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Mission Report: Bolivia Team
by Stefan Murry
The summer 2025 pilgrimage to Bolivia was my fourth trip to visit Mission Amistad, having previously gone in 2018, 2019, and 2024 (2020-2023 were interrupted by pandemic travel restrictions). Each time I’ve made the trip, I return re-energized with the knowledge that the Holy Spirit is at work through so many people who are dedicated to nurturing some of His most vulnerable children.
Having made my first trip seven years ago, I’ve been blessed to see many of the children grow up at La Villa (the “neighborhood” created by Amistad to house the children and provide recreational, educational, spiritual, and administrative facilities for them). My return trips feel like visiting with distant family and watching in stop action as their children grow a little more each summer. Over the years, I’ve seen little ones in their first days at Amistad (often quiet and even fearful) grow into outgoing, risk-taking, smart, vivacious, and fully formed children who know that their “amigos” love them and, most importantly, that God loves them. The transformation is absolutely breathtaking and so worth the trip down each year.
There are few places I’ve visited where the presence of the Holy Spirit is so plainly evident every single day. Being in His presence and sharing that experience with His children has been a transformative experience for me.
The close friendships formed between the visitors and the children (and staff) are what attract me most to this ministry. Amistad means friendship in Spanish, and so the “job” of the visitors is nothing more (and nothing less) than to demonstrate God’s kindness and love by showing up and being friendly to some children who, without Amistad, could very well go through their lives never experiencing what it means to be loved.
In practice, what does this look like? What, exactly, do we DO when we go down there?
We play (a lot) on the playground. We talk. We sit with them doing various arts and crafts. We take them to visit the world’s largest statue of Christ. We treat them to ice cream. We take them on outings to parks. We attend the Sunday service with them. We play pickleball with them. We take them to dinner. We pray for them, and with them, in daily chapel. We laugh. We cook hamburgers and have a picnic. We get to know their dreams and their frustrations.
In short, we do what friends do.
I shared in chapel during this trip that there are few places I’ve visited where the presence of the Holy Spirit is so plainly evident every single day. Being in His presence and sharing that experience with His children has been a transformative experience for me. A cobblestone path leads from the administration building to the various houses where the children reside at La Villa. Lining the sides of the path is a low rock retaining wall. Shade trees grow along the sides of the path. When I walk this path (often hand-in-hand with one of the children), I imagine Jesus sitting on the wall, shaded by the trees, with children scattered at his feet, laughing and telling stories to His kids. That’s Amistad.