Bolivia

Being in Cochabamba, Bolivia has been great. We arrived a little late and now are not able to spend as much time as we would like to. Today we went to the “Cristo de la Concordia”. Its a few centimeters higher than the famous Cristo Redentor on Rio de Janeiro’s Corcovado, which stands 33m high, or one meter for Christ’s life. Cochabambinos justify the one-upmanship by claiming that Christ actually lived 33 anos y un poquito (33 years and a bit…). We also went to the biggest open market. It was great! We were able to buy some great Bolivian goods, some pants, a jacket, and a beanie for like 12 dollars! Everything is super cheap here; I mean we traveled by train for 23 hours that cost 15 dollars. We have been with a great family; Pablo Claros was my roommate in Argentina who invited me here to spend some time with him. I really love the family, I have talked both with the mother and father a couple times, and it is humbling for me to see the humbleness and love that they have for Christ. They count it a blessing to have us in their house, when really it is the contrary. It has been a great blessing for Leighton and I to see the hospitality of these humble servants of God by opening their house for us. I don’t know why but despite all the poverty, smell, and just plain dirtiness I really like it here. I love the Bolivian culture. I mean the people are just awesome, so warm, loving, and kind. Seeing the way Pablo lives his life reflects a lot his relationship he has with the Lord, and I can tell that it is vibrant, and alive. Life here is lived so simply, it is something that I desire for my life. Simplicity, only worrying about eternal values and loving the Lord, and making Him known to everyone I come in contact with. These are the important things in life. Pablo is simple, and I desire that. Praise the Lord that we were able to come through here to see Pablo, his family and the example that they are for my life.

Leighton and I had the chance to go to the amazon rain forest here in Bolivia. It was an interesting experience arriving though. We left Cochabamba at about nine in the morning, now we were told it would be about a five hour trip in bus, plus one hour in taxi, plus about one hour in canoe by river to this ministry in the jungle we were going to see. So we start traveling by bus, and after a little while we hit gorgeous scenery, we drove throughout high mountains on a road that probably was not suitable for a bus, until arriving to this pueblito (little town) called Shinaota. We get out, and call the lady here in the jungle that we were going to meet up with. She tells us to go to this store and look for a certain lady that would get us in a taxi to take us to the river. So we find her and wait, she says the driver would be here shortly, which ended up turning into five hours of waiting. Finally at around seven o’clock the taxi arrives finding two gringos a little perturbed. We get in the taxi and we drive for about 5 minutes on a paved road before arriving to the gravel road that we would be on for a while. We start traveling rather rapidly and get to some rough terrain so we got through the first spots rather well, until we got to one point in the road. We tried to get around it by driving through it, but it was a little too much to handle for our little Toyota station wagon. So we bottomed out and got stuck in about a foot of mud. Well we had to exit the car and start pushing, we had been trying to get unstuck for a while until another taxi finally came returning from the point where we were headed, so they got out and started helping us get out of the mud. We get unstuck! So we look for another method to get us around the mud pit. Well the driver was not very smart and drove really slow through the deep mud pit, despite the warnings from Leighton and I to drive fast, and we got stuck two more times. Finally, praise the Lord, we get past it. We drive about fifteen more minutes and all off a sudden stop in the middle of the road, turn off the engine, and the driver says estamos aqui, were here. So we get out of the car, and find a bunch of kids about 12 years old, and my friend Emerson from WOL Argentina. We had about 6 sacks of food that probably weighed about a hundred pounds each, and these little dudes just picked them up, loaded them on their shoulders, and started walking off into the darkness of the jungle like they had been doing it all their lives. Humbling. We walk for about 10 minutes through a little bit of the jungle and get to the river. I have to say that this was a little intimidating for me, I mean I was afraid. It was the unknown, pure jungle, a big wide river that was flowing very fast. Mosquitoes, bats, rats, beetles the size of your hand, they don’t understand what electricity and a computer or laptop is, it was a journey into the unknown and dangerous, but I loved every minute of it, I thrive for this kind of stuff. After arriving to where the school was, we were introduced to the Director who quickly showed us to our room to get some sleep, which was much needed. That night, there was probably the loudest thunderstorm I have ever heard in my life, my bed literally shook. We woke up the next morning and went to the various classrooms, introducing ourselves and letting the kids know a little bit about what we are doing. I think the kids were a little intimidated by us, because as we were speaking they seemed to shy away from our eyes, and didn’t have much to say to us. A little later we had the opportunity to speak with the Director, named Judith, just an incredible woman. She explained to us of the various needs that the ministry has. This is a school with about 120 kids, run by basically three people. They have school two months, and then break for four months, and there are teachers that help out, but basically the ministry is run by Judith, and a young married couple. During the off season they go by boat to the various communities of their students and have an opportunity to share the gospel. I absolutely loved the place; the Lord really hit home to me the truth of His word. Luke 10:2 says, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send laborers into His harvest.” As I realized this profound truth my heart filled with the hope of Salvation that I have, and that truly the entire world has, but someone has to go, and that someone has to be me. I was renewed with passion for the work of a missionary and was filled with love for this ministry. Please if any one is reading this and remembers to pray. Pray for the ministry of Nueva Vida in Bolivia. And if your interested in sacrificing every comfort that you have to live a life of service go there, get to know the place, the people, and you will desire to stay for a while.