I'm home! It feels so weird. Everything is so...neat and clean and pretty...and rich. And busy. It's back to the rat race. I got home Tuesday the 9th at midnight. The next day I was out helping my dad dig footings for our front walk. We're putting in paving stones. Besides that I've managed to unpack, do my finances, clean out my room, tear my car apart and clean out the mice nests that were in my heating system, preach a couple sermons, go to the doctor, dentist, and optomitrist, and a hundred other little things.

Putting up a new hut to shelter our future carpenteria.

Little and cute (above) or big and ugly ( the snake, not Geraldo, below). The critters here come in every category imaginable. I'd love to bring that little water turtle home with me, but I doubt he would survive the trip. As for the boa there, survival was not an option, (actually we found him dead on the road) and his hide is currently curing in my back yard.

Another one of God's creatures.

So we've been studying the middle ages in sophomore class and so naturally we discussed castles. I told the kids how I used to make sand castles on the beach with my brother and they were intrigued. Then I remembered the pile of sand in our front yard that we're going to use to stucco the house and I thought "yeah buddy." So there's the final masterpiece. The sand wasn't the best, but we made it work. The students had a blast anyway. As did I, I must admit. So we pretty much just had a sandblastin' time. The girls actually really got into it and even made flags for it later on and named it capitol of the Carolingian empire, and it stands even to this day. Pretty impressive for a sand castle, especially since it was assaulted by the two dogs this morning as they went for their morning frolic.

This is our tech. center, otherwise known as Ruan and Tara's living room. Quality, let me tell you. As you can see, we have a phone now, thanks to an antenna we just put up. Is that wild or what? It's so weird to hear the phone ring again. Actually to be honest it can be quite an annoying sound. Especially when you have to run half way across campus to tell someone they have a phone call. But anyway... we're on the map now. We exist. We've already had half a dozen phone calls including one from Mexico, so we're definitely on the grid. We're back on the power grid too, thanks to John for conveniently remembering a 500 watt inverter that he had tucked away in his suitcase. (Our previous two inverters have been fried by overdraw.) It took two weeks of working by candle power for him to remember his possession. (For which we all had a good laugh.) So now we are all enlightened. I guess it just takes two weeks worth of candle light to add up to enlightenment.
Oh yeah, if you want to call some time, the country code is 591 and the number is 7-160-2548. The best time to call is probably between 8-9 pm which is 4-5 pm your time (5-6 after daylight savings time goes into effect for you, because they don't have daylight savings time here) or Sabbath afternoon. So how do you like that? Probably not too much when you find out how much it costs. I'm guessing it's not cheap.

So the first week of school is over. Wow is it ever hard to teach in a foreign language! But God is helping me out big time. He's so cool like that. Fortunately I only teach every other day, which is just about perfect becuase it takes me pretty much all day to prepare my lectures and plan homework and in-class activities. And then there's the grading. It wouldn't be so bad if I had a teacher's edition with answer keys. But no such luck. Me and the English-Spanish dictionary sit and wade through stacks of papers together hours at a time. I just finished grading the freshman quizzes by candlelight. It was pretty depressing. Almost all of them failed. I would have blamed it on myself except that the only student who has complained about having a hard time understanding me so far got 90% on her quiz -- the best of the class. Obviously she's at least trying to understand me! But really, if the kids had read and studied what I assigned they would have done better even if they couldn’t understand much of my in-class lecture. Isn’t that the way it goes?

If you can't describe it, draw it. Pictures can save a lot of talking.

Explaining Assyrian siegecraft to my freshmen class.

