. For some of the seniors they had gone all four years of high school and had really connected with the kids and the community.

One connection that was strengthened this year was with the school in Buena Vista. They honored our team with a ceremony and invited three of our boys to share a brief Bible lesson with them at the ceremony. Another day we competed in futsal games with them as well as a basketball game. They even held a teacher futsal game, which we promptly lost, but a bond was made nevertheless. It was amazing to see how the school was opening up to us and our presence in the village. Something we did not feel in previous years.

For Mark this trip was really encouraging because of the growth that he has seen in the seniors and for the bonds that he was able to strengthen with Pastor Benjamin. Originally the plan was for Mark to only preach once, and another male teacher was going to preach the other two times. However, two weeks before the trip it was decided that the other male teacher needed to stay in La Paz and so Mark needed to preach all three times. God was really faithful in helping Mark prepare what Pastor Benjamin explained as exactly what the community needed to hear at that time. Despite the stress and extra work it put on Mark, it was amazing to see how God worked and used that opportunity.

Praise God for the work He can do through broken vessels like us. Praise God for a successful trip where no one got hurt or got sick. Besides some bug bites and a day and a half without running water, the trip was a huge success. Praise God for a Highlands community that came around Audrey and supported her while Mark was gone. Praise God for the support we receive that enables us to do things like this. Thank you to all of those that also sent financial and prayer support towards many of the students and the general fund of our mission trip. Thank you for letting God work through your giving.

In addition to our Mission trip, March also featured our school's Spiritual Emphasis Week. We had a former Bible teacher, and roommate of Mark in his first year, come down and be the speaker for the week. Luke Bostrom delivered a fantastic and encouraging series on faith that I think God used to help prime our team before the mission trip. It was great to catch up with Luke and be encouraged by him.

As we now enter the fourth quarter and are on our final days of Spring/Easter break, we ask for continued prayers to finish strong and pour into every opportunity that God presents us in the remaining school year. Please pray for our seniors and the remaining time that we have with them before they venture off to study in other countries like Spain, Mexico, Canada, and the US. We continue to create opportunities to connect with them and speak truth into their lives as best as possible, and ask that God work mightily in preparing them for whatever He has next for them after Highlands. Thank you for taking the time to keep up with us. God Bless.