Mission Trip to Chalice Child Sponsor Sites in Bolivia

Last week, 20 volunteers, one deacon who is part of the Chalice Deacon Speaker Program, and three Chalice staff members arrived in Santa Cruz, Bolivia for a solidarity mission trip to our sponsor sites there. We’re especially excited to have a dental component to this mission, with three hygienists and one dentist on the team who will be conducting clinics for children and elders from the community over the next several days.

We arrived late Saturday night, after transferring briefly through Panama City. To everyone’s frank surprise, we all made it and so did our luggage. This is no small feat, considering that the majority of us checked extra baggage filled with donations for the sites, or dental equipment (or in the case of the dental chair surrounded by teddy bears, both)!

Bright and early the next morning, we were on a domestic flight to our final destination, Cochabamba. Cochabamba is the agricultural and primary industry hub of the country. They call it the “Garden of Bolivia” because its perfect climate and fertile soils supply the country with all its fresh produce. Avocados, mangoes and papaya are in season now, so we have much to look forward to! It is a large city with a popular university.

Chalice has four sponsor sites in Cochabamba: Fatima, ASDC, Amanecer and PENNT. The majority of our mission activity will be happening at the Fatima Site, which serves several facilities, including a day care for children and a senior center. The Site Director is Fr. Jesús, and the Site Coordinator is Rudy, who has already had us up and dancing the merengue – this man wastes no time.

Upon our arrival in Cochabamba, we had a most unexpected surprise. We were greeted by about a dozen children and adults, with big welcome letters. Each of us were given small gift bags which contained some Bolivian-style popcorn, a hard candy, and a personalized message inside. The care and thoughtfulness of this welcome was humbling and so thrilling. We all agreed it was a major highlight of our day.

We had an opportunity to celebrate Mass together at the center’s chapel. Fr. Santiago admitted it was his first Mass in English, but if he hadn’t said so, we never would have guessed. It was a refreshing way to come together as a team – to put the flights and logistics behind us as we came together to share the Eucharist. Two seminarians accompanied Fr. Santiago and provided music on a classical acoustic guitar. We might not all speak English or Spanish, but the Hosannas and Alleluias were all the same in one Catholic universal church.

In the afternoon, we took a quick trip up to see Cristo de la Concordia – a massive statue of Christ atop a mountain, inspired by the renowned Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil.  (And this one is actually taller!)

At the end of the day, we reflected that gazing upon such an impressive presence of Jesus was deeply comforting – it felt like nothing could escape the reach of his outstretched arms. We’ll remind ourselves of that image, we’re sure, when the challenges and fatigue of mission service begins to sink in. It’s possible to go into the statue and climb to the top and walk around. We joked, “How many people can say they’ve been in the arms of Christ?” Deacon Phil, ever the voice of reason, reminded us, “All of us.”

And so here we are. The end of day one in Cochabamba and the eve of the beginning of our mission service, all in the arms of Christ.

— Kate Mosher, Creative Specialist & Photographer at Chalice