It's amazing to me how ignorant these kids are of basic world geography. A lot of them can't even name the seven continents of the world let alone locate them on a map. I kind of get the feeling that they haven't been able to look at maps very much. The juniors couldn't tell me what continent England is in, and the freshman didn't have a clue where to find Egypt. Europe, Asia, South America, and North America were some of the guesses I got as to the location of the latter. Another particularly creative response placed Egypt "in Mesopotamia in North America on the banks of the Nile." At least he got the river right. But my personal favorite showed up on three different papers almost word for word, so it looks like we'll be having a little meeting with the ad. council about academic integrity, or the lack thereof in this case. Sad stuff. Cheating just seems to be a natural and accepted thing to do here. Anyway, I hope we can teach these kids to be honest. And hopefully I can teach them a little geography while I’m at it. So the answer that gave the cheaters away was “Egypt is located in South America, a part of Africa.” Ouch. But my class is not the only place the kids are having trouble. The other teachers are also noticing a general lack of basic knowledge in mathematics, science, literature, and even reading comprehension. Most of the students don’t have any idea how to work with time either. One of the questions John asked on his first quiz was “how many seconds are in a day?” One student’s response was “22.” Another one said “15 minutes or something like that,” and several even went so far as to ask “aren’t seconds and minutes the same thing?” Wow. Unbelievable. These are highschool kids and they have no concept of time or how to work with it. The whole sad situation does seem to shed some light on the culture here however. It’s no wonder that few people are ever on time, events are often late, and exact schedules rarely seem to exist. The question that remains though is whether they don’t want to learn about time because it’s not important to them, or if it’s not important to them because they haven’t learned how to keep it? Are they habitually late because they don’t know how to keep time, or is it because they just don’t think it’s important? And if they don't think its important, why should it matter? What makes me think that I should impose my concept of time on them? I do still think they should know how to figure out how many seconds are in a day though. That's just simple math.

Dianna and Rosalia during their first day of school ever. They were so excited, it was precious.

school starts
Going over the schedule and the handbook
"The handshake" The famous highschool welcoming activity.

We're hoping that this tower, or one like it will eventually bring internet to our school. Wouldn't that be something?
At the corner marker of the school property on a Sabbath afternoon excursion.

That white string you see is a worm from the inside of a smashed cockroach.

Just another critter
Bat in the outhouse

Another breach in the dike

Trying to drill a new well

B-e-a-utiful. Yep, that's how you spell that.

Big news! Looks like I'll be teaching history and geography for the freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. Or primero, segundo, and tercero as they call them. I have no textbook yet, (I'm supposed to pick it up tomorrow) don't know the grading system or curriculum, and can barely speak, let alone read in Spanish. Wild huh? I'm excited though. What an opportunity! A lot of the students are non-adventist and I'm praying God will give me wisdom and skill to share His love with them. In other words, I've been praying for the gift of tongues! Just kidding. But I have been praying for help to learn Spanish. Maybe this teaching position is a partial answer to that prayer. It'll be a work out at any rate.

Enrique's house gets a roof
Cafeteria under construction

Had a little too much excitement the other night. Ruan and I were playing keep-the-frisbee-away from Busman (their dog) tonight after supper. I tossed one of my signature errant throws, the kind that curves away from the reciever as he tries to run it down, inevitably escaping his last desperate lunge by a fraction of a centimeter. (I do not throw this variety purposefully just for the record.) Anyhow, just at that last crucial second when player and disc try to connect, Ruan went down. It looked like a pretty hard fall, but nothing worse than the usual result of a last-ditch lay-out for the catch. But unlike usual, Ruan didn't bounce right back up. "Are you okay?" I called out as I hurried over. He didn't respond immediately and in that split second I knew something wasn't right. Earlier that evening I had stumbled in the same area where Ruan now lay sprawled, so I knew what was there.
"No, I'm not okay" he replied as he looked down. By this time I had reached his side and what I saw flipped one end of my stomach over the other, pulled it through the resulting loop, and cinched it down so hard I could hardly breathe. His left foot was impaled on a 3/8 inch shaft of re-rod like a hotdog on a roasting stick. The tip of the iron was pretruding at the back of his ankle and on the verge of breaking out right next to his achilles tendon.
"Fawna!" I hollared. "Come quick!" Ruan was soon surrounded by several concerned faces arguing about whether or not to extricate the offending rebar immediately or wait until we had something to use to slow the insuing gush of blood. By this time the initial shock had worn off and Ruan was in excruciating pain. Fawna arrived with a dressing and we extracted the rod as quickly and smoothely as possilbe. (I never would have thought that being derailed could be such a good thing. Didn't look any less painful though.) The next hour or so was crazy with a dozen or us running everywhere for a dozen different things. Hydrogen peroxide, charcoal, water, gauze...Ruan started to go into shock so I ran for a blanket. Praise God that Fawna wasn't gone! She's an RN and cleaned and stitched the wound. She was so calm and knew just what to do. Fortunately Ms. Susie had left some lydocane as well which was a HUGE blessing, as it brought some relief to poor Ruan, which in turn made the rest of us feel better too. As did the fact that the re-rod missed his ankle bone and achilles tendon by a mere fraction of an inch. God is good! So now we just have to keep administering charcoal and keep praying that the wound won't get infected.

