Give Thanks in All Circumstances

Surprise, surprise! I bet y´all weren´t expecting to hear from me for at least another three weeks; well that´s too bad for y´all. haha Javier and I were able to pass through a town called Llallagua that thankfully is just large enough to have internet. Let me fill y´all in on what´s happened so far on this second trip of ours.
We left last Saturday, the 16th, with our boss and his wife to check out some villages where they were intertested in planting churches in the future. It went well, and the little Quechua I tried with the people resulted only in laughter... I don´t know if it was ¨Gosh, I´m surprised this red-headed gringo can speak some Quechua¨ laughter or if it was ¨HAHA, look at this white dude butchering our language¨ laughter. :) On Sunday, we headed from Pocoata to Qolqa Pampa to try to cross the river yet again. In QP, we met Pedro Condori who lived in Kayanta, which was were we wanted to try to cross from, and he offered us a place to stay in his house! God was already preparing our way into the province!! We had heard that Kayanta didn´t have a church or Christians, but it turned out that Pedro was the pastor of the evangelical church there... yet another blessing from God! We had service one night with them in which we got to share who we were, what we were doing in the area, and the Quechua wanted to hear a song in English so I got to sing a capella. Amen! hehe The next morning we walked from Kayanta to Pata Qhuchi, which was on the other side of the river. One man said it only takes three hours, but we knew better, and we weren´t disappointed. It took us about seven hours to reach PQ. The thing was we had to go down to the river, about 2,700´ below Kayanta, and then climb another mountain about the same distance up to finally reach PQ. The sad thing is that Kayanta and PQ are about a mile apart facing each other but on opposite mountains... PQ turned out to pretty much be a ghost town. There are about ninety houses there and we counted about fifteen people in total. All the rest were working in larger cities across Bolivia. We were very discouraged when we arrived because no one was interested in us at all, not even to see what we were doing there; which is very strange. We were getting ready to leave when a man showed up who was a Christian living there in PQ. He let us stay with him that night and he turned out to be a really blessing! To see his faith in Christ was amazing; he is the only Christian living in PQ and his wife went blind three years ago so he has to do everything. But he still trusts in the Lord, and seems to never be discouraged by his situation. The next morning he excitedly shared with us all of the activity going on all over that side of the river with at least six different missionary agencies!! To say the least, we were shocked... we had been expecting nothing to be happening on that side of the river at all, but ¨bam!¨ God is working heavily in the area. After hearing this unexpected, but awesome, news, we hiked back to Qolqa Pampa to talk with Trent about what to do now. That day was probably the hardest I´ve ever had; we each had one liter of water to hike up 3000´ to QP because our extra two liters somehow fell out of my backpack down the cliff about thirty minutes into the hike. Thank God we made it back to QP, even though severly dehydrated, in one piece. After resting a lot that night, we called Trent the next morning to inform him of the situation. The plan now is that we are turning this into an investigation trip to see what is happening in the villages on the far side of the river. The next two weeks we will be going from village to village to check out the progress and doctrine of the believers there.
The day after our ¨fun¨ hike back to QP, I read a really encouraging passage of Scripture that I would like to share with y´all from 1 Thessalonians: ¨See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you¨ verses 15-18. When I read this, I was convicted that I needed to give thanks always, in every situation. To be perfectly honest, before we reached Pata Qhuchi, I had a seed of pride in my chest to be the ´first´ missionary there, and to share the Gospel with them, but God was way ahead of me and showed me that I would not be that person. I was humbled greatly then, because I recall my first reaction to hearing that those Quechua already had heard of Jesus was disappointment that I wasn´t the one, not the rejoicing like it should have been... To even be here and be part of the work the Lord is accomplishing down here is worthy of thanks every hour and day. I pray that I can keep this in mind as we continue to delve into this area that God reached before us, and that I can give thanks no matter what happens.
One praise that I have is that God has done incredible things in the area where we were going to work!! There are Christians aplenty, and more and more missionaries are flooding the area! Amen! Please keep praying for Javier and I as we investigate these villages and talk to the missionaries. Pray for safe travel to the area and villages. Also, please pray that we might have good contacts with the other missions agencies working in the area. Lastly, pray that we have success in the villages with finding that they are following the Lord Jesus as taught in the Bible. Thanks to everyone who reads this, and I will be back in September!!

Looking Ahead

As I´m sitting here at the internet café trying to think about what to write, I´m hitting the famed writer´s block... hehe. This one is going to be pretty short (I know that all of you are sad to hear that ;P) because I´m planning on just letting y´all know what the plan is for this next trip. We--Javier and me-- are leaving tomorrow to head to the villages. We will not be going to the same village as last time but this time we WILL cross that dang river to get to Pata Qhuchi, which is where Trent wants us to start planting chuches if they have none (if they do have one then we move on to the next village). We are going to be in the communities for a month, after which we will go directly to Chili for Javier to renew his passport. We should be back to Sucre by around the 16th-18th of September. So I´ll send out an update when I get back.
Please be praying for us for safe travel as we try to get to Pata Qhuchi. It will probably take us about four days of walking after we reach Pocoata, our local base camp, after a day on a bus. Also, pray that we are able to encounter a man of peace in Pata Qhuchi who will vouch for us, and allow us to stay with him. Just two more, and that´s it... :) Keep in your prayers our ability to communicate with the Quechua as in these villages across the river, they do not speak much Spanish, and we will have to try to talk to them mostly in Quechua--that should be an experience... :) And lastly, please pray that the peoples´ hearts and minds are open to the saving power of Christ, and that through us, these people may know the hope and peace that comes with the knowledge of knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus.
I can never thank y´all enough for your prayers and support! Without it, it would be so much harder to do the things that I have to do. I will try to keep y´all in my thoughts as much as y´all will keep me in yours. God bless, chantá Septiembrekama (and until September, in Quechua)!