Adios Bolivia

The final week of school arrived and after exams were finally over, everyone started helping get ready for graduation. We had programs all weekend and many visitors on campus. The final ceremony took place Sunday evening, starting an hour late as usual in Bolivia. It was set-up on the lawn in front of a homemade stage. Everyone sat at tables and half-way through the program we served all the guests a very nice meal. The program went very nicely. It was sad to see some students without any family there to support them. At the beginning of the program it started to rain, but we stopped as a group and asked God to hold off the rain. He did and even sent a beautiful rainbow halo in the sky. God displayed His awesome power right there in front of all our visitors. The students began leaving to go to their homes on Sunday. Some students will be staying around for a month or more to work on campus, even though there is no money to pay them. They would rather be there than anywhere else. Several students are going up the river with another group of missionaries to help put on children's programs and witness to the indigenous tribes. I was working in the garden with one student who is young for a freshman in high school and did not do well with her grades. She was asking me if she was going to pass my classes and I had to be honest with her that she was not going to. She said she was going to pray that God would help her pass. I tried to explain to her that is not how God works. God can and will help her with her studies, but she has to put forth effort and work hard and it is a little late for that now that classes are over. But she quickly got over her sadness of not passing and decided she would come back and work hard next year. How quickly we give up when we don't succeed the very first time or if something is hard, yet she was ready to go at it again and hopefully will be asking for God's help along the way and not waiting until the end.
We were blessed to be able to take the little GMI plane back to Santa Cruz with Jeff and Fauna, the directors of the projects in Bolivia. It was much cheaper and easier to go with them. The fun part was the day before I got a bad stomachache and was sick with diarrhea. I began downing the grapefruit seed extract, which by the way is a great cure-all natural medicine to have on hand. It is good for colds and digestive problems. The day we were leaving we all woke up with stomachaches. Something has contaminated the water and has been causing us all sorts of problems lately. We were all very worried about having to go to the bathroom on the plane and did not eat or drink anything all morning, other than grapefruit seed extract. We were flying in a seven seater plane this time and along with our luggage flew Jeff, David, Steve, Fauna, Jenny, Andian, Sierra, Savanna, Jason and I...counting that makes ten people. Luckily three of them were children and sat on our laps. On the way we had to stop and pick up a little boy who had broken his arm and needed to have surgery done in Santa Cruz. So he sat in the middle and we arrived in Santa Cruz with eleven people and all our luggage crammed in the plane. The little boy was very cute and it was his first time on a plane. As we began to ascend into the sky his face just lit up with excitement to be flying. After about 10 minutes he turned to the person next to him and asked, "what happens if we hit a cloud?" He was quickly assured we would be okay. Praise God we arrived safely in Santa Cruz without any sickness or problems. Arriving at the airport, Jason went to get Jeff and Fauna's car and found that the lights had been left on and it would not start. So another friend who had come to help take us back went to help start the car. The plan was to use the good battery in the dead car to start it and then quickly switch the battery back. Unfortunately it did not work that way and the car would not start with the new battery. So they put the battery back into the other car and then it would not start either. We ended up having to call someone else to come and help us get the cars started, but praise God it was a cooler day and the sun was behind the clouds as we waited. When the cars finally started we drove to a pizza place, which was a very nice treat. We stayed two days there with Jeff and Fauna and then flew home on Wednesday. We are so thankful to God for His protection and leading in our time in Bolivia. God taught us so much and we hope that we were able to make a positive impact on others as well. Thank you to all of you who supported us and prayed for us while we were there. Now we are praying and seeking God's will for our lives back here in the states. We will definately be doing ministry; we are just praying for God's leading in where and how. Our prayer for you is that you also are seeking God's will in your life and that you are following His calling wherever it may lead you, because where God leads you is the best place to be!