We made it to Argentina!
Finally have good Wi-Fi again, so I have a few things to update you all on. 🙂
Giover is what this blog is going to be mostly about and what we as a team learned from him while in Bolivia.
Bolivia was a month of reform/ redefining for my team peace of freedom. Unity had been a hot conversation topic and a constant struggle. A trend of disunity truly broke during Bolivia. Part of it I truly believe is because of our Giover “dad”.
From the very begin we all got along with our host well. He is funny, full of energy, and on fire for God. His excitement made it easy for us to see his love for God in everything he did.
We soon just felt a love of a father coming off of him. Everyday with his smiling face and excitement for the day, he renewed us in a way.
It started as more of a joke to call him dad, but soon it felt more and more real. If we needed something, if we had a question, or if we just wanted to make a joke. Dad was our word for him. He of course at first was very taken back by our “joke” , he looks/ acts like a person younger than his age (41). After about the 2nd day he embrassed it just as much as we did.
We got to share so many funny moments of him trying to understand our English and us trying to understand his. He showed such grace with us. He wanted to provide everything we needed, take us where we needed to go, and encourage us to be the best we could be.
Our team has all struggled with our fathers in some way in the past or still are. Then to find such a loving father figure that we all called dad, it was something we never could have guessed.
We were poured into by him each and everyday we spent with him. We never had to geuss whether he loved or cared about us. His actions spoke louder than any words he spoke.
He got to know us more and more by translating our testimonies at different churches and made us feel safe to express our not so pretty stories of how we ended up on the world race.
It truly was God’s plan and purpose for all 6 of us to be with this host. I finally understood how our heavenly father might see me, how he might love me, and might want to know me.
I struggled personally with understanding what I was feeling. I finally understood the day we left Bolivia when our dad took us to the bus terminal to say goodbye.
I cried in front of our entire squad with no fear or shame of my emotions. This man I had just met weeks before had become so important to me. I didn’t want to let go. God taught me how to love deeply this month, but also how to be loved in turn.
