Since her first visit to Bolivia, God has been deepening Linda Bethell's love for Latin America and has now confirmed her call- to return as a vet in mission.

Training and experience

Several visits to Bolivia, veterinary training in Edinburgh, three years in mixed practise in Aberdeenshire, animal husbandry in Kosova, earthquake relief in El Salvador - over a ten-year period, Linda has gained wide experience.

After completing a two-year course All Nations Christian College she began looking into possibilities to return to Bolivia longer-term to use her veterinary skills in rural community development.

A God-given opportunity

A visit to Christian Veterinary Mission, a branch of World Concern, in Seattle, USA, led to an invitation to join their team working in the area of Yapacani on a livestock training project.

Yapacani is in the tropical lowlands of eastern Bolivia, around 150 km from the city of Santa Cruz. The locals are largely Quechua people who moved down from the highlands in the 1960s as a result of land reforms, and rely on small-scale agriculture to make a living. Since 1999 World Concern has been involved in an animal health project with two local agricultural organisations.

Click here for a larger map of Bolivia.

'My role will be to give technical input for the seven Bolivian trainers who work in the 11 communities covered by the project,' explains Linda. 'I will also be involved in a tuberculosis control programme, as Yapacani has a very high incidence of human TB, which threatens the health of families in the area. It is hoped that by instituting a control program in the cattle, the incidence of human TB will be reduced.'

Training courses will include a whole raft of topics from cattle and poultry health and management, soil conservation and marketing of agricultural produce to gender issues, spiritual strengthening and servant leadership. The aim is to equip farming families with the skills they lack, to solve their problems of cattle health and management, to improve production and thereby quality of life.

Linda continues, 'The Quechua evangelical churches in Bolivia, although quite numerous, lack strong leadership and good teaching, and I hope also to have input into the local churches in the Yapacani area through discipleship training.

Mounting excitement

'I am very thankful that God has opened this door for me to return and serve the Bolivian people who have been on my heart for so many years.

'I am looking forward to serving alongside the Bolivian trainers and farmers and together to help them to develop their production potential, improve their standard of living and to learn about the God who not only created and sustains all their crops and animals, but loves and died for them. I hope and pray that with God's help I can demonstrate Christ's love in word and deed, and encourage local Christians as they seek to do the same.'

Linda is very excited by this opportunity to use her veterinary skills in a mission context, and to help rural people who rely so heavily on their animals for their livelihood.

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