Fawna stitching up Ruan's foot

Enrique drives the ogre through a downpour just the day before the steering column broke.
Cotton ball sunset
One mighty tree stands tall against the approaching storm. Is that a good object lesson or what?

Howdy folks

I'm back with another one. Be sure and let me know if you ever get tired of the incessant bombardment of newsletters and I'll take you off the mailing list. The trouble is, I just can't keep up with God! He keeps pouring out the blessings faster than I can chug! My cup is running over and all down the front of my shirt and I'm soaking wet! Pretty much saturated. And I just have to share the love. You know, that's really a great analogy for this place, because it takes a negative aspect of life here and gives it a positive connotation. I'm always wet here, whether its from the rain or the humidity or the creek or more often from my own persperation. I've almost forgotten what it feels like to stay dry. But now I can think of it as a good thing right? Like an innundation of God's blessings. While I'm on the subject of wetness, the weather over the last couple of weeks has been incredible! We're smack in the middle of rainy season. Guess what that means? That means WETNESS. It rains every day. Hard. Once in awhile it even rains all day long, which makes it kind of hard to get much work done, especially when cement is involved. So guess what God did? He shut off the water to our shower and cranked on the blessings. That's right. I'm pretty sure we're in a shower of blessings. The sun is shining, and an occasional rainbow pinstripes the sky just to remind us Who turned off the faucet. Of course every now and then the faucet drips. But we can work with that! Keeps our mud (cement mortar) from drying out! Enrique's house is up with the roof on now, and we have a good start on the cafeteria. We wouldn't have gotten nearly so much done if God hadn't held back the rain. David also got back from Santa Cruz safely with our Toyota Landcruiser. I tell you what, that made for a nice ride to town today! God just keeps blessing and looking out for us.

The mission troup from Laurelbrook and Heritage academies (Tenn) arrived here the 26th of Jan right in the middle of a moster rainstorm. It was a miracle they were even able to land since they flew with Amazonas, an airline that doesn't usually land here during such foul weather. The runway is just dirt and the small wheels on their planes easily get stuck in the slop. But they made it, and that saved us a three hour trip to Riberalta where we would have had to pick them up if they didn't land here. So we crammed them all in the back of the truck, all 28 of them, and headed for the school. There was so much flooding from the downpour that the road was totally washed out at one point. Or I should say it was washing out. Jeff just gunned it and we took a good bounce through the torrent. I think at least half of us in the back were airborn for a split second. But the jolt was well worth getting through without getting stuck! We got to the school around 6 pm. It was interesting to observe the various reaction as the kids checked out accomodations...thatched dwellings and clapboard latrines.

