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.