The Hand of Hur, Inc.
Archive for November, 2007
National Strike
Nov 28th
Today, more than half of Bolivia shut down in a strike that aimed to protest the governments latest actions. Six of the nine departments in Bolivia participated in this… Chuquisaca (Sucre), Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando. The government and their main followers, farmers and coca leaf growers, have become much more daring and bold over the past week or so. Yesterday, farmers cut off the entrance to the government’s opposition party in the Senate by creating a human fence around the Senate building. They only allowed the MAS (Movement Towards Socialism) party to enter. During their meeting they passed several bills that had been stuck for quite awhile in congress and also voted and approved unanimously to move the Constituent Assembly (The writing of the new Constitution) out of Sucre. These departments were also protesting the actions of the government over the weekend leading to confrontation with the people of Sucre that resulted in 3 civilian deaths, as well as attacks from the police on reporters in Sucre, and by peasants on several TV and radio stations in La Paz.
Many ask me what they think will happen in Bolivia, and while I’m not totally sure, there a few things that are certain. President Evo Morales and his people are decided to complete their agenda, whether that is done peacefully and legally, or by force and illegally. We have believed that this would be the case before the past week, but now he has proved to the world that he is not going to stop until he gets what he wants. Also I realize that at least half of Bolivia is totally against what this government is doing, and is willing to fight. It’s not something that I’d like to think about, but even the Vice-President has mentioned the possibility of civil war. Sadly, he wasn’t asking for peace, instead he was throwing out a battle-cry, warning the nation of the next step that would have to take place if the opposition did not back down. This happened a day before the events that unfolded here in Sucre over the past weekend…
We, as a church (not personally), have not taken sides on this issue. I’ve always felt that God loves people, whatever their political position is. I realize that God isn’t a Republican or a Democrat or a Socialist or a Communist. Democracy was never pushed in the Bible, so I can’t just get up and say… “this is what God wants”. That’s ridiculous. I also understand that many times when things get tough in a country, that is when people start recognizing their need for God. When all is well, people don’t feel the need, but when big problems come, people open up. But at the same time, it is hard to hold a neutral position in all of this. Sometimes I feel like getting out there and fighting too! 
I know better though… for those of you who wonder. 
What do you think? Comment on your ideas here!
We’re living in interesting times here in Bolivia, and especially in Sucre. Remember us in your prayers, please! We thank God because we know that he knows what he’s doing. That’s for sure.
I also wanted to let you know that I did put another photo album up with some pictures that I took on Monday, showing some of the destruction that was done to several of the police stations and headquarters after the police force withdrew from Sucre on Sunday. You can see all the photo album’s here… Photo Gallery Home, and you can go directly do the new album here… Sucre Aftermath Album. Blessings!
Jason
Anarchy
Nov 25th
This has been a crazy week here in Sucre. I don’t know how much everyone hears about Bolivian news, but what is happening here is worthy of International attention. For more than a year now, there has been a Constituent Assembly held here in Sucre. This Assembly is working on writing a new Constitution for Bolivia, one that supposedly will champion the poor, bring more equality to the people in Bolivia.
The problem is that the actual government, and the majority of those writing the new constitution are members of a socialist movement, and are trying as hard as they can to turn Bolivia into a socialist nation. Just to give you an idea, the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales has the closest international relations with Venezuela (Hugo Chavez) and Cuba (Fidel Castro). Evo is trying to do what Hugo Chavez has already done in Venezuela.
See more Photos of Protests
and Repression…
Anarchy Foto Gallery
This has not gone over well with a large part of Bolivia, including Sucre, where we are. The Constitutional Assembly has been blocked from working by different protesters and others who claim (and are correct) that those in the governments political party have broken the law in several of the things that they have tried to get done with this assembly. Well, this past Thursday, the majority party decided to move the location of the assembly to a military base outside of Sucre. They began sessions on Friday morning with only a little more than half of the constituents. Those from other parties decided to boycott the sessions because of the illegality of it all, but those who were there did meet the quorum, so they were able to continue. Since Friday, there have been huge protests, and thousands of protesters tried to get to the place where they were meeting to stop the assembly from continuing. There was violent police repression, tear gas and rubber bullets being shot at the protesters, wounding hundreds. This pushed the protesters to outrage, which brought even tougher repression. Last evening (Saturday), those from the presidents political party voted and approved unanimously the whole of their new constitution. Those who did this then escaped the city about 12:00 AM this morning, but protests and police repression didn’t stop.
Overnight, two people had been killed by bullets, and there is rumor that one police had been killed also. This morning the national director of the police in Bolivia directed that every person who works for the states police department to leave the city and to go to Potosí. After leaving, protesters took over all police headquarters in the city and literally burned all they could find. Prisoners in the jail escaped, and only a handful remain there now. Several TV stations went there and even interviewed those who had stayed, asking them why. They said that they wanted to finish off their terms without any other problems.
As of now, Sucre is without law, and things are crazy. We have suspended our normal 6:00 pm worship service, and will only meet there to pray with those who show up. We will be asking several of the single men in the church to stay there overnight to protect it from vandalism, something that is sure to happen in the city with the anarchy that we are living in right now.
Please keep us and Bolivia in your prayers… we need it. May God’s will come out of all of this.
Jason
Baby Born, Update on Return Home
Nov 24th
Hi Everyone!
It’s been quite awhile since I’ve written, but for good reason. As you know, we finally got back to Sucre in late August, after traveling to Buenos Aires, Argentina for a Cell Church conference that was being held there. After returning, we’ve been so very busy, especially with the church. We’ve also traveled several times after being home. I traveled to Cochabamba in September and to La Paz in October, and Norah went to La Paz for 2 weeks in early October also!