But the next day, Friday, was downright wild. I went to town to help make window and door frames for the duplex (staff housing). We actually ended up making the boards for the frames from derounded logs. Jeff, Enrique, Ruan and I were exausted after wrestling the massive hulks through the planer and the undersized tablesaw, which had to take each piece twice for a doublecut due to the thickness of our logs. It was a beast of a job. But the real excitement came on the trip back out to the school. We were hauling along at a decent clip when we lost steering and a bit a hard left into the jungle before Enrique could get us stopped. The ball joint on the steering column had come completely off. Besides that, the front of the truck was buried past the axle in the mud. But praise the Lord no one was hurt! God was surely looking out for us because we had just crossed the bridge where such an accident could easily have resulted in fatalities. Just beyond our crash site the bank drops away much more steeply and if we had gone off there we probably would have rolled. As it was it was a miracle that no one was hurt as we took quite a slam when we left the road. We attempted to back out, but the rig was hopelessly stuck, so we flagged down a passing truck and I caught a ride to the school driveway and then ran the remaining mile to get help. Armed with shovels, lights, a jack, and some 4x4 blocks we rushed to the rescue. It was already almost sundown. "What a way to start the Sabbath" I thought. "But we have an ox in the ditch that needs pulled out." (Leaving a truck full of supplies on the side of the road is not a smart thing to do, not to mention the people who needed to get home) After almost 2 hours of painstakingly raising the truck inches at a time we finally got it high enough to get it off its belly and up on the 4x4's. Then we gathered in a circle for prayer. "Lord, thank you for this beautiful night where we've been sitting here looking at the stars" Jeff's opening sentence made me grin since we'd actually been under the truck digging. But maybe it was for the benefit of the lady passengers who had been patiently waiting for us. "And now it's Your Sabbath and we have an ox that needs pulle dout of the ditch" Jeff continued, repeating my earlier thoughts. "We just pray for Your help and that we can get it out on the 1st try so we can get back. Thank You and praise You, amen."

Sure enough, with a little extra persuasion from 4 of us pushing on the front, (and who knows maybe even an angel nudging it with his pinkie) we got 'er back on the road on the 1st attempt. It took another hour to limp the 6 or 8 remaining kilometers to the school because the jimmy rigged steering column kept coming apart. Also the night was black as tar mixed with molasses (such sticky substances naturally slow you down) and the big truck has no lights right now and had to rely on the jeep to show the way. So we got into the school at about 10:15 famished and exhausted, but praising God for food and beds and keeping us alive to enjoy both.

And there's more... Part of the scaffolding fell the other day along with the three guys standing on it. Apparently they exceeded the weight capacity for the one nail holding up their board. But they had a nice flight down complete with safe landing, so we praise the Lord for that. As well as that neither Ruan or Tara were bitten by the poisonous snake that was lurking in their house behind their laundry bin. The locals say you have an hour or two to live if you get bitten by that particular variety and can't get treatment in time. It is so incredible to see how God looks out for us! And I know I haven't seen anything yet! But what is even more amazing to me is the faith and peace that God gives. He can bring someone to the point that even if they were bitten by the poisonous snake, they would believe that God could still save them and yet be at peace and trust God through whatever result. Complete and perfect trust in God is a beautiful thing. So is hearing God's voice He speaks to you. ms. Susie woke up in the middle of the night a couple weeks ago with the distinct impresision to check on Honako (one of the students from LBA). She did and found her blood sugar had dropped dangerously low. A few nights later, the same girl went into antiphilactic shock. Praise the Lord we had several epenephrine pins out here. One would have been insuffecient as Fawna accidentally stuck herself with the first one!

And then there have been all the little blessings. Way too many to tell about. But best of all are the spiritual blessings and seeing God at work changing attitudes and lives as we labor for Him. Seeing kids come in complaining about everything and then two weeks later not wanting to leave. In fact, two of them are planning to come back as student missionaries next year!

