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Thiu Rancho, the major MUMC
Outreach Mission Project, is located in Bolivia, South America.
Bolivia is a fascinating, colorful country; a country of
superlatives. It is a country which claims the highest navigable
lake in the world, the highest airport, the highest golf course,
the highest ski run, the highest capital city and a country
where over half of the population lives at an altitude of 12,000
feet or higher.
Approximately 70% of the 8
million population live below the poverty level. The average
earnings is 1 to 2 US dollars per day. The people survive from
subsistence farming. They live in adobe houses with no running
water or adequate sanitation systems. Very few families have
electricity or telephones. The school system is inadequate and
many children drop out before the secondary level. Young
children take care of younger siblings while the adults are
working in the fields or away from home. Alcoholism is high
which leads to all forms of violence, abuse, desperation and in
many cases, abandonment of the children or death of one or both
parents. No one in the society is left unaffected. There is a
great need for assistance – social, spiritual, educational,
economic, and health. Thiu Rancho Mission Center offers this
help.
The Thiu Rancho Mission center is
named after the Thiu Rancho community located about 30 km. from
the city of Cochabamba in the central part of the country. It is
a national church project under IEMB, Iglesia Evangelica
Metodista en Bolivia. The mission of the project is to build the
Kingdom of God, seeking transformation of individuals, human
relationships, and our relationship to the creation through a
full commitment to Jesus Christ.
Several of
the programs offered at Thiu Rancho include:
- A
Montessori preschool includes a breakfast and health
program.
- An
after school library program utilizes young tutors from the
community who support the children in their academic
studies. This program includes Christian formation,
nutritious meals and computer skills.
- An
integrated health program for children and their caregivers
provides primary health care and education.
- A
mom’s group was formed to support the empowerment of women
and their families in the Thiu Rancho community.
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Discipleship courses are offered 4 times per year for
continuing and supportive education for Bolivian Methodist
pastors.
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Thiu Rancho is a retreat center that offers comfortable and
adequate infrastructure for conferences, retreats, seminars
and workshops for the Methodist church and other groups.
Thiu Rancho truly embodies the
Methodist doctrine of supporting the body and the soul. We are
grateful for the dedication and hard work of Gordon and Ardell
Graner, Methodist missionaries at Thiu Rancho. Funds to support
the Graner’s and Thiu Rancho Mission Center are raised from the
Annual Outreach Auction
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