New Records

I guess I should fill y'all in on our last trip... :) I know you're thinking, "Dang, Jeff, it's about time!!" and I apologize for the lateness of the update. Things have been quite interesting here in Bolivia so I use that excuse for the length of time it's taking me to write this... hehe
After we returned to the communities after our short trip into Llallagua to talk with our boss, it was with a different outlook that we set out. We changed our trip into an investigation trip to check out the villages to see if they had a church or believers in each. We started walking from Qolqa Pampa and crossed the river back to Pata Qhuchi. We were actually received this time by the caretaker of the village and he gave us a room to stay in whenever we are there so that was a very pleasant surprise supplied by God. The next day we walked to another village that had a church and we attended the service; there were only about eight women in the service because pretty much all of the men on that side of the river were away working in the cities to get some extra money during this slow month. The women didn't speak any Spanish so we had to utilize the Quechua we had learned to speak with them. It was a great and humbling experience because the women took an offering at the end of the service and then, surprising us greatly, gave all of it to us! They told us they wanted to support God's work in the area and the faith of these women was incredible. We were both struck speechless by their act of faith, and couldn't express our gratitude enough to them. Afterwards we went to another village that had, yet again, an amazing lack of men. We were sitting in the plaza and no one was showing any interest in us; it was getting late in the night, and we still had no place to sleep. I prayed outloud to God to provide a man to give us a place to sleep and after that literally four men approached us to talk. Shortly after that, we had a place to stay for the two days we were there. It's always amazing how God can provide for us while showing us that we need Him; there was no way that is was us that caused those men to come to us. We then spent the rest of our time on this trip in a village called Charaqi. Most of the men that were there were drunk for most of the time and there was no work whatsoever for us to help with. Because of this, we, at the most, got fed once a day for five days; and most of the time it was a bowl of potatoes to split between Javier and me. But God gave us that much at least as Matthew 6 says: he will provide for us, so there's no need to be anxious about all of it.
The records we set on this last trip are quite impressive if I don't say so myself... haha, and one will be disgusting to most people. The first is that Javier and I walked over 40 hours total on this trip. That's the most that any team of the Xtreme Team has walked in one trip to the best of my knowledge. My legs can definitely feel the difference of all that walking. And the second is that I didn't change any of my clothes for two straight weeks! I'm very proud of that, if for no other reason that people will be shocked, and grossed out by it. ;) We travelled very light the second time, and I decided that another set of clothes would be unnecessary to carry; very wise choice... hehe
I want to thank everyone for their prayers and support during this trip. It has been the most difficult trip we've had, including training. Without y'alls prayers, it would have been impossible to accomplish. The biggest prayer request I have right now is the situation with the goverment still. At least they are talking with the insurgents now so we're expecting things to calm down a little bit in the near future. We have been asked by the IMB to not leave Sucre for another week because of the conflicts. Also, please pray for us to be able to focus on practicing our Quechua while here in Sucre so that we can engage the people once we return to the villages. Thanks again to everyone for praying, and until next time!