Team Training Begins

We had our first team training session Wednesday night and had a good time but for one. We missed you Chris and hope you are feeling much better now!

After the meeting, immunizations were in order. What do you think? It looks to me like Lily and Thomas are enjoying this just a little too much! Yes, that is a needle in his hand! Lory looks so brave - I wonder if she really knows what's coming??

Oscar Montes, FH Bolivia National Director Shares Testimony

The oldest of five siblings, Oscar Montes grew up in a poor family in San Lucas, a rural village in Chuquisaca, Bolivia. When he was 10 years old Oscar and his family moved to a poor urban area on the outskirts of Potosí. One night out walking with his friends led to an encounter which would greatly influence Oscar’s life.

The group of children heard music. Being the guitar player in a band, Oscar, then aged 12, wanted to know where the music was coming from. They discovered it was coming out of the large open doors of an Evangelical Church. It was Saturday night and the young people were having their weekly meeting. The group of friends entered the Church where Oscar met Vladimir Carvasal.

Vladimir invited the group to the Sunday school. Oscar and a friend accepted and visited the Sunday school the following day. Oscar then attended Vladimir’s Bible Study the next Wednesday where Vladimir explained the gospel to Oscar. As he heard about God’s forgiveness Oscar cried and cried. He asked Vladimir why he couldn’t stop crying. Vladimir explained that God was meeting with him. Oscar became a Christian and after that day attended the church whenever he could.

Oscar’s mother then met the Lord in the same Church. She had been sick for thirteen years without getting better. When she went to the Church she was prayed for and healed. After seeing that, Oscar’s father, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles and cousins went to the Church and became Christians too.

It was in this Church that Oscar also met Grover Moreno, FH’s first member of staff in Potosí. Both Vladimir and Grover were to become positive life-long role models in Oscar’s life. Vladimir and Grover are wise, hard working men who live for the Lord and to serve others. Coming from poor backgrounds themselves, they worked hard to support themselves whilst studying and want to give the same opportunity to others. When Oscar was seventeen years old and his youngest sister just four, their mother sadly passed away. This left the family devastated and questioning God. Oscar’s father was severely affected by his wife’s death. He returned to their village, San Lucas, neglecting his children and leaving Oscar to take care of his younger siblings.

During this difficult time, Grover was a great support to Oscar. He gave Oscar a job sweeping the FH warehouse in exchange for food. Oscar also painted to generate a little extra income. Some of his younger teenage brothers and sisters did odd jobs to earn a little money to help out. Oscar had to mature and grow up quickly, forcing him to prematurely leave his youth behind in order to care for his siblings.

When Oscar was 18 years old, Grover was in charge of the FH Child Development Program and invited Oscar to join an American couple who were volunteering with FH carrying out ‘Horas Felices’ (Happy Hours) for children in the poor urban areas of the outskirts of Potosí. Oscar helped out playing the guitar.

At age 19, Oscar moved into a paid role with FH as a librarian. In this role he taught local children basics such as reading, writing and maths. He also shared with them about God and his faith. Oscar walked seven miles each way to the library where he worked from 2.30pm-6.30pm. He earned just $20 per month to care for himself and his siblings. His father sent them very little. Whilst at work there was no-one to look after Oscar’s youngest brother so Oscar had to take him with him to the library. He would carry him the 7 miles home in the bitter cold, cradling him in his arms so he could sleep. Most days on the walk home Oscar would cry and ask God ‘Why us?’ wondering if they were so bad that they deserved their situation.

Over time Oscar’s father began to get back on his feet and his relationship with the Lord grew. He began to support his children financially as he could and the relationship between them improved. Oscar didn’t want to see other children having to suffer as he suffered growing up, so his dream was to develop himself to be able to serve others. To achieve this he wanted to go to University. Although he had wanted to study medicine, Oscar studied Agronomic Engineering as it was the only course he was accepted for. Looking back Oscar can see that was the hand of God to prepare him for the plans He had ahead for him with FH.

As Oscar had seen in the examples of Grover and Vladimir, he worked hard whilst studying to support himself. He studied during the day and worked from 9pm until midnight or 1am sanding and planing floors. But even without the burden of having to financially provide for his siblings, covering the cost of university was a challenge. To facilitate his studies Vladimir and Grover supported him through a contract whereby they gave him 150 Bolivianos (about $20) per month with the agreement that Oscar would report his grades to them, and when Oscar graduated and was working he would offer the same support to another student to enable them to study. This enabled Oscar to achieve his dream of going to University. After graduating, Oscar kept his part of the deal and supported other students. Over the years Oscar has supported various students, which he still does today.

