WE ARE IN BOLIVIA

It has been a long and winding road but we are in Bolivia. (Ok, its a reference to Beatles song...believe it or not here in La Paz there is a place that has Beatles Karaoke...who would have guessed it). All glory to God. Rhonda and I and many of you have been praying for this for the last 3 to 4 years and now God has brought it to pass. There has been many obstacles thrown in front of us but God has taken us through!

We are living in a boarding house with a woman named Gloria and her husband Rene and their daughter Andrea and also with a young woman from Holland and another from Japan. We have our own room and SAm has his own room. This is home for the next 10 weeks!

When we flew into La Paz at 6am on the 3rd of September all of the mountains surrounding the city were covered in snow. It was a beautiful site through very tired eyes. It does not snow in the city which is a good thing because the streets are very very steep in all directions. We reached our new home and quickly began taking measures to fight the effects of the altitude. WE have been doing well but it is very exhausting to walk to the places we need to be.

As many of you know I was hoping for a shower in our home. Well I am glad to report we have one that we share and it even has hot water....sometimes. The house does not have heat but we sleep under several layers of wool blankets and we do stay warm. The food has been good too with soup twice a day with the meal. So, things are better than we hoped.

We began our classes in Spanish and Aymara and that is taking alot of brain power. Sam is taking off with both languages. The main man we are working with is Pastor Angel. He met us at the airport and has already begun working with us for our VISA extension. This is a lot of work with many steps. PLEASE friends, partners and all readers of this blog, pray that we have favor and that our paperwork goes through.

Unexpectedly, we have already begun sharing the gospel. I say unexpectedly because last night the young lady from Holland and her sister began asking me questions about the Christian life. I didn´t think that I would come to Bolivia to share the love of God with people from Holland. It was a lengthy conversation that ended with them saying that I had given them something to think about. They said they had really never heard the gospel before. It was a blessed hour. Keep them in your prayers, too.

Rhonda is great, leading Sam and I with her knowledge of Spanish. She is just as charming in Spanish as she is in English. Everyone loves to talk to her. WE love all of you and we will continue to update as we can. Pictures to come soon, too.

KEEP READING AND PRAYING Diosampiki (God bless you in Aymara)