Made it home
What a long last two days...made it home...have not slept in two days and am under the weather...grateful to be home...will upload more pics and videos later...
Last Day
What a great day...this was the last day and we were on a mission to get some cuy...and guess what God provides...we were able to purchase two from this kid...the family invited us in and we visited for a really long time. Several family members were able to get glasses...we only have 6 pair left out of about 150...we also were able to share Jesus and the family was so grateful...
I have officially dined on cuy now...so I can come back to America...
We ran into one guy that wanted to know if we knew Chuck Norris...So funny...in the middle of nowhere and this guy watches Walker Texas Ranger somehow...
The final church service was packed...I thought no one would come...but over 50 people showed up!
You can see the church is a rented building...the pastor only rented two of the rooms...the owners pushed an old frig in front of the door leading to a third room...one little light and plastic chairs...pretty humble...
In this pic, the people are sending greetings to America for all the people that helped bring the Americans to Bolivia...these are very grateful people...
It was a great day and this community is happier and blessed because of our trip...many people took the first steps to getting to know God!
I have officially dined on cuy now...so I can come back to America...
We ran into one guy that wanted to know if we knew Chuck Norris...So funny...in the middle of nowhere and this guy watches Walker Texas Ranger somehow...
The views are stunning and we carried the few pairs of glasses with us and did mobile clinics on the side of the mountains...
The final church service was packed...I thought no one would come...but over 50 people showed up!
You can see the church is a rented building...the pastor only rented two of the rooms...the owners pushed an old frig in front of the door leading to a third room...one little light and plastic chairs...pretty humble...
In this pic, the people are sending greetings to America for all the people that helped bring the Americans to Bolivia...these are very grateful people...
It was a great day and this community is happier and blessed because of our trip...many people took the first steps to getting to know God!
Day 5
Well my camera has gone to the dark side for the second time while on this trip...I guess a camera can lose it's salvation! The camera is several years old and the battery bit the dust...the local pastor here went and was able to buy one here for a small fortune...and it only worked or held a charge for two days...I guess because the camera is several years old the battery I purchased must have been old as well...no returns in Bolivia...so you will get less pics for now...lots of people are taking pics and will email them to me...so when I get back to the states I might be able to post more...
I did get to snap a few from the town...looks like local codes are pretty strict...
And the insurance company said I needed to change my breaker box?
Rail road tie for an electric pole? It's metal...I was scared to touch it!
Pic of our morning meetings
The culture is very different...people drop a lot of trash on the ground...I was telling the translator you would go to jail if you litter...not here
Today we did a lot of walking...made a lot of follow up visits...and saw the church at full capacity tonight...23 adults and 10 kids...not including the 3 Americans and 11 locals from the church that is starting this one...Pablo and I also hired a local boy to trap some cuy (guinea pig) so pray that he catches some so I can come home...
We have seen around 100 people choose to put Jesus first in their life...now only God knows of those 100 which were true confessions...I can say for sure that tonight the 23 adults that attended the service were the real deal!
We have also for the last two day have had to keep the local math teacher/drunk from disrupting the service...yes drunk teacher in front of the school...he lost his wife of 12 years to cancer recently and is in a bad place...We counseled him down the street to keep away for many hours...really sad. I told him that his wife would want him to straighten up and not be drunk...he agreed very humbly...said he would go home and we could talk to him with a clear head...but he went and drank some more...pray that he is not drunk tomorrow and that I could help him someway. This is the school were we met him...the church is the next building down...
Tomorrow more follow up...another service...hopefully eat some cuy...and then back home we come...I miss you Paige...and James and Olivia as well...Love ya!
I did get to snap a few from the town...looks like local codes are pretty strict...
And the insurance company said I needed to change my breaker box?
Rail road tie for an electric pole? It's metal...I was scared to touch it!
Pic of our morning meetings
The culture is very different...people drop a lot of trash on the ground...I was telling the translator you would go to jail if you litter...not here
Today we did a lot of walking...made a lot of follow up visits...and saw the church at full capacity tonight...23 adults and 10 kids...not including the 3 Americans and 11 locals from the church that is starting this one...Pablo and I also hired a local boy to trap some cuy (guinea pig) so pray that he catches some so I can come home...
We have seen around 100 people choose to put Jesus first in their life...now only God knows of those 100 which were true confessions...I can say for sure that tonight the 23 adults that attended the service were the real deal!
We have also for the last two day have had to keep the local math teacher/drunk from disrupting the service...yes drunk teacher in front of the school...he lost his wife of 12 years to cancer recently and is in a bad place...We counseled him down the street to keep away for many hours...really sad. I told him that his wife would want him to straighten up and not be drunk...he agreed very humbly...said he would go home and we could talk to him with a clear head...but he went and drank some more...pray that he is not drunk tomorrow and that I could help him someway. This is the school were we met him...the church is the next building down...
Tomorrow more follow up...another service...hopefully eat some cuy...and then back home we come...I miss you Paige...and James and Olivia as well...Love ya!
Location:Sella Bolivia
Day four...best day yet!
Today was the best day yet for telling people about the saving grace of Jesus...First thing was Coca tea...Thanks Bill for the info on Coca tea...I will be drinking some more...matter of fact I am going to bring some home and we will share a cup when I get back...this is the info he researched for me... " James, More info ... one cup of coca tea from one gram of coca leaves has 4.21 mg of cocaine in it or .00421 grams. According to the experts your good up to a dose of 500 mg and anything over that is dangerous. That means that as long as you drink less than 118 cups of tea in one sitting, your good to go... though you may have to pee really bad.
Just looking out for you. Bill. "
We took a van to the site today and had 18 people in there...crazy! The van is very small...
Also the pastor stopped and purchased our lunch...meat...and placed it on the dash board for 45 min or so...Paige you know how crazy I get about leaving food out on the counter...but when in Rome ( or in this case Bolivia) do as the Romans do...
Here are some of the views on the drive out...
When we arrived at Sella we immediately started going door to door telling people that we were having a free eye glass clinic today...you can not purchase reading glasses in Bolivia with out a prescription. Tons of people came. Here we are telling people...
This lady gave us something she had made...
Lunch at 12...
Then the eye glass clinic at 2...
Once they got the glasses we had the opportunity to tell the people about Jesus...The method is to tell them your testimony...walk them through a device called the evangecube ( it is sorta a rubic cube that shows the death/ resurrection of Christ in pictures) and then to walk them though the passages in the Bible that explains that Jesus death is a free gift for salvation if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth...something like 80 people did this for the first time today...and there was a huge festa in Heaven today for these new believers!
Later that night we had " I Am Second" groups with many new believers...
It is very beautiful here...Keep praying it is really working...
Location:Sella Bolivia