Bolivia
…for I am trusting you
Show me where to walk,
for I give myself to you…
Teach me to do your will
for you are my God.
May your gracious Spirit lead me
forward on firm footing.
-Psalm 143:8-10
We all knew it was coming. The dreaded (or perhaps highly anticipated) team changes. When we arrived in La Paz, Bolivia at the end of month three, 2 days before our flight was scheduled to depart, we knew that the changes were upon us. We went to bed that first night, exhausted from a long day of travel, yet still we couldn't sleep. Some were giddy with excitement for what the new day would bring, some heartsick with the thought of friends they might have to leave behind. As dawn approached (8:30am… that's dawn in my book), we sprung out of our beds, hastily donned fresh clothes, and happily scarfed down pancakes (no matter how nervous you are, after 3 months of South American food, pancakes are HEAVEN. No one says no to Heaven!!) As the clock struck 10, the 'dub' (W) squad began to file into the common room. The air was heavy, the tension crackled, the nerves jangled.
Our squad leaders approached the bar at the front of the room. We have a card for each one of you, Christie informed us, which lists your new team. But before you open it, we want you to spend some quiet time with God. We want you to make sure that you are putting your trust in God, having faith that He knows what He is doing. That you might not know the reason for your new team, but that He does. And His plans are infinately better than your own.
And so we went, one by one, filing to the front to recieve our cards and then drifting off into the farthest nether regions of the vast hostel. I simply chose my bed. High and tucked back in the corner of my room, I put my ear buds in, faced the wall and pushed play on my ipod. Josh Wilson's 'I Refuse' began to play. "If You say MOVE, it's time for me to follow through." Ok, Lord, where am I going?
I honestly have been kind of blasie about the whole team change drama. I've been going back and forth this past month between wanting a change and being comfortable where I am at. Now I don't know how I feel. I guess a little nervous, a little anxious. In any case, I'm not the one in control here, that's God. So what more can I do but move forward, knowing that His plans are "to prosper me and not to harm me." "I know Lord, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course (Jeremiah 10:23)." So then, Lord, my prayer is simply that you show me how to love and serve these people and that you would grow me in this new environment.
Braced, I take a deep breath, and open the card. And… it's Christmas. That's how my new teammate, Melissa, described it. Christmas morning. When everything you wanted, but never really thought you'd get is sitting right there under the tree. That's right, folks. I got my Red Ryder BB Gun… now let's just pray I don't shoot my eye out.
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Team I-61: 
Evan Kinney (Team Leader)
Jenna Kehrli
Melissa Lowell
Rikki Lynn Vick
Ginny Allison
Cory German
Jessie German
Team Name: I-61 – Interstate 61, otherwise known as Isaiah, chapter 61. Our team seeks to travel the INTERSTATE of life, having faith that God will use us to proclaim the Good News to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release the prisoners from darkness. To proclaim the year of the LORD'S favor and to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of BEAUTY instead of ASHES!
For as the earth brings forth it's bud,
As the garden causes the things that are sown into it to spring forth,
So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
-Isaiah 61:11
…Get to know team I-61!! Visit their blogs by clicking on their names (in the side bar on the left).
