It has been a while since I have written an update because my electronics all decided to die the last couple months of the race and I was left without a keyboard or phone. Here are some brief updates of Bolivia and Chile and then I will tell you all about home sweet America in my next and final post!
Bolivia:
In my last post I was talking about how we weren’t sure if we would stay in Santa Cruz, in a comfortable living space, or if we would continue to Yacuiba despite the political road blocks. The road blocks ended up going down and we were able to make it to Yacuiba. We all decided to be open minded and have good attitudes no matter what the conditions ended up being.
When we arrived in Yacuiba, the conditions were definitely different from what we had experienced in Santa Cruz. We were staying in tents in a church and again we were across from an extremely loud karaoke bar (I don’t know why that kept happening). We had cold showers but also the option to boil water for warm bucket showers.
Even though the conditions were not quite as physically comfortable, God has so many wonderful things in store for us this month and I am so happy we ended up in Yacuiba! The pastor and his family were so amazing and it was incredible to see how many connections they had with so many different people. We were able to visit and volunteer with quite a few different churches, schools, and homes.
One of my favorite things we got to speak at a school assembly to three different groups of teens. The school we spoke at was having major issues with disrespect and drug/alcohol use. It was rewarding to have a chance to speak to these kids and have them think more deeply about their decisions and their future.
Bolivia ended up being one of my favorite months and it was so cool to see how much we originally wanted to stay in Santa Cruz but when we were open to whatever God had for us and got out of our comfort zone, we discovered so many new opportunities and met some of the most amazing people!
Chile:
Chile was yet again another amazing and fruitful month. We were doing mostly physical work, renovating a church to prepare for an event in which 50 pastors came and met at the church. We worked every day from right after breakfast until dinner time, cleaning, painting, and doing other jobs around the church.
This was honestly the perfect way to end the race because as you can imagine I was getting a little relationally burnt out and it was so nice to just work and then to be able to see the direct results of what we were doing.
The night before the pastors event, we were up until 2:30am painting the final part of the church and cleaning the lobby. We woke up early the next morning to set up tents, tables, chairs, and help with food preparations.
The big day finally arrived and the pastors all enjoyed it so much! It was awesome to be able to see everyone enjoy the hard work that we had put in. It was the best feeling to have our last month of ministry end on such a great note.
