Yesterday was a long but fantastic day. We were up early yesterday morning in order to be at the church before 8:00 for their first morning service. Pastor Gil brought a great word from the Lord for the Faro del Cielo church while Jim translated. They spoke on how worry slows us down as we run our race and it spoke to people throughout the church. We had a short break between the services and then we had another service where Pastor Gil and Jim spoke at 10:00.
Right before the second service, Pastor Isabel asked if Andrew and Genelle could sing again in the second service. By that time the second service had already begun and their worship team was in full swing. We got to pull it together on the fly. Andrew pulled up his music on his iPhone and during the offering transition time, someone let the band know that we were going to sing the next two songs. The singers went down and we quickly told their worship band which key we were in. Off we went! The Bolivian musicians had never heard the songs before but the band did a great job of following Andrew’s lead on the acoustic guitar and playing along, without any music or practice. The Bolivian band members really are some amazing musicians. The congregation joined in and worshipped with us for a sweet time of worship before the Lord in Spanish.
After the services, we had some time to visit with some of our Bolivian friends. It is such a joy to come back to this place where now we see so many familiar faces and we know so many people we love. It’s like a big family reunion.
After church we went to lunch as a group. We have a bus and a bus driver that we have hired for the week we are here. It is more economical to purchase a bus for the week than it would be to get taxis for all of us to get where we need to go and it is always better to have all of us together in one vehicle as opposed to being spread over several taxis, especially when there are so few Spanish speakers among the team. Our bus driver this year has a normal route that he drives from the airport into town each day. That portion of the city he knows very well but he does not know the rest of the large city very well. There have already been several times when we are very thankful that google maps works in Bolivia. We have had to use it to find our way a couple of times. We are making it though and have gotten where we need to go each day. God is good, even when we are a little lost on our way!
After lunch and a change of clothes, we headed out to Peji to see the site there and to catch up on all they have done there. Pastors Robinson and Simone are Colombian missionaries that have lived here in Bolivia for ten years and live permanently out at Peji with their two daughters, Juliana and Daniela. They are the most wonderful family and, after showing us around the Peji property, they had us in their home. Pastor Robinson is a bread maker by trade and he makes the most delicious bread. He is such an amazing bread maker that his bread is known in the city as well. He shared some of his homemade bread with us in his home and we were able to spend some quality time with Pastor Robinson and his family, Pastors Ruben and Isabel, and Pastors Bruno and Alejandra. It was a sweet time of fellowship and it’s impossible not to fall in love with Peji and all of the people there.
It was almost 8:00 PM when we drove back into town and we had already had some delicious bread out at Peji so we skipped a dinner and went straight for the dessert for our evening meal. Dessert for dinner is always a good idea. We got some big ice cream sundae’s for our dinner and then made our way back to the hotel for a much needed night’s sleep. The week full of physical work days is in front of us and we needed some rest to fuel up before the work days truly begin.
We are so excited to get our hands dirty and see what we will be able to accomplish with the Lord’s help this upcoming week. We took a walk on the work site and it is incredible. It is virtually unrecognizable when compared to what it looked like when we left last year. Edwin and his crew have worked tirelessly on the building and it is absolutely amazing what they have accomplished. There is so much joy just standing in the middle of that building project. It’s impossible to put into words. The ground feels consecrated even as you take your first step onto the site. God has big plans for that church building. What a tremendous honor to get to be a part of that process.