Weekend activities

On Saturday we had a super fun cookout with our small group at the home of Cesar and Teresa and their 2 girls.

Food prep team.

They live nearby and have a beautiful piece of property with a view looking out on the nearby Andes mountains. It was fun to get everyone together for a social event and we felt like this has been our best one yet- with everyone participating and enjoying each others company. We sat around after eating and told most embarassing moments in order to get to know each other better (Scotty's idea)- and it was a great way to spend an hour or so laughing!

Scotty and I have been teaching 10-12 year old Sunday school, trying to learn how to interact with this age group and teach them about the Bible. Many of them bring little brothers or sisters or neighbors with them, as parents are often working on the weekends, which can be a big distraction. But, we are hopeful that the gospel is affecting their tender hearts and we look forward to more opportunities to teach them. Book activity time.

We also attended the wedding of a family that lives in the neighborhood. The couple that got married don't attend our church, but the parents do, and it was neat to get a small group from Mallasilla Bible Church together to celebrate this special day.

Group from the Mallasilla Bible Church celebrating with the happy couple.

La Paz Day adventures

Yesterday was the anniversary of La Paz. We got together with two families from our small group in the morning to hike and picnic together. Here's the crew:

This is the area where we hiked- so pretty!

Scotty handed out peeps to keep the groups morale up:

One of the girls found a rock shaped like a heart. Heart of stone:
Everyone but the pregnant girl played a friendly game of soccer before picnic time:We love our small group!

Errands

A lot of times, days that we choose to run errands can turn out to be either very disappointing, frustrating or both. Today, we had a successful errand day! We decided to drive downtown for several reasons- turn in my wedding ring to a jeweler to have a prong fixed, check the post office for a package that my mom sent about 5 months ago, and hit the tourism shopping street for various gifts. When we arrived at the jewelers store, which is right on a main government plaza, we realized that they had started celebrating "La Paz Day" a day early and there were loud, marching parades and crowds filling the streets. The jeweler was closed at 10:30, being the time that most stores open, so I asked next door and the older gentlemen told me the owner should arrive at any moment. So, we took those few moments to be patriotic and watch the parades. After about 10 minutes, the older man from the store next door waved us down and explained that he just received a phone call from the owner who was travelling and wouldn't be back until Monday. Bummer for us, but kudos to older dude who was nice enough to get our attention and keep us from waiting any longer. I love nice people. So, we headed down to the post office for our next errand. We rarely check this post office because we have updated our PO box to one much closer to where we live and thought that a runner from our SIM office would check it from time to time to make sure there wasn't anything in the box, since most of us have notified everyone of our change of address. Well, we found out that he hasn't been checking it, and those mysteriously missing packages my mom sent had been sitting in the office since March!! My sweet mom had picked up a bunch of danishes back when I was craving danishes and mailed them. Although the "best buy" date was mid-March, Scotty and I busted open a nice, sweet cinnamon one this afternoon and indulged in the blissful goodness that is gas station-style, rot-your-teeth sweet danish...yummy! The cool thing about this trip to the post office was the lady behind the counter. I must admit that the postal workers are not typically the most helpful or friendly crew around, but this lady went out of her way to go check and see if our packages were still there, even though on her list it had been marked that they were already in route to being returned to sender- having sat for so long. Again, I really appreciate nice people. And then the last stop was tourism street. Scotty and I love going here because there is always some kind of Bolivian handicraft that we love and know would make a great gift for someone. I won't go into all our finds, but I did have to post a picture of the most adorable, newborn size, periwinkle (the color of our nursery) Bolivian sweater and hat of all time. For $3, we couldn't resist it for our little one.

