The Mountain Adventure

Well let me start by thanking all of you for your prayers. Our trip up into the Andes was certainly the adventure of a lifetime. We left early Monday morning and arrived at a rural hotel in Sacaca about 8 hours later. The roads started off lovely but quickly turned to dirt and rock. God was really testing all of us in our faith, but some more than others. However, as always, God is faithful and pulled us through. We were very thankful for the worship books Elisha prepared so that we could focus on God. Alison was sick the entire trip with flu-like symptoms and could not participate in any of the activities. However, she is feeling much better tonight and will hopefully be able to be more active tomorrow. Monday evening we had a meeting at the rural hospital in Sacaca to hear about how they are partnering with MAP´s health promoters. God´s work through MAP is greatly changing the rural communities. The people in Sacaca were greatly accepting of us as demonstrated by their willingness to include us in one of their most significant cultural ceremonies of thanksgiving to God. It was great to be included since these ceremonies are almost never shared with others, especially strangers. This was significant because it meant that they fully accepted us and wanted to learn about our lives and have us return again in the future. Tuesday morning we traveled about an hour past Sacaca to another rural village with a health promoter from MAP. The people here also warmly greated us and shared with us about their lives and hardships. We learned all about their struggles and how they are improving their community. They are so excited about the things their people are learning from MAP that they invited us to return next year so that we could see the improvements that they are sure will come. They also shared with us their cultural music and dances and invited us to participate. The women also showed us how to twist sheep wool into string that they then dye with plants to make their clothing. We also visited their school, which only goes up to 3rd grade. We headed back to Sacaca for lunch and left for Cochabamba from there. We just returned and were warmly greeted by the MAP staff that we have been working with the past week. We are all headed for the shower now as we are all covered in dust because it is the dry season and dust storms were frequent. Tomorrow we are headed to the sexual abuse center for children, which is called CUBE, for the morning. Then in the afternoon it is back to construction. Please pray for us to be able to connect with the children at CUBE tomorrow and for the construction to move along quickly. We really want to finish all 4 of our projects before we leave, but at this point that seems a bit of a big goal. Also, please continue to pray for the team´s health, especially for Alison.