Greetings!
As we endeavour to love and serve others, seeing signs of hope and healing is life-giving. Read about some of the ways we work alongside our partners to embrace a broken world through word and deed.
Ready to Read 
We are currently rolling out a humble but hopeful initiative called Listo para Leer (Ready to Read) to help promote early childhood reading through a network of ministries. Access to children’s literature is minimal in Bolivia with almost no lending libraries and an absence of regular reading practices with children. Of course, more marginalized neighbourhoods and rural communities receive little in the way of meaningful reading time.
Our partners explored how to integrate reading into already existing children’s projects. These include large centers like the Casa de la Amistad which serves children with parents in prison, small church initiatives that care for vulnerable children in their neighbourhoods, and isolated schools in rural areas where we work in community health. In collaboration with these ministries, we’re providing training on the importance of reading for early childhood development as well as helping to develop a rich collection of books located on site.
Reading involves far more than the skill itself. It is about who we read with, how we choose to build our families and communities, and the vision books help us capture and live into together.
Growing Something Good
We have the opportunity to partner with many isolated rural communities that regularly experience a lack of water and food diversity.
Together with local schools, we’re responding with a drip irrigation garden program.
Through this initiative, children and their families learn a form of gardening that conserves water and promotes greater diversity in produce. Some communities have even been fitted with solar-powered water pumps to bring water in from nearby rivers. This initiative enables school children to diversify their diet and inspires families to expand what they themselves produce through innovative methods.
Latrines 
We may not give much thought to the importance of available toilets with adequate privacy, but this is a luxury for many globally. Recognizing this challenge, a pilot latrine initiative has recently been incorporated into a broader health and well-being project for rural communities.
Context is key when working with families, and locals are the first to admit that when structures are too nice and well enclosed it’s tempting to use them for storage.
In dialogue, it was proposed that replacing wood doors with curtains would ensure these bathrooms remained used for their original purpose. Families now have a safe place to go to the washroom and do not need to worry about contaminating their water sources. Designed with their input and specific needs in mind, we’re excited to see communities begin to keenly adopt these practical washrooms.
Fires and Floods
While Canada suffers the pendulum swing of scorching to freezing temperatures, Bolivia moves from wet to dry season. Earlier this year some regions suffered flooding, and we were able to collaborate with local churches who were mobilizing to support communities who lost their crops and livelihoods.
Right now, Bolivia is witnessing the worst wildfires the Amazon rainforest has experienced in over 20 years. With over 4 million hectares already burned, many communities have been evacuated, smoke has affected air quality resulting in schools closing for a period, and the damage to the Amazon’s biodiversity is tragic. CBM is currently partnering with Bolivian Baptists in an effort to raise funds and gather supplies to support those fighting the fires on the front lines.
Prayer Requests
- Praise God that we finally have Malena’s citizenship papers and Canadian passport in hand.
- Pray for us as we plan to come to Canada and visit our supporting churches in 2025.
- Pray for our Bolivian partners as they implement creative solutions in response to the challenges and opportunities they see.
- Pray for those in Bolivia who are most affected by the current environmental emergencies.
Blessings,
Tim & Kallie
Connect with Us
You can learn more about us and our ministry by visiting our website at timandkallie.com
Reach us by email at: thutton@cbmin.org / khutton@cbmin.org
Become a Partner in Mission with us:
If you are not currently partnering with us, we would love to see you participate financially in this work. You can donate online at cbmin.org. You can also donate by contacting Barb Keys by phone at 905-821-3533 or by email at bkeys@cbmin.org
