There’s been a lot that’s happened the last several weeks. I wish that I was able to write every day just so you could keep up with what’s going on. In some ways, I rely on the other racers and pray that in some way, you’re reading their blogs as well as mine so you know what’s happening. It’s just difficult to find the time to sit down and really put a lot of energy into a blog. So, once again, I’m going to give you a random update of what we’ve been doing and what has been happening here in Bolivia.
Five other guys and I returned from our adventures in Chapare and Puerto, Bolivia. We went down to the jungle to do some ministry that involved a lot of physical labor, which I was completely fine with. We were with the rest of the squad in Chapare until yesterday. I’ll get to that in a minute.
As a squad, we were putting the finishing touches on the orphanage in Chapare. In all honesty, I’m not sure how we’re supposed to spell the name of this place, so bear with me and trust me when I write that name out with a lot of hesitation and lack of confidence. It was a cool orphanage though. We did a lot of painting, varnishing, yard work, and building. Mark spent a lot of time constructing a staircase for the house. He was able to put his carpentry experience to use. When we left yesterday, it was looking pretty good.
Six of us World Race guys left yesterday to go to Puerto and put the roof on another orphanage. Unfortunately when we got there, it ended up being a different kind of work than we were told. It was pretty sketch and outside of our skill/experience levels, so we decided to head back to the other ministry site to help them finish up early. But yet again there was another twist in events and we were told to come back to Cochabamba. So, being the fluid men that we are, we went with the flow.
A 4-5 hour bus ride turned into a 7 hour adventure. There was a roadblock halfway between Puerto and Cochabamba up in the mountains. We weren’t sure what kind of roadblock it really was, but were told we could walk around it and catch a trufi or surubi the rest of the way to Coch. As we drove towards this roadblock we were kind of anxious because we didn’t know what to really expect. It was dark, we were in the mountains, and it was raining. As we got closer and closer we were greeted by about a mile or two of cars lined up waiting to get through. Fortunately our driver drove us all of the way to the roadblock which ended up begin a mudslide. There was a lot of chaos because people were trying to find rides and such. It was crazy. We had no other option to head back, so we decided to walk across the mudslide. I’m not going to lie when I say that it was rather scary. As we were climbing over the mud and rock for about 250-300 ft., we could hear rock still sliding from the top. The only thing to our left: mud and rock; to our right: a straight drop, probably hundreds of feet – we couldn’t see the bottom of the valley. With the Lord’s protection, we made it across. It was exhilarating. Thankfully, also, we caught a bus back to Cochabamba on the other side.
It’s been an adventurous last week. Yesterday was probably the most wacked-out ‘travel day’ I think we’ve had yet. We were really eager to work and kind of bummed that we had to come back to Coch and couldn’t go back to the other site to help work. But our contact here assured us that there is plenty of work here that we can do. More than likely, it’ll involve painting and hopefully baby-washing today. I hope to write a post on baby-washing soon. It reminds me a lot of Church on the Street back home.
All in all, though, I’m doing really well. I’m having a great time and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Yes, it’s been the most challenging year of my life, but it’s also been one of the biggest blessings. I’m learning a lot about God, my own faith, and what the Church looks like (perhaps another blog someday).
I still enjoy blog comments and personal emails from you all. I don’t care if I don’t know you, write me anyway and let me know what you think, if you have questions, whatever. It’s good to hear from back home in the States.
Hopefully I’ll be able to post a few more blogs before we leave for Africa on the 16th!
God bless…
