Beni 2010 River Trip - Our Team

Finally, some long overdue 2010 Beni river trip pictures! There are eight slideshows, so make sure (if you would like) to scroll down to see all of the slideshows. If the slideshow is too small, you can move the mouse over the bottom right hand corner of the slideshow and click on the little circular colourful sign that appears. This will take you to a picassa page where all the pictures of this slideshow are laid out. You will find the option to click on "slideshow" on the top left hand corner of that photo layout. Too complicated? I guess I can't help you then (hrhrhr, joking). Hope you all enjoy catching a glimpse of our trip.

Sunny for us

PS - Here's a blooper for the week - We were getting really frustrated because the keyboard apparently kept changing languages on us in this certain part of the text, making the period key a semicolon. Turned out that it was a hardware problem...the monitor had a spot on it. So embarrassing!

Beni 2010 River Trip - The Team with Children's Ministry

Beni 2010 River Trip - The Team with Adult Ministry and Meetings

Beni 2010 River Trip - The Team with Medical and Dental Ministry

Beni 2010 River Trip - Boat Life

Beni 2010 River Trip - River and Communities

Beni 2010 River Trip - Interesting Fare

Beni 2010 River Trip - Interesting Faces

Beni Trip 2008

Beni 2007 Update

Placido and some of the other members of our team, including my sister Sunny (an honorary member), just returned from a trip to the Beni. The Beni is a department (state) in Bolivia that is predominantly rural and jungle. Most of the travel in this area is done by small plane or by boat on the numerous rivers and tributaries that crisscross its green expanse.

Several years ago, God began to lay this area on Placido´s heart. Whether by coincidence or by divine appointment, everything he seemed to pick up to read mentioned the Beni and the needs of the people there. Then, through a meeting and subsequent friendship with Enoel Suarez, a native of the Beni, Placido was able to travel there and meet some people and see first-hand some of the needs.

Since then, Placido has made several trips taking medical supplies and teams that offer dental and medical help as well as programs for the children and the Jesus film. SAM has approved a series of trips made with the purpose of surveying a certain area of the Beni to evaluate the needs and how we as a mission can impact them without being redundant to any other missions currently working in that department.

As a result of the trips made thus far, we believe that one of the greatest needs in terms of Christian work is to offer on-site Bible training to Believers already living in the Beni and to enable them to more effectively reach out to more remote communities where there are no Believers. The trips with teams are fulfilling the second objective and we hope that as a next step in the Beni project we will be able to take teachers with us from Santa Cruz to offer Bible school modules during longer trips.

Beni Trip 2004