David Gates stopped by the school last week and shared some experiences with the group for evening worship. It is powerful to hear what God has done with that man's life. It was a real inspiration. His stories helped me remember that God is still the same God as the One portrayed in the stories of the Bible. He is able and willing to do exceedingly abundantly ABOVE ALL that we can ask or even think! God works in the superlative like that. 'Cause He is superlative. He astounds me. We can't begin to imagine what He can do with a completely surrendered life. If we would just throw ourselves and everything we posess into God's work, what miracles might we see? I think our most fantastic dreams and imaginings would be as simple nothings in comparison. What would keep us from surpassing even the giants from Heb chapter eleven, who through faith subdued entire kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, sis kabobbed that roaring lion the devil, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, and even received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance at the expense of God’s honor. Others were mocked and scourged and imprisoned. They were stoned, sawn asunder, tempted, slain of the sword. They wandered about in animal skins, homeless, destitute, afflicted, and tormented…Yet God’s strength and grace and power were always sufficient. He has no limits. He dwells in the realm beyond infinity, beyond time, beyond space, beyond eternity, beyond all the forces of evil. And He offers to let us join Him there. Wild huh? I love it!
Makes me wonder what we're waiting for. Just give it all. You can't out-give God, I promise you that! I know, 'cause I'm still soakin' wet. :)

I know, I'm a redundant often repeating broken record. But I figured if I post my mass emails here, you can delete them and thus free up valuable inbox space. Also there are some people who access my blog who aren't on my mailing list. So here it is again.

"The greatest of them yet"
Hey everyone

I hope your holidays were happy and full of cheer and safe travel.

Before I get on to the news items, I think I should repeat the warning from the subject of the email. "The greatest of them yet..." refers to the size of this report. It is el ultimo grande, gigante, newsletter yet to arrive from this Bolivian jungle to clog your respective inboxes. So I hope you all have a few extra spare moments. Or you might consider reading it one section at a time. So on to the news...

I think the last time I reported was in November and John and I were on our way to help out with some evangelistic meetings in San Ignacio de Moxos. We were there for about a week and helped with visitation and special musics. John even made an appearance on local television to invite people to the meetings. Attendance wasn't huge, but God blessed. It isn't about numbers anyway right? There is rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents! If only one person came and accepted Jesus it would be worth all the effort. That's something I've been beginning to understand a little bit better through my work down here. God's love is SO incredibly amazing! I don't reflect on it enough.

Unfortunately John and I weren't able to stay in San Ignacio until the end of the series because our visas were about to expire and we had to stamp out of the country. So we headed for LaPaz and then the Peruvian boarder. Traveling down here is always an adventure. We made as far as Santa Cruz without incident, but the 16 hour bus ride from Santa Cruz to La Paz turned into a 23 hour ordeal. Seems as though some teachers in a little town about two or three hours from LaPaz decided they weren't being paid enough and that everyone traveling the main road needed to know about it. So what do you suppose is the best way to accomplish that? Put up a billboard maybe? "Underpaid teachers...donations accepted next exit." Not a chance. That would be rediculous! So how about a roadblock. That's right. Throw some rocks on the road and don't let anyone move them. "You shall not pass". I think the Bolivian version would be "no pase." But whatever...the point is that the command is emphatic and you durst not disobey unless you want to receive bodily harm. Running roadblocks is just not a good idea down here. Fortunately you can detour. Our first attempt to circumvent the blockage consisted of a little off road jaunt through some fields, but the locals, who were beginning to remind me of Edomites, discovered our plot and denied passage once again. So we joined the disgruntled caravan of rerouted traffic and headed into the wilderness. But the wilderness too set its will against us. After wandering on small winding roads for several hours, we passed through a village and came to a huge dry lake bed where the road disintegrated into a mere track. In the distance I could see the carcases of two buses and several trucks with their passengers milling about them like scavengers disturbed from their meal. The stalled vehicles were all tilted at various bizarre angles, their low sides swallowed by the sand. But the dismal panorama did not deter our bus driver. We forged onward, ever closer to the ghastly spectacle. We would not relent. We would pass or go down in the attempt. We went down. Everyone piled out, murmuring and complaining in at least 3 different languages. The left side our bus was sunk up to the axle. Someone produced a shovel from somewhere on board. No doubt they carry it specifically for such predicaments. Some of us took turns digging with it and various other implements (like our hands) while others brought rocks to put under the wheels. Half a dozen portly señoras directed operations. Each one seemed to possess her own great wisdom for how to remedy the situation. It was rather humorous really. So with the help of their excellent counsel we were soon ready for an attempt to free ourselves. Everyone put their shoulders to the bus and pushed as the driver gunned the engine. All was going well until he decided to turn the wheel. And just like that we were back in the muck up the axle. So we went back to our digging. Eventually someone showed up with a tractor from the village we had passed. It pulled us out and we were good to go. We carefully threaded our way through several more kilometers of lake bed before we reached terra firma. It was a miracle we didn't get stuck again. So we got to LaPaz around 4:30, just in time to catch our bus to Lima. Clearly the Good Lord was looking out for us! And He gave me a good story while He was at it.

