First Trip into the Communities

Well, I´m back in Sucre after spending about three weeks in the area where I will most likely be spending the rest of my term. Overall, I think that this trip was a good first trip. About the only bad thing that happened to Javier and me was that we weren´t able to cross the river that we needed to to reach the villages that we wanted to. But we were able to stay in another village so we didn´t have to return all the way to base camp.
The first three days were the hardest of my life, quite possibly. The first day we climbed up a mountain 2000 feet in tire rubber sandals and with 60 pounds on our backs. There were so many times that I wanted to turn back on that first day but my stubborness, but mostly God´s provision, kept me going. Then we had to walk down another mountain two days later to try to cross this river in a very deep gorge but we got lost on the numerous trails and had to turn back. When we finally reached our village for this trip, Qolqa Pampa, we were very depressed at not being able to cross that dang river. But God works in wonderful ways! Just when we were getting ready to move from this village to try to find another, God provided us with work (which wasn´t available before this time for a few days). I guess he wanted us to stay there and make some good future contacts. We did unfortunately have many days without work, eiter because no one came to offer us any or they fell through on coming to get us to work with them. But yet again, I realized that God even used those loooong days with no work for His glory. I was able to, in this trip alone, read the entire New Testament and Leviticus through Job of the Old. It was great to be able to dive into the Word like that and see how God loves us and is constantly pursuing us.
Some of the work we did included sorting potatoes (there were many days of this) into large, medium, and small. It was interesting because there really seemed to be no standard for any of the three sizes, just your best guess. We also shucked corn for a whole day... that was quite an experience. Not exactly rocket science to do, so we had lots of time to sit there and think while we shucked that corn. But as Javier says, ¨Mejor de nada (better than nothing).¨ But probably my favorite job that we helped with happened on the 4th of July. We got to drown two pigs for the owner to take to market and sell. It was probably the worst culture shock I´ve had since I´ve been here. We had to tie up the pigs, and then stick their heads in a hole in the ground full of water until they died. Next we poured boiling water on them and scraped them with knives to get all the hair off of them. Then the Bolivian men gutted them while we watched. It was quite a day... I mostly stood back like a `gringo´ and took pictures. ;) I don´t think too many people will be able to top that 4th of July... haha The other group, Graham and Andrew, worked like dogs the entire time they were in their community, so I feel a little shame that we didn´t get to work somewhat like they did. But I´m pretty sure my time is coming... :)
Needless to say, we made it back in one piece. We didn´t have to many problems health-wise. I got sick one day, Javier got sick once or twice, Graham´s hands looked like they were going to fall off, and Andrew got sick one day as well. Also, I´m pretty sure that my blisters on my feet from the tire rubber sandals had blisters on them as well. But everyone is healing up and getting ready to head back out on the 15th of July for our next trip.
I want to thank all of you for praying for our team as we were out in the communities. It was a very difficult trial, but I hope that the process will get easier as the months wear on. I need to keep in my mind that this is where God wants me to serve for the next 15 months so I can stick it out, but not without a lot of help from y´all. Just knowing that we have such a strong prayer base back in the States helped us get through most of the days. So again, thanks to everyone for praying for us and keping us in their minds during the last month.
Some prayer requests for this next trip are:
The language (Quechua) that we need to learn in order to tell the stories to the people- It´s pretty difficult to learn while we´re in the communities because all of the people speak it so fast and mumble most of the time.
Crossing the river this time- We need to get to the other side because that is where people have not heard the Word of God at all.
Our health- Please pray that we can keep healthy enough to work and have enough energy to learn the customs and language of the Quechua.
Thank all of you for taking the time to read this and I´m going to try in the next couple of days to put up some new pictures of this last trip. In His Hands.