Connections from Bolivia to Ohio and back
Reflections from an IVEP host family
Editor’s Note: Angela Zuercher and her family have now hosted two young adults through MCC's International Volunteer Exchange Program (IVEP).
Top photo: Misael Barron Kipfer plays soccer with his host brothers at their home in Apple Creek, Ohio. (Photo/Angela Zuercher)
As I reflect on the experiences we’ve had related to the IVEP program I continue to marvel at the workings of God. It was late spring of 2023 that we were initially asked to be IVEP hosts for the second part of the 2023/2024 IVEP term.
We have had numerous IVEP friends through the years, but had never actually hosted anyone before. The very thought was intimidating. We are a busy family of six, and our lives can feel chaotic with so many people coming and going. Bringing someone new into the mix felt like an impossible task to even consider!
Our initial hasty response to the hosting question was “No, I don’t think we can do that!” However, as it turns out, God wasn’t willing to take no for an answer. He already had a plan set in motion for both our family and a young man from Bolivia named Misael Barron Kipfer.
It says in Isaiah 55:9, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Thankfully God worked in our hearts and minds and changed our no to a yes… and it was one of the best decisions we have ever made!
Misael quietly stepped into our lives in February of 2024 and graciously made himself a part of our crazy family. Through our interactions and conversations, we quickly grew to love him and had so much fun getting to know him! It was evident that God brought him into our lives. He has his own story of how God brought him to the U.S., and we continue to be amazed and so grateful for how all the pieces came together.
We thoroughly enjoyed the five months that Misael spent with us and learned so much from our first host experience! Through Misael, our family gained insight into another world that is different from our own and seeds were planted within us of curiosity and love for the people, culture, and church in Bolivia.
We enjoyed our time with him so much that we had a really hard time saying good-bye when the time came for him to return home. We made hopeful promises to keep in touch and visit someday, but nothing could prepare us for the deep hole that his departure left in our family.
This was a new type of grief for us and one that I, as his host mom, found particularly difficult to cope with. How could we have prepared ourselves to say good-bye to a person we didn’t realize was going to become so special to us, especially when we had no concept of when we might see him again?
With time came healing, but we continued to have a desire to continue the connection with Misael. Life moved on for all of us, and even with technology, we found it hard to keep in touch. We had to settle for occasional WhatsApp messages and video calls, which didn’t feel like enough.
Thankfully God still had other surprises planned for us. A few months after Misa left, I learned through our church’s Latin American mission contact that there was going to be a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Bolivian Mennonite church in February of 2025 and that they were hoping a group from the U.S. would attend. It turns out Misael’s father was one of the pastors involved in planning the event.
I instantly felt that this possible opportunity was a gift from God and that I needed to begin praying about it right then, so I did. There were so many details that needed to come together to make this dream of traveling to Bolivia become a reality and God took care of each one. Our church, Sonnenberg Mennonite in Kidron, Ohio, supported us in this endeavor, and our whole family was able to travel to Santa Cruz, Bolivia from Feb 13-20, 2025!
We spent the week with Misael and his parents, who welcomed us so warmly and made us feel like part of their family. They each put a lot of effort into making sure we had a variety of experiences while in Santa Cruz. It was a joy to get to know his family, friends, and church family as well as experience the ministries they are involved in. It was also a wonderful experience to attend the 50th anniversary service and to worship alongside the Bolivians as they celebrated this milestone.
Of course a huge highlight for us was the opportunity to spend time with Misael again after 7 months…this time with a role reversal. In Bolivia, he was the one driving us around and introducing us to his culture, country, church, and family. (If you’ve ever been to Bolivia you know the traffic is crazy…but he did a fantastic job!) We were also forced out of our comfort zones a bit since we became the ones who didn’t know the language so well. We got a little taste of what he probably felt when he first came to the U.S.!
We enjoyed every minute of our time there and made many new memories and friends. It was very difficult for us to say good-bye again, but we returned home feeling so enriched and encouraged. To us this felt like a necessary part of the IVEP experience, and it helped to complete the unfinished loop of learning that had begun when Misael lived with us.
Now we can visualize where he is living, working, and serving, and we have a better understanding of what life is like for him. It was so helpful to see how God is using him in his home country, and we can now understand that he is where he is supposed to be.
We now have even more reason to continue the circle of relationship and connection since we gained more family while we were in Bolivia and definitely left pieces of our hearts there. We continue to pray for our dear Bolivian family members and their lives and ministry and that one day God will bring us together again.
It also made us very excited for our next adventure as IVEP hosts! We strongly encourage anyone who possibly can to consider hosting an IVEPer. It is a life-changing experience!