Piper on the Prosperity Gospel

John Piper has a gift for helping us get our heads and hearts around and into what God teaches us through His word. If you haven't already seen this clip, please check it out. The prosperity gospel is gaining traction here in Bolivia and pointing out that it is a false gospel is one of the biggest challenges facing Bible-believing pastors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTc_FoELt8s

I should be able to embed the video here, but I haven't figured that out yet. I've just begun "What Jesus Demands of the World" by Piper. I'm already under conviction and long to continue reading.

Scotty

3rd trimester "Top Ten"

I've decided there's a few things that have really marked this trimester as being different from the first 2, and it's probably a bit specific to first-time moms as well. So, here is my list in no particular order:

10. You think about the baby coming, what labor will be like, what she will be like, and how life will change after- about 50% of the day.

9. You continue to love eating, but find that any normal size portion will come back to haunt you in a matter of time in many different forms, none of which are pleasant. Small portions only!

8. Lots more strangers rub (not just touch) your belly. When we were flying to Cochabamba, the flight attendent was asking me if I had a doctor's note that allowed me to fly and the whole time we were disucussing the issue, she was rubbing my belly somewhat subconsiously...

7. You feel like you've reached a new milestone in life when the pack n play gets set up. I can't believe we have a huge piece of nursery furniture in our bedroom!

6. You think of most quiet moments together with your husband as "the last, precious few".

5. You find that if there's a lull in conversation with your husband, you want to bring up something baby-related. I'm trying to be merciful to Scotty on this one and be more inventive.

4. You re-read all the same pregnancy, birth, breast-feeding and first year books over again.

3. You have to wake up each time you want to roll over at night to help the belly make the journey.

2. While you're awake, you decide you might as well go to the bathroom AGAIN cause you'll have to soon anyway.

1. You have a hard time tying your shoes.

I'm sure I could do another top 10 list in a few weeks as things continue to grow and change. I really am enjoying the process of collecting baby "stuff" and getting it all together, and sometimes I see that Scotty isn't getting as excited as I am about each little thing. I finally explained it to him today that it's very similar to each time he's gone to the hardware store lately for rubber gloves or a machete- they each are brining us a step closer to the reality of things we are really excited about. For him, it's building on our new land; for me, it's the arrival of our daughter.

Spiritual Life Conference

I'm finally getting around to posting about our week in Cochabamba- I came back from our trip with a terrible cold that seems to be holding on and have been down for a few days. It was a great time with our SIM mission family- listening to ministry reports, being encouraged through the Word, playing games, eating, sleeping, eating more. There was an amazing team that came in from one of our fellow missionaries churches in MN who took care of the kids all day and the pastor spent time with the adults, sharing a message each morning on strength for the marathon. This was a very applicable topic, as all of us are in this for the long haul and can sometimes lose sight of the finish line or get distracted by things along the way and get off course...or just lose heart and energy and give up because it seems too far to go. It's always an encouragement to hear that others are struggling with some of the same feelings or issues that you are and then to hear the truth of God's Word that keeps us focused on what He has called us to and promises to bring us through and keep us to the end. I think Scotty and I both got so much out of the time each missionary would present his or her ministry and talk about both encouragements and discouragements from the past year. God is doing an amazing work in Bolivia and I am honored to be a part of this work and to serve alongside so many who have dedicated themselves to loving and serving the Bolivian church. One afternoon, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of one couples ministry in Bolivia- can you imagine 40 years overseas in the same place?? That was truly inspiring.

Getting big!!

Another fun event was a triple baby shower. Denise is mother of 10 and due with #11 the same day I am due with baby Miser. Roxanna is a fellow La Paz teammate who had her baby earlier this year, but has not had the chance to enjoy a shower yet. So, all the ladies of SIM got together to throw us a special party and bless our babies with love and presents! It was my first ever baby shower and very special to share it with these ladies who I know have been praying for me. It was also neat to hear the various birth stories of these women, many who have had babies in Bolivia, and I got an overall sense that their experiences were beautiful. I am thinking a lot these days about labor and birth and the baby being here and I have a peace that the Lord is going to grant me a great experience as well.