Mucho Palabras

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29188145.post-1150331427776218652006-06-14T17:10:00.000-07:002006-06-14T17:30:27.786-07:00Mucho PalabrasI have much to pass on to you tonight. I was going to do this in three separate posts, but this internet connection is like something from the ancient past...like 1994. Very slow, so I will break this up into the following four parts: 1. Travel Update 2. Message From Jessica Stephens 3. Message From Sharon Brown 4. Greeting From Janet Coppage Travel Update: We have finalized the arrangements to stay in Sapecho, so we will be leaving Ixiamas around 2:00 pm tomorrow and arriving in Sapecho around 10:00 pm. We´ll leave Sapecho early Friday morning, travel the mountain road by daylight, and arrive in LaPaz sometime Friday evening. I will try to make one final update here before leaving Ixiamas tomorrow. Then it may be Friday night or Saturday before I can post again. Message From Jessica Stephens There have been so many amazing experiences on this trip I can scarcely believe it´s only been four days! I have been humbled and awed byd the love, sincereity, dedication, and sacrifice of so many here. The Christ Community Team, the staff at the internado, and the interns from Auburn have more God-inspired stmina than I thought possible. Honestly, there isn´t room to begin to describe the experience so I´ll give you a snapshot of yesterday. Several of us traveled to Tahua, a village about 2 and a half hours down the road. Most of the trip was made standing in back of an amazingly powerful Toyota pickup truck. On the way to the village I was noticing that my fingernails were dirty yet again. I thought about cleaning them a little but since both hands were equally dirty I didn´t accomplish much. We reached the village and watched the welcome program. It consited mostly of songs and poetry. As part of the team conducted eye screenings of the adults, the others did a Bible school activity with the kids. We made gospel bracelets (bracelets that have 7 colored beads - each one representing a part of the story of Jesus.) I was helping these eautiful children tie their new bracelets on their wrists and I realized our hands matched - we all had dirty fingernails. Probably none of them noticed my nail dirt and definitely none of them cared, but it reminded me of two things: 1. God will prepare you to meet what and whoever He sets in your path. 2. Dirt doesn´t matter. My dirt didn´t hinder my ability to love the children of Tahua. Nor did their dirt decrease their value in God´s eyes or their ability to have a meaningful relationship with him. So that was my "ah-ha" moment for the day. Beyond that please know that we are all well - possibly the best we´ve been in a while. We will dedicate the next chorus of "Praise ye the Lord" (possibly the 1,000th chorus) to you. Message From Sharon Brown I stand amazed at the diversity of God´s creatino. From the Andes in Quesimpuco to here in the rainforest; the people, cultures, and earth are full of God´s glory. It´s so exciting to walk down the street and see how people respond. The fruit trees; oranges, grapefruit, plantrain, coconut, etc...everywhere you look. The world is truy yearning to break forth with praise and I always feel it when I´m in Bolivia. I pray God will give us the same passion whether in Bolivia or in our day to day lives. I love you and pray we all allow the fullness of Christ to mature in us more and more. From Janet To Jimmy Just wanted to say hello Jimmy and let you know that all is well here. I miss and love you!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/29188145-115033142777621865?l=ixiamas.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Ixiamas Mission Teamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01281411610920613120noreply@blogger.com2