We spent about a week and a half in Peru and then headed back to Bolivia. I don't know if any of you saw it on the news, but the Bolivian elections were taking place at that time (Dec 18). Evo Morales, (the candidate who won the elections) is reputed to be anti-US and on good terms with Castro and Chavez. This along with the widespread political division and the history of political unrest here in Bolivia made us think it wise to wait in Peru until after elections. But everything was peaceful, praise the Lord! We did get held up in LaPaz for one night because there were no bus departures. Bus drivers were striking (for reasons unrelated to the elections) so we caught a flight to Santa Cruz. We got the last two seats on the plane.

Originally I hadn´t planned to stay long in Santa Cruz, but the missionaries there asked me to stay for awhile and help and since no one was here at the school at that time anyway, I thought I might as well. There is a TV station based there in Santa Cruz and I did a little maintenance work for them. Mowed the grass, cleaned the storm drains, and did some painting. On Sabbath I helped out with a children's meeting at the women's prison. The following week I helped hand out food baskets to poor families and assisted with a VBS in one of the poor neighborhoods. We had about 200 kids and it could get crazy at times. There is so much need there. The children's ministry they have going there in Santa Cruz is huge with several branch Sabbath schools in different places. Susan Grady, the missionary who operates them is headed back to the states this month and they are looking for someone to take over for her. So if you know someone who might be interested, I could put them in touch with the Gradys.

I also took the opportunity to see a doctor while I was in Santa Cruz. I could have done that up here in Guayaramarin, but I felt better about it in a bigger city with better facilities. Anyway, turns out I had gihardia and that's why I've been sick the last couple months. It's a huge relief to be rid of that and the problems it was causing! I definitely plan to be EXTRA careful about what I eat and drink from now on. Nothing but bottled sealed and cooked for this boy.

So now I'm back at the school. We're scrambling to get ready for a mission group that is coming in a week and a half to help build the cafeteria. We're hoping to have the foundations done so they can go right to work on the structure. (Incidentally, we'll be needing to furnish the cafeteria with cookware and such and if any of you are interested in helping with that I can put you in touch with Jeff. He can tell you specifics and make sure we don't get duplicates).

And we're getting a new vehicle! This is another HUGE blessing because the jeep we had was very old and unreliable. David will be driving it up here over the next few days from Santa Cruz, Lord willing.

A lot of people have been coming to inquire about sending their kids to school here this March when the school year starts. It's a great opportunity to tell them what we're about. We plan to accept 30 students this year. Ten more than last year. This is the schools third year and every year they add a grade so next year we'll be a complete high school with 9th through 12th.

Well that's all for now. Thank you all for your prayers and support. It is huge. God is doing awesome things. I'm also praying for all of you that God will bless you and bring you ever closer to Him. It is only as we focus on Jesus that we can have true peace and joy and ultimate success. Many blessings to you all in this new year.

With you in His service

Kody Kostenko