LA CANCHA
The vendors get angry if you take a picture of their prices but Kathryn needed the prices... so we did it on the sly. ;)
The idea is that I will be in my room by Wednesday. Kathryn took me to La Cancha, I bought an electric teapot for my room so that I can make coffee, and two of these white mugs so that I can share if someone comes to my "house." She also bought some material as a gift for me and is going to make it into curtains for my room, I love it and think that it's beautiful!
I love being able to see the mountains! I keep being warned that the green beauty will become brown ugliness with the dry season.
Ah well, I'll enjoy it while I can!
We had a birthday party for three kids who were having birthdays this month.
Bolivian tradition gives the birthday person the first bite of cake, someone usually comes up behind and pushes the person's face into the cake. That's what happened to Isaias. :)
The kids were all dressed up for the party.
New toys, a dozen plastic bouncy balls!
Yesterday, after Kathryn and I had finished our several hour long shopping trip, Kathryn and her husband Gustavo helped me catch a trufi (like a minivan that is used as an inexpensive bus.)
Gustavo asked the driver to drop me off at a specific place... well, he stopped to let someone else off, then he started and turned around asking something in Spanish. He must have been asking who else was supposed to get off, or something. I didn't recognize where we were so I just shrank in my seat behind my purchases and let the Bolivians stare at me as I pitifully shook my head. The driver finally shrugged and pulled back into the street. I heard someone comment on my nationality, not a proud moment. As he kept driving I still didn't recognize anything, but I finally got off when another woman did. After trying to walk farther in the direction he had been driving I turned around and walked the other way. Google maps was useless because it showed 3 or 4 different Semapas (the landmark I was looking for) in Cochabamba, and I didn't know which one I was looking for specifically. After crossing the street, then changing my mind and going back again, I finally headed back the way that I thought I had come from when I had first gotten on the trufi.
Finally, I made it to the main area that I am familiar with... so much for taking a trufi to save myself from walking with my purchases. Up the hill for again for me!
I made it in one piece, but what should have taken me ten minutes took me forty... Oh well, live and learn!
I talked with Kathryn about feeling useless and unnecessary. She said two things that really helped to get some perspective.
1-She said that tias leave the babyhouse almost weekly because it is hard. She said that it is good for the kids to have a consistent face.
2- My service has to be for God. Not just for the kids. Because at the end of the day, if I have been working to serve my Lord, even if the kids don't know my name and I haven't seen any of them come to Christ, that doesn't change the fact that God had a plan for every moment that I was with them.
The sermon today was encouraging too, talking about Ruth and how God guided her decisions for His sovereign purposes.
God brought me here. He knew I'd be unable to communicate very well, He knew I'd miss my family, He knew that I couldn't tell people about Him right away, He knew that I'd question and doubt why I'm here, He knew that I'd be sick, He knew that I'd get lost (A LOT), He knew that I'd miss the convenience of having my own car, He knew I'd hate walking everywhere (but hate public transport even more.)
He knew that I'd be nervous, scared, intimidated, unable, weak, ill-equipped, and yet... He called me here for this year. I don't know why. Maybe I never will. I have to be okay with that and serve Him regardless of my selfish emotions. I must be lost in serving my Lord and seeking Him.
When I am weak, He is strong.
I am unable, He is able.
I might not be able to understand Spanish, but trust me, He can!
He doesn't need me to share His gospel with these kids, He doesn't even need me in this ministry, and yet He has sovereignly ordained that I get the opportunity to serve Him in this way, at this time, in this place.
Just because I don't see how I could possibly be making a difference, does not mean that God doesn't have a plan.
Matthew 25:40
"And the King will answer them. Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."
So often I miss the point. In my desire to "make a difference" I forget to smile, to hug, to love. Instead, I am too busy shuffling through the words I did or didn't say, wondering if they "count" as making a difference, that I don't even see those around me.
If I could close my eyes to myself, forget completely about reputation and appearance and only remember my Savior, what would I see?
I am surrounded by human beings that my Savior loves and that He died for.
I am surrounded by the least of these.
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