Sunday

This morning Willie, Dad, Herb, and Philip left. They were in the lobby by 5:30. At 6:00 they called Pastor Walter. He was on the way, almost there. He showed up at 6:30. They went to the airport in time, it was deserted, they got on, saw Willie through security, got a text that he was on the flight. He should now be at home. The rest of us slept in till 8, 9, 10, 11...then got out and walked and ate lunch. Herb, Lynne, Dad, Mom, Abby, Philip, Kailey, Cory, y me all went and ate at a Brazilian restaurant. It was really yummy. You went by a buffet table and put stuff on your plate and paid by the weight of your plate. It was delicious. We were done eating by 2:30 so Lynne, Kailey, y Philip went to the hotel while the rest of us went to get water and Herb some chapstick at HiperMaxi. Then we went back to the hotel. And we got picked up for the church's anniversary service at 3:00. They had a birthday cake and we sang in Spanish and English and then all the kids got to blow out the nineteen candles. Then a lady (I think it was Elda) stuck the cake in both pastors' faces. :D Then four men went on stage in traditional Bolivian costume with traditional instruments and did about four songs. It was quite cool. A rice dish with french fries, hot dogs, vegetables, and raisins was passed out and so was maize and coca-cola. Then we were greeting, trading emails, and taking pictures for quite a while. We took a few team pictures and many, many individual ones. All this time, people have been gradually leaving the church. The pastors' families invited us to the backyard and we were served the cake and coca-cola. We talked and talked with ourselves and the pastors' families and Kailey was playing with Yaseet, an adorable little boy (Susanna's son). Then we headed back to the hotel, rested for fifteen minutes, and had a meeting. We talked and Abby said her devotional, and then we prayed for Lynne. Then we came to our room and I started to pack up and took a shower.

Dinner

Tonight we went to Pastor Denny's church (the church I visited Sunday morning). They had songs, welcome, and a psalm and then we went out next to the sanctuary where it was basically a covered patio and we ate a rice dish called "mahow". There was also salad y fried plantana. (Plantane; a banana). Then Cory asked about the church and its needs...it needs a new building and wants to have many more people. One can definitely feel the love of God at La Luz Divina; here there doesn't feel like there is as much love. They are across the street from a market and on Sundays they take the market sellers' children into Sunday School. There is a new law in Bolivia that churches must do a "social work" or forfeit their land and so this church is thinking of setting up a day care for the children whose parents work in the markets. It sounds like many pastors live behind their churches and that they all have a different vocation besides pastoring. Pastor Denny is the one with four daughters-Carla, Erica, Niecey, y Sarah. Philip y Lynn translated for us.

Pablo

Here is Pablo, a friend that Paul made at church today. We split up into two groups and six went to each church with either Ed the missionary or his son Philip to translate for us.