Catching up

Since returning from Spain, our time has been spent trying to catch up on life we missed while being away. For me, that took the form of doing homework everyday for my ESI class. For those of you who haven't heard about this class, it's called Equipping Servants Internship and is a rigorous 2 1/2 year study of the book of Romans and various other textbooks covering useful theological issues (we are reading through How to Interpret the Bible by RC Sproul right now- inm Spanish!). We only meet once a week, but the information that is covered and the homework assigned easily fills up the week preceeding the next class. My class is the first one offered for women, being something aimed at pastors and church leaders, the original idea was for men only. The cool thing is that it has had such an impact in the lives of Bolivian leaders that their wives are getting excited about studying the Word too. So, I have joined the first women's ESI group and am finding it an incredible challenge to study these concepts in Spanish, but such a rewarding and fascinating study of God's message to us. Tonight I have to lead class and I'm pretty much terrified. Let you know how it goes...

We also had the chance to see our new friends in Mallasilla that attend a Bible study nearby. They were wondering where we had gotten lost (the literal translation of how they ask where you've been after a long time) and welcomed us back with warm hugs and big smiles. Their news, which they had been sitting on, eager to share, was that they had spoken with the neighborhood group that owns a building in the center of town about our church plant team, and we were offered to use the buliding for free! The thing that makes this extremely exciting is that these people are most likely comitted to worshiping the earth goddess and have no impulse whatsoever to spread Christianity here. Our evangelistic friends from the Bible study also reminded us how ready and willing they are to help if we want to start meeting here on Sundays to do a kids club, at least until we have a pastor and are ready to open the church. More and more people in the neighborhood smile and say "hi" as we walk around, giving us the impression that God has been preparing the way and is bringing things to a point where we can really start diving into ministry here. It's so exciting!

Another new development in the last week is related to the on-going process of looking for land to buy with the future intent of building a house. We found a piece of property that we like very much and had the chance to meet with the owner last week to discuss a price. His offer is quite a bit higher than we were hoping, but we have reason to believe it is a very reasonable price and one that we are definitely praying about. We're dreaming about what kind of house we would build there, spending time in our upstairs prayer room that will look out over the rugged Andes, and imagining our little kids playing in the yard and with the neighborhood boys and girls that are always out on the streets.

So, that's the update. It seems that there is plenty to do in the next few months- so many changes still happening within our church plant group, the prospect of teams coming in the summer, looking for an office so that we can finally have highspeed internet and communicate better with all of you... God has richly blessed our lives, our marriage, and our ministry. We are content serving Him here in La Paz.

Spain

Some of our most devoted readers might be wondering where we have been for the past couple of weeks. The answer is: Spain! Scotty has a love for the country and has been wanting to introduce me to it ever since we've been togther, and we decided that there's no time like the present! So, a little over 2 weeks ago, we began the journey with a gruelling 13 hour plane ride, in which I didn't get up once. Whoa! We landed in cold, rainy Madrid and the party began. Our plans had us staying a few days in Madrid, 5 days in Sevilla, and 5 days in Barcelona. I was immediately impressed with the beautiful architecture, the metro system, the strange way Spainards speak Spanish (versus how Bolivians speak), and the sheer quantity of bars and cafes. We spent a good deal of our time in these cafes, sipping cafe con leche, reading, working Sudoku puzzles, and chatting. When we weren't sitting in cafes, we were exploring the cities on foot, stopping every once in a while to take in an art museum or cathedral, but mostly doing our own tours. We made up a game I call "If you had to..." which consists of questions like: "If you had to pick one of the 3 cities we visited to live in, which one would it be?" or "If you could bring one pet back from the dead, which one would you pick?" or "If you could take one piece of this art home, which one would you take and where would you put it?". We amused ourselves for hours with this game and learned a lot about each other too. Now for the highlights: in Madrid- the Prado art museum (I've only seen that stuff in books before!) and the awesome Sunday market that has everything you could ever want to buy at reasonable prices; Sevilla- the bullfight (I didn't think watching a bull being killed would be interesting, but they've made it an art form), Alcazar gardens, eating pastries; Barcelona- the beach!! renting bikes and touring around the town, great food, gorgeous old buildings and plazas. Barcelona was by far our best stop- mostly because it was the only city where it didn't rain and it was warm.

We're super happy to be home and this trip not only served as a rest time for Scotty and me, but a chance to miss La Paz and the community we have here, feeling all the more thankful for it when we came back. What a gift to be able to take a trip like this!

No, this is not a reference to my husband (although he is a bottom-of-the-toothpaste-tube-squeezer), but a fairly hilarious sign we saw outside of a store we were in the other day. The advertisement should say "Super Canal" which is cable TV programming. We had a good laugh.

Tuesday was Scotty's birthday and I had plans to celebrate all day. It all started with a waffle breakfast- definitely one of his favorite ways to start the day. I had a picnic planned, with one of my favorite dishes, quinoa and black beans, for a great overlook in Sopocachi near where we used to live. Unfortunately, it was raining when we got there. Not to be daunted, we decided to party in the car, busting out the Superman Returns plates and cups, and enjoying a yummy meal.

Afterwards, we snuggled into a cozy corner of Alexander's Coffee shop to read and eat a nice apple coffee cake I made, which I accompanied with quiet singing of "Happy Birthday", so the rest of the patrons didn't gawk. We took in a Bolivian flick, which we were thrilled to understand all of, although the rest of the movie wasn't much to comment on. A tour of a few art galleries and some walking around followed, ending with a great dinner at a small, local place we used to frequent when we lived nearby. It was a joy to celebrate the life of the man God has blessed me with as my husband.

Tonight, we took a walk around the neighborhood and ran into a little girl whose parents we just met a few days ago. She chatted away with me while we looked at a potential piece of property we could be interested in buying and then left her, only to run into the maid that works downstairs in our building. We love Margarita and her great sense of humor and were pleased the she decided to come with us on our walk. We had great conversation and I feel like there will be many more opportunities to spend more time together. I've shared an interest in learning how to cook Bolivian food and so she is ready and willing to have me come downstairs some day and watch her prepare lunch (the big meal of the day). We'll see what God does!