Carnival

A wild (orgy) 3 day celebration (Feb 14-16), 40 days before Easter. It starts with a parade on Saturday night and finishes on Fat Tuesday with the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday after which one is supposed to abstain from all bodily pleasures. Carnival with all its excesses, celebrates as a profane event, can be considered an act of farewell to the pleasures of the flesh. They put on mask or cover their faces so that God will not know who they are as they committ these pagan acts. Along with these pagan acts they throw water ballons filled with ink or paint at people and vehicles. The also paint a lot of grattie on buildings.The most births in Bolivia take place nine months from now. Here are a few pictures. Anyway it is a holiday with no school.

Samaipata

Debie and I were fortunate to get away from Santa Cruz. We went out into the country to a city name Samaipata. It was about a 3 hour bus ride from Santa Cruz. We went with two other families. There were 16 in all that made the trip. We all stayed at a resort called Cabanas de Traudi. We were fortunate to all stay in the same building. There were 7 bedrooms with adequate showers and bathrooms. A large dining area with a furnished kitchen. The temperature at Samaipata was cooler because we were much higher above sea level than at Santa Cruz. Below is a place we visited while at Samaipata. It was called Fuerte. An area in the mountains. We traveled a long winding road to about 5,000 feet. These were old Inca ruins. It was very interesting.

While at Samaipata we went to Cuevas, a park which has some beautiful waterfalls. We have pictures of one but there were others further back in the park. It would take a hike through the woods which we didn't take.



These are pictures were taken in the country on the to way to Samaipata. The country side is beautiful.

Christmas Decorations

These are some photos of decorations in Santa Cruz Bolivia. They are all made with plastic bottles. Enjoy.

Varsity Volleyball

Here is a pic of part of the Santa Cruz Chritian Learning Centers Varsity Volleyball team. The team consist of 9-12th graders. We had a very good season finishing the regular season 4-2 losing only to Co-operative School (twice). Our league consist of Co-operative School Jaguars, International School Griffins, Christian Learning Center Eagles, and Cambridge College Knights.

{Team members shown in the pic--front (starting from the left) Paul Estes (12), Mark Salinas (12), Nick Smith (10), Jesse Mann (10), back Jon Mann (12), Danny Canaviri (12), Jesse Hallock (11), and Andre Larson (10)} Missing from Pic Taylon Schreoder (9), Jihun Chun (10), Juan Carlos Yao (10), Richard Ling (11), Josh Mojica (12)

This last weekend started a tounament. It was Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. It was a round robin tournament playing every school with the teams with the best record playing for the championship on Sautrday. One caveat about this tournament-it was both soccer and volleyball at the same time so our team played 2 soccer matches and 1 volleyball game on Thursday, 2 volleyball and 1 soccer on Friday, then the championship on Saturday for both volleyball and soccer. These were some long days with the last contest starting at 8:3o p.m. both nights. Now not all of our volleyball players were involved with soccer but 6 did play soccer.

Well we lost our first two matched and did not play very well. Then in the third match we finally got our act together and won. So we were in the consolation game on Saturday morining which we won to finish the tournament 2-2 with a 3rd place finish.

Below is a pic of three of the volleyball and soccer players that receive a MVP award for their outstanding play. The three are from left to right are Mark Estes, Danny Canaviri, and Jesse Hallock.

I am very proud of the SCCLC Varsity Volleyball team. They did a great job of representing themselves and the Learning Center.

JV Boys Volleyball

Here is a pic of the Santa Cruz Christian Learning Centers JV Boy's Volleyball team. The team consist of 6-8th graders. We had a very good season finishing the regular season 4-2 losing only to Cooperative (twice). Our leagues consist of Co-operative School Jaguars, International School Griffins, Christian Learning Center Eagles, and Cambridge College Knights.

(Team members are Felipe Arce, Richard Enns, Cesar Flores, Haziel Martinez, Jose Merco, Wesley Ordoñez, Claudio Sandoval and Gaston Waldman.)

This week started playoffs. We competed against the International School Griffins on Tuesday winning 25-11, 25-8. That setup a show down with Cooperative again. But in the end we lost 20-25, 25-5, 13-15 with a questionable call by an official to end the game.

I am very proud of these athletes. They did an outstanding job with the little practice time we had. (We could only practice on Friday's.)

Below is a pic of Haziel Martinez in our contest on Tuesday. Again this was a very rewarding season for myself and the Learning Center. And it sort of felt good getting back into coaching.

Spirtual Enrichment Week

Last week, 12-16 Oct, was Spiritual Enrichment week at the school. This was something new for us. We have never experienced this before in the public school system. Here is some info from a flyer that was published. As you can see Mike Blanks published this flyer and is in charge of the event. He is a WGM Missionary serving here in Santa Cruz. Also it was interesting in the last paragraph that they wanted us to take into consideration the amount of work the students received during the week out side of class. NONE!! I have also inserted more info throughout the flyer in ( )'s.

