La Vida Loca

We were livin' the vida loca this weekend! Saturday morning we got up super early to pick up our friend and co-SIMer, Kathy, from the airport. She's been on home assignment for months and it was a pleasure to see her again and hear how her time in the states was. It was so early by the time we got her and took her home, that we had to wait for about a half hour or so for any breakfast places to open so we could take her out for breakfast. We tried out a fairly new restaurant called Blueberries, in hopes of finding good blueberry pancakes, containing a fruit that is virtually unknown to Bolivians and impossible to find here except in expensive, imported blueberry muffin mixes sold in the supermarket. We had success and chowed down together, catching up on each others lives. I hit the gym shortly after and then enjoyed a nice lunch with my husband before leaving to pick up a friend of his that was arriving that afternoon and is staying with us this week. Our co-workers, Greg and Faith, were also receiving a friend from the states, Dave. Dave is the team leader of the missions team at his church in Chicago and has really been touched with a vision and passion to support us, the Bible Church of Mallasilla, in our search for property. He planned a weekend trip down, only 2 days, to spend with the team, getting to know us and observing and interacting with the church in hopes of finding confirmation for his vision. Saturday afternoon we had a team tea for Dave, giving him the chance to share all that God has done in his heart to lead him here and giving us the chance to share how God worked in our hearts to bring us all onto the church plant team. It was a wonderful time of encouragement, that being a strong gift of Dave's, but unfortunately our friend had a severe reaction to a nutty cookie he ate there and we spent quite a bit of time the rest of the night trying to take care of him. The next morning we were up early again, excited for our 4th church service and a lunch we were hosting for the church afterwards. There are so many different groups of people that are attending the church and we really want them to get to know each other and for us to start becoming more and more a family that loves and serves one another. We thought a lunch would be a great, relaxed time to interact and another chance for Dave to get a feel for the community of Mallasilla. It turned out to be a fantastic time and one of much laughter as we enjoyed the sunny day, roasted chicken, and the company of interesting people. By the time we were finished with that, we had a few minutes to sit at home and talk with our guest before we were off to a final meeting with Dave, our pastor and his family, and Greg and Faith. We spent the evening talking over pizza and hearing more in depth details of how God has been preparing Dave's church in Chicago to partner with us and encouraged the hearts of others there to be involved. He shared the insights he had about our church with us: one being that we were a group that had prayer as a foundation; two, a church with a strong emphasis on bringing praise to our God through all that we do; three, a church that has a powerful gift of worship through music; and four...well, I can't remember four, but it was also encouraging! We stayed and fellowshipped together for about 4 hours before returning home, physically and emotionally exhuasted from the weekend, but intensely refreshed in the Lord and all that He did. And so the adventure of church planting continues, seeing the Lord's firm hand upon us from before the beginning!