Ekeko

Our Spanish professor, Jaime, has often shown an interest in our work here and Bible related topics, and is great about explaining the cultural/religious traditions with us. At the moment there is a festival going on called Las Alasitas. It started with a traditional Andean god named Ekeko who carried around with him everything a person could need to supposedly be happy. If you believed in this god and sacrificed to him, he would bless you with those things you asked for. This belief is displayed nowadays by going to little tents that are set up all along the streets with miniature representations of the items you desire (money, cars, little men or women, houses, etc…), complete with a witch doctor to bless your items after you give him a couple Bolivianos to pay for your desired possessions. Although this is one of the tamer (heavy drinking is not included) religious holidays in the country, it is a good example of the way, as my professor put it, "even Bolivian Christians are enticed to participate in pagan practices". Before we had this conversation, Jaime asked me to pick a chapter out of the Bible that I would read and comment on. What an amazing opportunity! I picked 1 John 3 and we had a great discussion about sin, forgiveness, God’s awesome grace for all types of sin and our depraved nature as sons of Adam. As I was talking, and having fantastic practice at sharing the gospel in Spanish, it hit me that I was sharing the gospel in Spanish! Although my vocabulary is a bit shallow still, I am able to communicate the important ideas and felt thrilled and honored to be talking about my wonderful Savior to this man who is lost and deeply in need of Him. Yay!

Besides continuing to meet together with various members of the church plant team in an effort to know them better, we have started thinking about the future possibility of teams coming to visit. Our ministry will not be in a place for a while were a team would be able to contribute much, but we have plenty of other friends in the city that are part of ministries where they could always use another hand or would appreciate the testimony of a life changed by God. We drove to the nearby community of Mallasa yesterday, where there is a cozy Swiss-Bolivian-run hotel that might be our home-base for teams. We love the idea of people staying just around the corner from us and continuing to support an area that is already somewhat of an attraction and a quickly growing region outside of La Paz. If you’re thinking of coming to see us in a team someday and are interested in checking out possible lodging, go to: http://www.h-oberland.com
We helped a family from out team move into our old apartment today. Javier and Roxana Zubieta and their son, Josue, are the only latin americans on the SIM team and work with the youth at Scotty’s old church (a ministry he was very involved in last term) and run some programs at a Christian youth camp in the jungle. Two days ago we had lunch with the boss of Youth for Christ in La Paz, who invited us over after he heard that we would like for YFC to help us out with upcoming teams. It was great to spend time with his family, find that we have many things in common, and be assured of their support and willingness to help with whatever we need.

The magic whistle

When you live in the city, every few days you hear a lovely, flute-type whistle that reminds me strongly of an old Nintendo game called Zelda. In reality, this noise is created by the men who wheel around their sharpening stone, hooked up to a bicycle wheel, to announce their availabilty to sharpen your knives. I've always enjoyed the noise, but never found much use for these guys cause I never had a decent set of knives. Now that I do, I live in an area where the knife sharpeners don't frequent. On the way into town the other day, we saw one of these men pushing his wheel along the sidewalk and pulled the car over to request that he make a stop by our house. He had a slightly confused smile on his face, but agreed that he woud come by in the next week. That week passed and I gave up on ever having sharp knives again. But, low and behold, upon returning from a walk around the neighborhood the other day, our trusty knife-sharpening friend was camped outside our front door, sharpening the knives of our neighbors below. I thanked him profusely for coming and ran upstairs to grab my block of dull knives. We watched him pump the wheel and sharpen with skill, images of cutting meat and tomatoes with ease floating through my head. He charged us a little less than $2 for the 8 knives and promised he'd return in a few months. The picture above also shows the friendly and cheery Margarita, the maid that lives downstairs, whom we have come to appreciate over the past few months. She's taken care of our cats, given us advice on markets and prices for knife sharpening, as well as lending needed kitchen equipment. We love having that kind of relationship with her, hoping one day we might be able to talk of more serious things. We are slowly growing into a better friendship with the neighbors, our landlords, and appreciate their continued help with the apartment and desire to know us better.

I couldn't resist the picture of Scotty and Cheddar reading Future Grace together. Doesn't it warm your heart?

Long time, no blog

So, we've officially become lazy interneters. These days have been full of activity and we usually only stop long enough to read emails every couple days and respond to the most important ones. I'll just dive right in....

