Friday, July 23, 2010

The Jungle Journey did not happen--flexibility is a key word on all mission trips

Hola amigos!

It's 11:45 p.m. and we are in Cochabamba, not the jungle. We were supposed to leave at 2 p.m. for a 6 hour drive to the jungle, but the van that was taking us along with 7 of the Florida Norte church teachers had mechanical troubles. It arrived to pick us up at 7 p.m., but the driver said he was not sure about it's reliability.

So....we took these fantastic young teachers out for dinner and ice cream! What a blessing the evening turned out to be! We asked them to try to speak English as much as possible and committed ourselves to speaking Spanish as much as possible. God knit our hearts together with theirs, and we were able to encourage them in their university studies and their ministries at church. Many of them are considering missions work--God is good, all the time!

Abel has been such a Godly leader of our team. His patience, encouragement, translation help and love for Jesus are fantastic.

Tomorrow (Saturday) we will do some local outreaches here in the Cochabamba area with the Florida norte teachers and youth. Please pray for these.

By the way, we've had lots of the USA in Cochabamba tonight. Right now, as I am typing this blog message from the guest house, 'In the Mood' (the big band song) is playing at a local disco! And the song before that was 'Shake, rattle and roll!' We ate ice cream tonight at an ice cream parlo called 'Dumbo's' (which is complete with an elephant logo in it's sign!) And you'll have to ask Diane about her 'spacebook' account that she has...and that's not a typo!

Glad to know that the God of the ages is directing our steps and keeping us safe,
mateo