I’ve been in Uyuni, Bolivia for about two weeks now. Uyuni is a super small, touristy town less than an hour from Bolivia’s famous salt-flats (where they filmed part of the new Star Wars). It’s fairly warm during the day, except everyone completely covers their bodies to protect themselves from the hottest sun I’ve ever experienced. And it’s cool at night.The people here are beautiful. They have a distinct look. Many of the older women wear the traditional clothes with long braids and carry their babies,, food, supplies, etc. in sacks on their backs. I love it.
This month we have been partnering with a church doing “all the things.” They are building a larger space to house their services in so we have been sanding the walls two days a week. We also have been running most of their church services (which is five per week), creating and leading Spanish worship sets, preaching sermons, facilitating prayer meetings, and having dance classes for the Christmas show we are about to perform next week. It’s been a little overwhelming at times, but it’s growing me.
My team is staying in a decent sized room. It’s the first month that we’ve all slept in the same place. And I’m thankful. It’s good to be surrounded with friends, especially during this Christmas season. My team is the greatest at making this time special. One of my teammate’s created a “12 Days of Christmas” activity that we have been doing each day. Another one created a Christmas tree on our wall out of post-it notes, and I have to say, we have all gone pretty hard buying each other little gifts to put under the tree. Christmas is going to be sweet.
This past “adventure day,” some of us took a seven hour trip to see colorful lagoons, geysers, and natural thermal springs. There were blue lagoons, green lagoons, white lagoons… Some of the lagoons were pink from a certain type of algae and they were filled with flamingos! SO COOL. We were able to get so close to the thermal springs that we were choking on the sulfur filled steam. We also got to climb all over huge boulders. I see rock-climbing as a hobby in my future. God’s creation is CRAZY. We stayed in this cute little hostel. Their were technically no floors, except the stones that they plopped the building down on and our beds were mattresses thrown on top of piles of larger rocks. Also, so cool. I never want to forget these little details. The previous week, we explored the salt flats. I can’t explain it. You have to see it for yourself.
So that is my month in a nutshell, so far. It’s been busy, but good. Some days, I miss being home knowing that all my people are getting together for Christmas, but that is part of it. Please keep my team in your prayers as we finish out our next two-ish weeks here in South America – (next stop, East Asia). Pray for sustained hearts and minds as we continue to love on the people in front of us.
If you have any questions about my journey so far, please reach out!
Love you all! Merry Christmas!
