The team is here!

I left the house early in order to pick up our YWAM team and make the trek back up near the airport where we would start our Andean worldview tour with our friend, Andy.  After hiking up a long set of stairs, we hopped on the green line cable cars and made our ascent, about 2000 ft. up, to El Alto.  After checking in with Andy and getting the low-down on the day, we began walking.  I was impressed with how well he knew the city, sometimes forgetting his family used to live up there and still spend quite a bit of time in those parts for work.  Horns were already blaring, even though it was only about 9:30 in the morning and as we entered a large market with very narrow rows, we realized that plenty of people were up and shopping.  Markets are nothing new to me, but I wasn't used to how crammed everything was, including the people.  There were more smells, more stuff, more roots and rocks to trip over.  Andy moved fast- he knew we'd be less of a target for pick-pocketing if we weren't slow.  At one point, me and two other girls got caught behind a long ling of aggressive traffic that was not looking to let any pedestrians through.  We saw a few tall, blond heads bobbing down the row way in front of us, but quickly lost sight of the rest of the group.  We decided to keep moving forward, figuring we'd come upon them before long.  At the end of that row, we ran up against a road teeming with people and public transport vehicles, but no one we recognized.  There was some tension as we decided to navigate back into the chaos, but we prayed and eventually met back up.  After passing through the witches market, explaining sacrifices to the Pachamama and learning how to stuff and chew coca leaves, we ended the sketchiest bit of our tour by passing by the shaman's stalls with their sacrificial fires burning.  Somewhat wierded out at first, before the end I felt joy that we were a group carrying the Spirit of the living God within us- light in a very dark place.  We took some time to tour through the massive, general cemetery (all above ground, mausoleum-style), do some more urban hiking through a large market in the city of La Paz and ended our quest at a fancy coffee shop in the rich south zone.

General cemetery

I was impressed with what we saw, realizing anew how accustomed I am to my own life-style and how I can fairly easily tune out the poverty that mostly characterizes the nation I live in.  God challenged me again to seek ways to live more sacrificially, more generously, toward those who are in need.

Team praying for the Highlands International School and our church, IBM.

Hanging out, drinking coffee, eating the gingerbread house.

These 8 young people, with my long-time friend as their leader, have been such a blessing!  They are willing, servant-hearted, laid-back, fun and in love with the Lord.  We've really enjoyed getting to know them and are being re-inspired through their enthusiasm about what the Lord is up to here.  They've participated in several different ministries and will head off on Monday to Cochabamba to see what God's doing there and join up with that.  2 of them even stayed with the girls overnight so we could have some time away!  We are so grateful they came.

Christmas dinner!