La Palmera C.C.C. | Building and Construction

New Secondary School Classroom

Financial resources in Bolivia for the support of Christian work are very limited, especially in areas outside the country’s axis of development, La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, where all money in the country is invested generating employment and wealth usually denied to rural Bolivia.

Politically speaking, Bolivia is Western dependent economy. More than 60% of its National budget comes from foreign aid. This reality is reflected in the development of Christian work and the need for support from external agencies almost in the same proportion than the country, or even more, as the majority of believers in the country are from very poor stratum.

Nevertheless, “La Palmera” CCC from its very beginnings has encouraged community participation in any measure in the development of its projects and programs. In this way, classic missionary paternalism has been kept out of the picture but external aid has been welcomed as a vehicle for development and achievement of sustainability of the different projects improving the quality of life and services in the community.

It was by local effort that “La Palmera” CCC acquired its first plot of land and built its first rooms for its activities. It was by the generosity of sponsors in UK, USA and Canada that more land was bought and a building to allow the expansion of the work amongst its continually increasing number of beneficiaries. The sum of these two efforts represents clearly the concept of biblical equality “the one who has much has not leftovers and the one who has little has not lacks” (2 Cor.8:15) and explain the great difference between community development as a Christian missionary work and community development as a government work. The first one usually achieving a lot with very little, the second one usually making money disappear in the pockets of politicians.

Church under construction

In the two decades, “La Palmera” CCC has grown from 500 sq. meters of land to 5,000 sq. meters (1.25 acres) and from a little room of 27 by 45 feet into a two story building with room for 12 classrooms, 2 labs, school library, 2 in-suite rooms for 20 people each, rooms for offices and storage, bathrooms and showers for men & women, school drinking fountain, chapel and recreational spaces. We are still far away from having a completely finished building but the rough work is done and we have a roof over our heads and thanks to our good weather most time of the year we can use all our spaces under the roof for most activities in the center.

Same story in equipping the place. A great effort has been made locally to acquire the basic tools for our work but thanks to sponsors’ generosity, more school and medical equipment has been acquired as well as equipment for the administrative work.

Building and Equipment are still below our real level of performance but we trust the Lord for all our needs and pray for the complexion of all our premises and the acquisition of all our equipment for the school and the administrative work. There is a long way to go, but the Lord has been always faithful as we have proof time after time to be good stewards with what little we have had.