The evening of June 29th we arrived in Atlanta for final training and preparations before officially leaving the country. It was oddly comforting seeing the faces of the 43 people we’d spent just a week at Training Camp with in May. How is it possible that we feel so bonded to this group after such a short amount of time together? I like to call it “trauma bonding” (TFA friends, you get this, no?). We’ve all just left our family and friends and are thrown into this together. Many of us have red eyes from tears and exhaustion. More importantly, we have a common and distinct bond of being called to serve our God in this way. As much as we each ache for our families and friends, we have peace in our call to the nations.
A couple last days of preparation and we boarded the plane for Bolivia on Thursday, July 3rd. This meant our final goodbyes to Amanda (route 1) and Rebekah (route 4), two members from our community group from back home. Up until this point, we’d done the whole venture together. It is odd leaving them and heading to different continents. We can’t wait to hear how God works in and through them over the next year and to be reunited with them in June 2015!
We left Atlanta and landed in El Alto, Bolivia 12 hours later. Altitude: 14,000 feet. Everyone on our team (Rak Chazak – which is a Hebrew war cry meaning “The Lord is with us and the victory is already won”) and the other team we are serving with this month (Fearless Laughter) adjusted pretty well to the altitude and the hilly city life. We were supposed to catch a bus that night to Uyuni, but we caught word of a protest/strike along our route and some of the roads were blocked as a result.
Overall, it was good to finally be in Bolivia. Chris and I were both pretty exhausted and didn´t get much sleep on the plane (perhaps my last Starbucks was a bad idea). Fortunately, we found a hostel to stay in while we waited for the next trek to begin. Chris and I shared a twin bed. Cozy!
Oh! Here´s some exciting news….though it may require a few extra dollars, we have the go-ahead to use a “married weekend” to travel to Machu Picchu at the end of July. We´re going to call it our second honeymoon. A little alone time will be nice. 🙂
Thank you for all of your prayers and encouragements! It was hard to say goodbye to all of you, but we have much peace in knowing that we are covered in your prayers. Truly, thank you. Please know how much we love you and that we are daily lifting you up in prayer.
