IBM Camp 2011

I'm sitting in bed listening to the ongoing festivities to celebrate both Bolivia's labor day and Mallasilla's anniversary. Across the town from us, in front of the Catholic church, is the yearly 3-day drunk fest, complete only with extremely loud music, dancing and partying into the wee morning hours. Thankfully, we missed the majority of it since our IBM camp fell on these dates this year, but it looks as though we'll have to hear a few more hours of drunk ballads before it's all said and done. We got a late start leaving camp and the fog set in just a bit into the uphill return to La Paz. This particular road, nestled between high mountains and deep ravines, is prone to getting fogged in and being fairly dangerous. It was about dusk when we hit this, so before long it was densely foggy and dark. As we neared the cumbre, the highest point in the department of La Paz, the sky began to drop freezing rain and the road soon became covered in a layer of ice. The defrost on our 1995 Toyota Caldina doesn't work, so Scotty spent about half an hour wiping the inside of the windshield with a paper towel and driving about 10mph. We were both pretty tense and praying without ceasing. Following somewhere behind us were 2 bus fulls of campers and several other personal vehicles carrying our beloved church family. God led us through safely and we are praying He did the same for them as well.

Camp was a blast. There was very unseasonal rain and/or cloudiness for most of the 3 days in the jungle, but at least it kept the temps down. Bugs were at a minimal as well. We had a variety of people this year, including a group of about 25 shoe shiners who are being reached through a ministry some good friends of ours started called Kayuparu. They brought a lively dynamic and with about 7 of them on our team, we won the games competition. Bolivians can get pretty stuck on the fact that Scotty is almost 2 meters (6'8" ft.) tall, so decided our team should be called the giants. We quickly found out that another team had named themselves the same, so we ended up being the midgets- the jokes were endless... Besides hilarious games, our pastor spoke twice on the book of Joshua and the devoted Christian life, we ate lots, we waited around lots for food to be prepared, we chatted and got to know each other better. Today we had a special time of baptism. It never fails to move me to see the lives that the Lord has changed in drastic ways. The pastor's brother and his wife were baptized, both recently coming to the Lord. The wife became interested in spiritual things first and quickly began soaking up the Word and the change in her life was quick, obvious and dramatic. Her simple and deep faith is amazing to see. She began to pray for her husband and, although it took a bit of time, he came out of the water today with his hands raised in the air in triumph and joy. I think we were all in tears as he hugged his brother, our pastor, in gratitude. 2 shoe shiners were also baptized- young men who have years ahead to experience the power of God's amazing grace in lives that were so very lost. It's such a gift to see the way God has been at work in people in our church and is bringing new people in continually through His moving in their hearts. Every year I'm excited about church camp, but a bit nervous because I fight my own desire for punctuality, comfort and a bug free existence. But every year the Lord reorganizes my priorities and encourages me in the work we are a part of- because He is the one ultimately who is doing it and it is beautiful.