We are back to civilization!
We drove back to Cochabamba on Monday, back to Christ For the City guest house. I took the opportunity to wash a lot of clothes. They have a washing machine, but no dryer; nevertheless, I was able to get all the clothes to dry and pack for our next journey. Tuesday night we had a little going away party with Christ For the City staff. It was a sweet time of singing, praying and sharing. We had some typical Bolivian fried dessert, whose names I can't remember.
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| Typical Bolivian snacks |
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| Christ For the City staff in Cochabamba |
Wednesday we flew out of Cochabamba to Riberalta. It should be one hour flight, but we zigged-zagged to another city, waited there to unload and load. It took us three hours to get there. Riberalta is a very unusual place since they have very few cars and trucks. Their main mode of transportation is on motorcycles. People of all ages ride motorcycles, and they carry everything. Luis, our missionary partner for this trip, found us an actual car to take us to the mission housing where we were staying, but, as soon as we were unpacked and ready to go get something to eat, we each rode on the back of a motor-taxi. Yes, I rode on the back of a motorcycle without a helmet, since nobody wears one. The fare was less than a dollar to go downtown.
We stayed at the Swiss Mission. It is a camp/missionary residence which was built 50 years ago. All the buildings are completely built with wood. We stayed at a house where a large family used to live, but they had to go back to Switzerland. It had 5 bedrooms and an office, with two baths; therefore, not only each couple had its own bedroom, but its own bathroom. We had clean towels and filtered water, a full kitchen, dinning room-living room combination. All very simple and efficient. Alas, no hot water. When we got there, it was very hot, and it did not matter, but soon the weather turned wet and cold. It remained like that the whole time we were in the area. We took very fast showers. The Swiss work with all the different ethnic groups in the area.
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| One of the buildings at the Swiss Mission |
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| Our bedroom |
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Bathroom
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| Living room - notice that the walls don't go all the way up. It was like living in a screen-in porch |
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| kitchen |
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| Dining room - notice that the water filter on the far left |
The center of town is a plaza surrounded by business and the catholic church on one corner and an evangelical church on another. School was out by the time we got there, so the young people in school uniforms just ride around the plaza on their motorcycles, talking to each other. We sat in a restaurant and watched the show. After lunch-dinner, we walked around to find some supplies for breakfast. There is no such thing as a grocery store. There are just stands everywhere. It is like one big farmer's market. We actually found Kellog's cornflakes and liquid yogurt, but no milk.. Too late in the evening for milk, they told us. Luis went around trying to find a motor-taxi that is a motorcycle with a cart attached for passengers and groceries. Elizabeth, Luis' wife took the man's cell number, and he became our main transportation while in Riberalta.
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| Teen-agers chatting and riding around the plaza |
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| Delivery motorcycle |
On Friday, we hired a driver with an actual car ($100 for the day!) to go to Portachuelo, one of the areas where some of this ethnic groups live. Piled tight in the car were John and I, Elizabeth, and Nelly, a local woman who attended the missions institute run by Luis and Elizabeth at one point. She has a heart for missions, but she is now rearing twin granddaughters because her daughter died in a tragic accident. It was necessary to cross a rive by ferry, which was really a raft pulled by a tug boat. Luis went with their student on his motorcycle. It took us almost three hours to get to our destination. This was a little village by the river. They eat mainly fish that they catch from the river. They speak Spanish, and their own language, which is different from Quechua, the second official language of Bolivia.
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| Our transportation and Nelly on the left and Elizabeth on the right |
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| River ferry |
We found the church, but only the pastor and his wife were there. People had been waiting for us, but we were one hour late. In the mean time, an organization came by distributing chicken, and everybody left. Somehow they got the word that we were there, but then, they served breakfast that they had prepared for us and everybody. By the time we got started, it was about 11:30! The little church was full. There were about 15 couples and a few singles. We ran the marriage workshop until about 2:30. That's what the pastor told us to do, but of course, all the women were at the workshop, so lunch was not eve started at the break. We had to wait for lunch to be prepared. The pastor invited us to his house for lunch, along with our driver. It was delicious. It consisted of "baku," a very large river fish, very tasty, white rice and roasted ripe plantains. We also had "chicha," a local drink made out of corn. I knew it as an alcoholic drink from South America, but the locals do not ferment it. By the time everybody had lunch, it was 3:30. Then the driver tells us that we must leave by 4:30 because the road conditions, the rain, and because he wasn't sure that the ferry would be available after dark. We had to skip a lot of what we had prepared for the workshop because of the time. We just pray that what was shared will be used by the Holy Spirit to heal families and marriages. Luis and his student stayed overnight so that Luis would continue the meetings the next day, Saturday.
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| Outside the church in Portachuelo |
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| Workshop |
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| Lunch being prepared |
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| Local children |
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| Lunch at the pastor's house - from my left: Elizabeth, Nelly and Ariel, the student assigned to this area |
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| The whole group |
Since it had been raining all day, the road was in worse shape than in the morning. It was liquid red clay. Our driver was good, but the car kept sliding left and right, and I was praying the whole time. One false move and we would be stuck in a ditch for the evening. The Lord was good. We arrived to the ferry location when it was getting dark, but the ferry was still there. By the time we got back to the Mission, it was completely dark. We were very tired and thankful to the Lord for bringing us back safely.
The next day we did the same workshop in Riberalta. There is an association of all local pastors from different denominations, including Baptist, Pentecostals, and even the Friends Church was represented. It was a long day, we a lunch break, but I was pretty tired by the time we were done. Luis and his student arrived during early evening. I can't imagine how hard that trip was on a motorcycle.
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| Couples sharing together |
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| Workshop in Riberalta |
I need to stop here and explain about Luis and Elizabeth. They run a missions institute. It is a two and a half year program for young men and women who feel the call to missions. They teach Bible skills using the inductive method, hermeneutics, exegesis, and other subjects taught at seminaries. They study for a few months at their base, then they are placed cross-culturally in different ethnic communities here in Bolivia, Peru and Argentina. Then they go back to the base and take classes again. Luis and Elizabeth visit their students while on the field, and that is why we have been doing this marriage workshop in all these places while they visit their students. Biblical marriage workshops are not known in these places; therefore, Luis and Elizabeth requested our help to come along side them and help, using Pastor D's materials.
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| On our way to the airport by motor-taxi, with Luis and Elizabeth |
We flew to Santa Cruz, Bolivia from Riberalta and stayed overnight at another missionary housing facility, this one run by Americans, then flew to Panama. We arrived safely at Panama where we are going to stay for a few days as tourists, since we had to stay here anyway because we are using our airline miles for this trip, and they did no have mile seats available for a quick connection.
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| Panama City |
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| View from our hotel room - it is raining! |
Praises:
- The Lord has kept us safe through this long journey
- We have been used by Him to encourage many
- We have had to trust Him to work out so many details for His glory
Prayer request:
- That the Lord will bring us safely home
- David had an accident surfing: pray for quick healing
Thank you, dear friends for you prayers. It is encouraging to know that you are standing right there in the gap.
See you soon!