Spiritual Enrichment Week
High School Retreat
& Servant Day are COMING SOON!
Please be in earnest prayer...read on...

Spiritual Enrichment Week ~ OCTOBER 12-16
Franco Salvatori will be our special speaker for this year’s secondary Spiritual Enrichment Week. (Two pic's have been inserted while sharing at Chapel.) Chapels will meet each day during First Period on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday. Wednesday’s Chapel will be held during Seventh Period (because of the PSAT test for all the juniors). Special Activities will include an Afternoon OUT with the junior high from 3-5 & a Bible Study / Dinner for the high school on Monday evening from 6:30-9:00. These will be special times with Franco as he shares his testimony, and they will give the young people opportunities to get to know him a little better. We will have another opportunity for the seniors to get together with Franco on Wednesday evening…Please be in prayer for Franco as he prepares what he will share and pray for a SPIRITUAL REVIVAL amongst our students and staff here at SCCLC!

(Franco shared 5 R's during the week based on Psalms. He did a fantastic job. Briefly the 5 R's.

REVEALS-Ps 147 God reveals himself both in General (nature) and Specific (creation).

REVERES-Ps 33 We need to Praise HIM, Walk Justily, and Fear HIM.

REBEL-Ps 78 We all rebel in are own way including prophets of old like Moses.

REPENT-Ps 32 Guilt or Confess and Led or Guided

RESTORE-Ps 80 Restore us God almighty. We need Gods presents.

He hit a lot on Rebel/Repent. That seems to be a cycle that we need to break. We need to be in tune with him all the time.)

High School Retreat ~ OCTOBER 16-18
Our High School Retreat will be in Samaipata again this year. We will be leaving on Friday afternoon and returning to Santa Cruz on Sunday. Our theme, RAISING THE BAR, is loosely based on the book, DO HARD THINGS, which many of our students have read. Please pray with us that God’s message will be clearly conveyed and challenge us to live above the low expectations we and others put on our lives.
Pray also as I prepare the messages and organize the weekend’s activities and for all involved.

(On Friday, October 16, we will be leaving the Learning Center after classes for Samaipata. We will stay until Sunday enjoying social times together, a few games, “serious” times, and of course, plenty of free-time. There will be swimming, hiking and other activities to fill your free time or you may opt to just read or sleep a little. This is a retreat from the norm, so we want you to come, relax and have a good time with your friends, as well as remain open to what the Lord has in store for your life. Please have your ride home arranged to meet you at the Learning Center on Sunday, October 18 at 4:30 PM - SHARP!!!)

Servant Day ~ OCTOBER 21
The school will be “sponsoring” a servant day for all junior high & high school students. Junior highers will remain on school grounds while the high school students will go to various places for this day of ministry. Look for details in the coming weeks...
Please pray that this will be a great time of ministry to our students as well as to those whom they serve!

(As you can see by the date that Servant Day is tommorrow and the Senior High students will be going off campus to do various community projects while the Junior High students will be staying on campus doing varies projects to improve the appearance of campus.)

¡Please Consider!
School is important and it is a priority. I also believe these special events are key to the spiritual development of our young people. IF AT ALL POSSIBLE, please take that into consideration when making lesson & homework plans for the week of Spiritual Enrichment and High School Retreat, October 12-18. Thank you so much for your consideration and prayers. Blessings on you as we continue to minister together! - Mike Banks

Trinity International Church

Trinity International Church. This is the church Debie and I attend. This is an English speaking church. It is just down the road from the school so we walk there on Sundays. Debie also attends a bible study there on Tuesday evenings. They are doing a study of Esther by Beth Moore.
The pic on the right shows an overview of the whole church while the one on the left is the front entrance.



The next 2 pics show the back side which has classrooms and a kitchen.


This is the Pastor of Trinity, Pastor Andy Partington. He is from the UK. Pastor is doing a series on Transformative Encounters. He is very gifted and interesting to listen too. The only negative aspect is that the Pastor and his family are leaving at the end of the year. They are going back to the UK for other ministry opportunities.
This is the back of the church. There is a balony. This is sometime full on Sundays. This is where the sound system is also located. An individual in the church translates the message into spanish as the Pastor preaches.

This part of the praise band. All three individuals are high school students. The two guys go to SCCLC (Juniors). They are very talented. Missing is a teacher at the learning center that plays a trumpet and sometime we have a individual that plays the bongos. The music selections is much the same as in the states. They also include one hymn before the Pastor preaches to set the tone.