For the past 2 weeks, we have been in Bolivia. 3 days we were in Uyuni where I got to go to the Salt Flats, and the next 10 days have been in Sucre. Sucre reminds me a lot of what a hip European country would look like, maybe like Spain! All the buildings are white, there are gorgeous town squares and people everywhere. One thing I didn’t expect though, is the amount of men, boys, and dogs who will stop right in front of you to pee on the sidewalks. So while the views are absolutely phenomenal, the smell can sometimes be horrific!
We have been working on a couple different college campuses these past 10 days with an organization called CRU, or Campus Crusades for Christ. What they like to do is approach students who are anywhere from a group of 1 to 2, or as big as 5 to 7 people and try to relate to them as much as possible. [This is the exact kind of group I avoided when I was in college!] They have cards with pictures on them and they lay them out and have the students look at them.
There are 3 or 4 questions that are asked, depending on the amount of time the students have.
- Which picture resembles your past?
- Which picture resembles your present?
- Which picture resembles what you would want your future to look like?
- Which picture resembles your relationship with God, or your idea of who God is?
These questions allow the students to really open up and interpret the pictures however they want, which is great when you continuously do this. One thing that I have loved about this technique is that I can normally choose what part of my past I share depending on which picture they initially choose. Some choose pictures of someone alone in which I share about being bullied in school or how I never really had friends growing up. Others choose pictures of wine or bottles and I share about how I ended up in a hospital because my pancreas wanted to shut down. Some even choose pictures of grandparents and share how they had someone pass away recently and I share about my friend Angela who passed away from cancer a couple months ago.
As we progress through the questions, I begin to share about how the Lord redeemed those parts of my life. I share how the Lord took what the enemy intended to harm me with and how He uses it for His good, in order to save many lives, like in Genesis 50:20 when Joseph’s brothers tried to get rid of him in horrible ways. The way that people respond to this has been the most incredible thing though! I’ve had a couple times where the students begin to cry and at that point I know that my story has made an impact. I know that the Gospel has pierced their heart in a way that they will never forget and I’m thankful that the Lord gives me opportunities like this! But then, there are times when people get antsy and they end up walking away before you can ask to pray for them.
In the past 10 days, my team has made impact for the kingdom like I never expected! In Matthew 9:37 it says , “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” This verse has never been more true, and Bolivia is the prime example of that. Every morning and afternoon we get to the campus, you can see the depression, sadness, loneliness, or stress that the students have. As soon as you approach them, they light up and really get to share what is going on in their lives. And this, THIS RIGHT HERE, is the reason I came on the World Race. To see pure evidence of the impact the Gospel has. But, with every advance in the kingdom, the enemy tries to knock us down.
In the past the enemy has tried to knock me down by situations or people in my life, but that wasn’t the case this time. THIS TIME, I was hit by BED BUGS! That’s right folks! I spent 3 nights getting eaten up by bed bugs in a hostel that kept telling me they don’t have bed bugs. The third night I woke up to one crawling on my arm at 330am and that was my proof! I took pictures, the whole room was awake and freaking out, but I knew that this was a testament because of the seeds we are sowing in these college campuses. So, needless to say we have now moved rooms and they are fumigating all of our things, but this is how the enemy tries to work against us. Had this happened to me 2 or 3 months ago, I would have probably screamed at the hostel workers demanding something be done. But, I know that it is just as much a testament for my team as it is the people in the hostel.
It is inevitable that we get attacked by the enemy, but what the Lord cares about is how we respond in those situations in order to glorify Him. So, I choose to be thankful for bed bugs, because it is proof that what I am doing in these campuses is honoring and glorifying to the Lord.
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Please pray for myself and my team as this Friday we leave Sucre to head to another town more south called Tarija (approximately 10 hours away). We will be there one week and then travel even more south to another town called Yacuiba (roughly another 6 hours). On the 17th, we then make the excruciatingly painful bus ride from the bottom of Bolivia to Kusco, Peru which is approximately an entire lifetime on a bus. (Okay, maybe like roughly 44 hours on a bus with cramped leg space and no food…) Please pray that we get all the right bus tickets to arrive on time, that we can get some decent rest on these bus rides, and that the harvest would be ready when we arrive at these different towns!
Thank you so much for reading this, I hope this encourages you that in the midst of trial, there can be joy!
