Mission Trip Report from Donna Dean

"Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father."

(Colossians 3:17)

My mission trip to Bolivia was amazing, just as all my mission trips have been. It was different and not what our team had expected. We had so many plans, and I might add that they were “perfect” plans. But as usual, when WE think WE have the plan, God usually has a different (and better) plan.

So as we started off with a lot of challenges and obstacles in our way, we had to step back, take a deep breath, and let God take the reins of OUR perfect plan. Some of our obstacles were:



  1. The country is experiencing a shortage of diesel fuel, so trucks and buses are not able to run effectively.
  2. The school was closed completely one day because there were no buses to come to pick up the students. The other days there were very limited students and at that there was a mixture of ages.
  3. The school does not operate in the afternoon.  So our teaching time was pretty short and condensed. 
  4. There were no English-to-sign-language interpreters for myself and one other lady. 

But God was good and helped us make some great progress.

We were able to share some Bible stories with 11 younger children and Luella, our team leader, shared the gospel with 31 older students. (It pretty much fell on her since she was the only one in our team that knows sign language and since our time was so short). Myself and the other lady did the crafts with the students and played games with them. It is a very cool concept because all the crafts and games reflect a message that relates to the stories. And, of course, we shared lots of smiles and hugs.

Luella was able to share, teach, and advise a room full of parents of deaf children and teachers on helping and encouraging the deaf children. During this time, she also shared the gospel YEA!

We attended church on Sunday. Amazing, but didn’t know anything that was going on. The deaf group had an interpreter and the hearing understood the message that was in Spanish. But I got a lot of handshakes and hugs. By the way, did I mention that hugging is big, really big, in Bolivia? 

Luella taught an SS class to the deaf before church began. So 21 more people heard the gospel. Did I mention, Luella is amazing?


The highlight was that we were able to show the Jesus film that is in sign language to 42 deaf people in the town of Sucre. My teammate and I kept children that were 12 and younger, so their parents could watch the film. Hated that I didn’t get to see the film, but was glad God gave me a job and purpose. We had games and activities for the kids to do. I was told that after the film there were tears and lots of emotions.

So the trip was different from my past trips and different from what I thought it would be. But, in the end, God had His way, and we followed His lead and I believe lives were changed and many seeds planted. And I guess you can’t expect everything to go great being our first trip to Bolivia. But now with some experience, another trip should be better. And I did eat some AMAZING food. Yes, a little weight gain. Oh, yes, and I did get a little bit of altitude sickness, even though I took meds for that. Just one day and I was fine. Well except for breathing. It’s hard to breathe up that high!! 


So many thanks for prayers for my trip.

You guys are the best.

Donna




"Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God,

be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen."

(I Timothy 1:17)