Yes, we do have the pleasure of camping in absolutely majestic spots such as this. A couple weekends ago, we took a couple friends to this isolated, but nearby location to enjoy a few days away from it all. We decided to "car camp" which gave us the leisure of bringing anything and everything you'd always want on a camping trip. Scotty and I planned dinner- steak, zucchini, onion, and pepper shishkabobs with cornbread and brownies for dessert. There's nothing like cooking a meal over the campfire with friends. Randy brought his guitar and we spent most of the night chatting, singing praise songs, eating smores, and snuggling down in our warm tents while the rain drizzled outside. Dani and Randy took charge of breakfast, mastering the small gas grills to produce scrumptious french toast, eggs, and bacon. I think food really does taste better that is cooked outside!

The last week or so has been pretty pivotal for our church planting team. We met at our house on Thursday to discuss the possibility of starting to meet apart from the church we are all attending now, which would be on schedule with the date of January for splitting off on our own. Our leaders, Greg and Faith, have had to delay their return to Bolivia from the states until early March, but the team felt as a whole that they wanted to go ahead and begin meeting seperately instead of waiting for the leaders to return. Scotty and I have been communicating back and forth between the team and Greg and Faith, attempting to come up with an option that pleases everyone and more importantly, is what we feel like God is leading us to do as a team. It's good to confront conflict together and learn how to unify and interact in a way that is godly and selfless. Pray for us as we make decisions and have been put temporarily into the leader role until the Hursts' return.

On a lighter, but sad note, we think Spanky is dead. Who's Spanky?? you ask. Spanky is a friendly neighborhood dog that warmed our hearts over the last few months. Yes, he is dirty, shaggy, and seems to think he can jump into the cars of friends (and sometimes on their laps) who come to visit, but there is something special about him. You see, Spanky adopted us immediately and accompanied us on our walks around Mallasilla. At any point during the day, if you look out the window, you will see Spanky trotting down the street to meet any passers-by or other stray dogs with a wag and a smile. Most stray dogs don't get along, but in my limited experience, I perceived that they all made an exception for Spanky. He walks with his head high, his tail wagging, and a with a perky trot. Just watching him cruise the streets with his happy gait would lift your spirits. I even found myself yelling, inside closed windows, from several houses away, "Hi Spanky!!" when I would see him bounce by. But, alas, we have not seen our beloved street dog for weeks. We think he's gone. This is our memorial to Spanky.

New Years Combo

You know how you can go to some restaraunts and request a combo plate with all your favorite items? I feel like that is how we celebrated New Year's Eve last night. Before the festivities began, I met my Bolivian friend Dani at her house so we could go to the hairdresser together to get nice and pretty (something women do here quite frequently because of the extremely low price of a manicure, pedicure, and hair-do). Dani is the kind of friend that you know would do anything for you and has made it quite clear that she is available at any point, for any reason. Yesterday, as we walked back to her house, we began discussing things we struggle with and how we can hold each other accountable as friends. We continued the conversation in her home, reflecting on the amazing grace of God to give us strength in all circumstances, and His love that is not based on what we do or how sinless we are, but on the righteousness we have through Christ alone. We prayed together and as I drove home I praised God that He's given me a friend like her to challenge me, encourage me, and give me an opportunity to be real and transparent- something I feel we are sometimes hesitant to do with our fellow Christians. Around 9 we went to our church, La Comunidad, to experience a few minutes of the youth group's talent night. We stayed long enough to sing a few praise choruses and again be reminded of our Savior who has sustained us in the past year (and all the others). Later in the evening, we added another side dish to our full course by ringing in the new year with our friend Randy, his Youth for Christ co-workers, a team from Colorado that is here working for the week, and a handfull of the men and women shoe-shiners that our friends devote so much of their time and heart to. What an interesting mix of people! A good part of the evening we learned line dances and some new swing moves, with many Bolivians looking on with smiles and giggles (only a few of them could pick up the moves, even though they are usually quite skilled in their national dances which are fairly intricate). Then, after midnight, we had a traditional New Years dinner of pork, baked sweet potatoes, and salad. Are you starting to see a theme here of late night eating? We left a little after 1am, happy to have started this year with so many wonderful people, and so many different cultures around us.