At university Oscar was part of the ‘CCU’ (Christian University Community). This Christian movement shares the gospel with others and teaches its members to use their profession to serve others. This inspired Oscar to continue working hard to make ends meet to better himself to be able to help others. During his second year of university he married his wife, Aleida. When they had their first son, Jonathan, Oscar and his wife had a small business where they would go to the bakery at 5am each morning and queue up to buy bread to sell in their small local stall.

In 1993, after graduating, Oscar returned to work for FH as an agriculture technician in Tomoyo, a rural area of Sucre. But Oscar and Aleida had more challenges ahead of them. At 5 months old their son Jonathan had serious convulsions and became very ill with meningitis. The doctors thought he was unlikely to survive. For days Oscar and Aleida fervently prayed that God would heal their sick son. On the 14th day Aleida had a vision where Jesus showed her her son’s damaged brain and then the new brain which he was going to give to Jonathan. The next analysis showed that the disease had gone, leaving no trace. Jonathan was awake and eating again. The stunned
doctors agreed to let him leave the hospital on the condition that his parents bring him daily to see the consultant for monitoring. Today he is a healthy and intelligent young man, just beginning university studying Petroleum and Gas Engineering, known as one of the hardest university courses in Bolivia.

Another bombshell hit the family when Aleida was diagnosed with cancer and given just three years to live. Aleida lost her mother when she was ten, Oscar had lost his mother too and now their own children were facing the same fate. Many FH staff prayed for her. When one of the staff was praying, God told that person that Aleida had been healed and the cancer had gone. The next analysis was clear, and that was 15 years ago.

Having overcome many obstacles in his life, Oscar has continued working hard to become all he can be. He has worked in various roles in FH Bolivia over the years. From humble beginnings sweeping floors, volunteering in the ‘Happy Hours’ and becoming librarian, after university he moved on to be a greenhouse technician, later an
agricultural technician, a trainer, an agricultural supervisor, Regional Director in Cochabamba, Regional Director in Sucre, Program’s Director and now he is the currently National Director based in La Paz.

One of FH Bolivia’s major successes was during Oscar’s time as Regional Director of Sucre, with the construction of an irrigation system that stretches 15 kilometres and benefits 2,500 families. Oscar commented “I want to give glory to the Lord for having given us the privilege of showing the community of Tomoyo the dream that God had for this zone with regard to the irrigation canal construction and the results of building them into
an integrated model community for Bolivia and the world. May God be glorified.”

When reflecting on becoming the Regional Director of the Sucre office, Oscar was baffled as to how he had got there from his beginnings and why he had been so blessed. He agreed with the personal reflection of St Francis of Assisi that when looking for someone to use, God chooses the most unlikely, unworthy person so that His glory and power could be shown through that person. Today Oscar attributes his personal and work progress and accomplishments to the working and grace of God in his life.

Oscar’s time with FH has been a time of incredible blessing. FH has been more than a job. It has been a family and a place where he has been able to continue developing personally to reach his own potential as well as enabling colleagues to reach theirs. Regarding FH, he says “This is the most marvellous ministry that any man could experience. To grow in the Lord, together with our family, while serving the believers within FH so that they can develop the potential that God has given them, and at the same time be part of this great privilege to serve, is incomprehensible – it just passes human understanding. It is the grace of God!! FH has been and is still a school in which one is encouraged to grow integrally. It does not compare to any other organization, given that the standard of FH is the standard of the kingdom of God. Praise the Lord for such mercy, for countless heavenly blessings, even for material possessions that exceed our own expectations. We have been called to this ministry in accordance with the perfect will of God.”

Without the support and encouragement of role models like Grover and Vladimir, Oscar may well have lived out the rest of his life in the material and social poverty into which he was born, never reaching the potential that lay within him. Instead, with the right support and opportunities, Oscar has been able to make a change, the effects of which have been passed on not only to his own children but to countless others throughout Bolivia. It is this change that Oscar and FH Bolivia want to see in the lives of children in Bolivia; that through having the opportunity and encouragement to fulfil their potential, these children become the agents of change in their families and community. Each child can be another Oscar, changing history in Bolivia.