Derrick…
Anyways… here’s the BIG NEWS»»»»» Derrick Asher Skipper was born at 5:17 am on November 10th. He was born through a normal birth (Erynn was normal, Jordan was through a C-Section), weighing 7 lbs 1 oz and measuring 20.1 inches long. As both Erynn and Jordan, he’s fairly white skinned, brown eyed and darker hair. As far as we can tell, he’s totally healthy. He has been great since his birth, and as long as his stomach is full, he’s a happy camper. The kids just love him, although surprisingly Erynn is the one who seems most affected by it. She has been pretty sentimental ever since he was born. I guess that’s pretty normal for kids though. If you want to see more pictures of him (and I’m sure you do!), you can follow this link. Derrick’s “First Days” Album
Norah hasn’t had the same luck as Derrick. 
She’s had quite a few problems since his birth, and is just now recuperating from most things. He was born quickly that morning, and they didn’t even make it to the delivery room. Thank goodness we made it to the hospital! He was born on the bed in Norah’s room, and I had to yell for the nurses to come running, because I saw his head coming out!!! But with that quick birth, Norah was ripped up pretty badly down there, so she had to get several stitches. The next day, Sunday the 11th, she got her tubes tied (Tubal Ligation). That was supposed to be pretty simple, but when they opened her up, just under her belly button, they found her bladder was stuck to her uterus. So, they had to separate both of them to be able to get to her tubes. In that process, the bladder ripped, so she had to get stitches in it. She had a catheter put in afterwards, and was with that for about 9 days, until blood stopped coming out in her urine. She has also lost a lot of blood from her uterus. This past Wednesday we went to get a sonogram after 12 days of intense bleeding and pain, and found that she has Endometritis. Endometritis refers to inflammation of the endometrium, the inner lining of the uterus. Apparently she still has something in her uterus and it is causing quite a bit of problems, so she is now taking medicine that is causing her to have contractions again, hopefully to expulse all that is in there soon. Not fun, but she’s coping. She’s finally able to walk around some since she got the catheter taken out. Still she seems very weak, probably because of all of the lost blood. I’m not quite sure why, but she has had TOO many problems with the births and miscarriages that she has had… thank goodness this will be the last time!
Change of Plans
Since we’ve been back, one of our main goals has been to prepare the church for our leaving. That hasn’t been as easy as I would have wished, although it’s probably about as expected… We stated in our last letter that we would hopefully be heading back to the states in late December or early January. Let me just say out front that it isn’t going to happen. I have to admit that at times I am very impulsive, and one of the things in my mind was… “If we’re going to spend the rest of our lives planting and raising up a church in the United States, then I want to start as soon as possible!” I acknowledge now that that was some pretty poor thinking/planning.
The problem is this. We have something very important and special happening here in Sucre and in our church. This is the only truly growing church in the city, and it has become an important part of the national church in Bolivia. For us to leave here, we have to be able to leave it in a way that it won’t only “survive” our departure, but it will continue to grow the same or even more than it has up until now. After returning from our trip to the states, we realized that two important things were missing. Visionary leadership and finances. Let me explain…
While we were in the states, we maintained close contact with those who we left in charge of the church. They told us of the great things that God was doing, how he was moving, about miracles that were happening, etc. Upon our arrival here, we found that this truly was the case, but that most leaders were so excited about what was going on, that many of them were spending all of their time in the church, but quit holding their small group meetings. Since we left in June, and up until a few weeks ago, the church had pretty well stopped growing. Cell groups had closed and fewer and fewer new people were coming to the church. Since our return, we have had to work hard on getting people focused and back on track again. Finally things are going well again, as most of the cell groups that had closed have opened up again this month, along with several new ones. We’ve also had many new people in our services, which has been wonderful. Last Sunday over 20 people received the Lord after the sermon! Interestingly enough, the title of my sermon was “Losing My Religion”. 
So things are back on track as of now, but all of this has caused me to realize that several things are missing yet if we want to truly leave the church on a victorious path! Studies have shown that apart from intense passion and spirituality that is needed for church growth, there are two factors that make or break the growth of a church: 1) The church must have enough money to support itself and to also reach out and do many activities to impact the community and 2) The correct person must be in charge. If the wrong person is there, if the person who is at the top does not have the leadership skills necessary to move the church forward on a visionary path, then it’s almost a given that the growth will stop and quite possibly the church will fail.
Still We Feel God’s Calling
Even though we won’t be leaving in December or January, we still feel that God has called us to continue our ministry planting a church in the United States. I think that maybe we messed up on the timing some, but I don’t feel that we messed up on the calling… We are now working hard on organizing the church in a very efficient way, and also I am working hard on training Joel and Verónica, along with several other leaders in leadership skills. I’m trying to teach them all that I know and a whole lot more… (It’s a given that I don’t know a whole lot! ) 
We are also working hard on finding ways of increasing the income that the church generates itself. As of now, it gets by, but just barely. That’s not good. In any case, we HOPE, and I want to make that very clear that this is our WISH/HOPE, that we can return to the states sometime in June of 2008. We still are in contact with this Organization ELI (Emerging Leadership Initiative), and hope to continue with them after our return. Even so, we are totally adamant on this: We must leave this church on a path that will assure it’s continued spiritual and physical growth, and we will stay here until we are sure that will happen.
Conclusion
I had planned on writing quite a bit about all the crazy stuff that’s happening politically here in Sucre, but I realize that this has gotten very long. I will write about all of that in a later post. We ask that you would please pray for us, for our safety here in this crazy country, and for strength and guidance for all that we will be doing during the next few months. May God bless your lives richly, and thank you for everything!
Please write us or comment here at the end of this document! As you probably have noticed, I’ve been working on this new website model. Please let me know if you have any problems with it, since it still is in beta!
Love,
Jason, Norah, Erynn, Jordan & Derrick!!!
