I want to thank all of you for supporting our book drive! We received some in December and the rest in February. Everyone was so excited to see them and are already reading. Thank you for helping the work here in this way. The team will be blessed and grow and so will the people in Tarija.
February brought with it Carnival. In Sucre we always dreaded the whole month leading up to Carnival because of all the drunkenness and bands on the street every weekend. During the 4 days of Carnival we always closed ourselves into our houses except to go to church because it was dangerous to be out. Tarija is so different! People her do celebrate Carnival but in family and in a more peaceful way. Kids where out throwing water balloons at other kids and people were barbecuing with family and friends. They also celebrate compadres and comadres here. Compadres is the day guys get together with their friends and comadres is when the women get together with their friends to celebrate and appreciate friendships.
(Left to right top: A street corner selling things to make the baskets that are given to friends on compadres and comadres. The ladies celebrating our comadres at the bowling alley. Left to right bottom: Pilar and Nicole taking their comadre baskets to school to give to friends. Lorie celebrating with Silvia after Silvia made a strike. Silvia had never played before and ended up beating us all.)
The guys on the team invited their friends for a barbecue and the women decided to go bowling. Only three people came besides the women on the team but it was a lot of fun. Two had never bowled before and both enjoyed it so much. We plan to do it again. It’s a great activity since we can all chat while someone takes their turn to bowl.
We have been praying more. We always pray but we have been setting more specific times to pray during the week. This has been great on so many levels but also to see how prayer really does help in the spiritual warfare. People have been coming to church and more to the contact center. God has been helping us through conviction and wisdom. Peace and encouragement have been more apparent. I ask you to please continue with us in prayers for the work here, the team and the families. It is slow going here but God is faithful.
One man who appeared at El Camino (contact center) one day is Julio Cesar. He is 70 years old and is in his first year of the university studying to be a lawyer. He is hilarious and very talkative. I think he is lonely too and has become a constant fixture at El Camino in between his classes. He has had a very interesting life and is very active physically and with groups of people. He went back to school to get his GED a couple years ago because he wants to help people who don’t have people they can depend on. He has lots of questions on what we believe and why we believe it. He says he is always going to question and debate things because that’s who he is but also because he’s not just going to believe what others tell him. He has invited me to go with him when his bicycle club goes out and has invited Juan to see his garden. He came to church last Sunday. He brings a smile to my face when I see him.
Thank you for supporting this work. We are trying to share the light and love of God with the people here but we wouldn’t be able to be here without your support and prayers. Thank you and may God’s face shine on you and may His Spirit guide you.
Please continue to pray for the adoption. There has been no news yet but I have such peace that God has control over the process.
Blessings.
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