Apart from being church workers, Pete and Linda are an agriculturalist and a vet respectively. Since June this year, they have moved to live and work in a small town called Apolo at the foot of the Andes – but still some 1400 metres above sea level. Until a few years ago, Apolo was cut off for most of the rainy season, and has had electricity for all of one year. Development has come late for the Quechua inhabitants, but life is improving. And it is to help with this, that Pete and Linda have been sent by Latin Link to work with the churches in Apolo.
The churches, especially in the rural communities, are often poor and struggling. Pete and Linda’s vision is that these churches can be encouraged to become involved in agricultural development work. Pete says: ‘In the villages, people don’t produce much that they can sell except coca leaf – apart from that, they just grow food for their own consumption. The churches in the communities are very weak for lack of good leadership. The church needs to seek ways it can be really relevant in people’s lives here.’
The indigenous peoples of Latin America have often been left to fend for themselves in the more remote parts of the continent. Their life often consists in subsistence farming on poor soil, and can therefore suffer from malnutrition, especially when crops fail. Part of Pete’s work will be to establish a garden so they can experiment with growing various crops so that the local people can produce more nutritious harvests, both for themselves and for sale in the towns.
Of course, this doesn’t just involve working on the land. The churches themselves also need training so that they can be active in their communities.
Although Apolo is a town ‘at the end of the road’ – from the main city of La Paz, a mere twelve hours away, the road climbs to 4500 metres, before dropping down again towards Apolo, – it is in a lush valley with a tropical climate; even in winter you can spend a pleasant afternoon sitting outside. Pete and Linda ask for prayer that they might ‘work out where the main needs are and how to address them, and find a few good people to work alongside us – as well as being able to communicate well in the local Quechuan language.’
For more information on Pete and Linda’s work, go to www.latinlink.org
Tags: Bolivia, Latin Link