Exotic Locations

It's already late January and this is my first blog post of the year! It's summer here in the southern hemisphere, and I decided to get some traveling in before commitments started tying me down to La Paz.

After Christmas I made a two-day trip to Copacabana with Rachael and Janelle (my two Canadian girlfriends). Copacabana is a small town on Lake Titicaca (the highest navigable lake in the world). Our hostel was this place with a Mediterranean feel to it overlooking the beautiful lake! We enjoyed some good reading time in the hammocks.

On the 3rd of January my parents, Elisa (my sister) and I traveled to the city of Santa Cruz for a few days of family vacation. Santa Cruz is the city where I was born and is located in the lowlands of Bolivia. The climate is very hot and humid (definitely tropical). With the heat, Elisa and I very much enjoyed the hotel pools!

After four days, my parents headed back to La Paz, and I stayed on to visit different friends. I enjoyed spending several days with the Ojeda family, close family friends who know me since I was a baby. There was lots of reminiscing. From there I went and spent some days with a friend who I actually met at college in Iowa. The remainder of my time I spent with the Guzmán family. Ruth, Mrs. Guzmán, owns a hotel. Her ministry involves having missionaries or other full-time workers stay at her hotel for free whenever they go through Santa Cruz (that is how my family first met her about six years ago). Her and I often dreamed about me going and working with her and learning about hotel management (as I enjoy hospitality). I took advantage of these days with Ruth to learn a little bit about what it entails to run a hotel. I had fun manning reception a few times.

Let me share the most exciting thing that happened while I was in Santa Cruz! One day I ended up having a conversation with Janet, a young woman who is working cleaning rooms at the hotel over summer break. Somehow we ended up talking about spiritual things. I asked her something about where she would go if she were to die. She told me she would go to hell. I asked her if she wasn't afraid to die. She said she actually would like to die--that life seemed purposeless. My heart lifted up a prayer for God to help me, and I proceeded to share the beautiful gospel message. When I was done talking, there was a brief silence. Then Janet told me, "You know what? When you were talking right now--it wasn't you that was talking!" Could it be that God spoke through me?! I felt so excited, honored and humbled at the same time! Janet didn't make a decision that day, but I can tell she is really searching. Right then she had to go home, but she told me that she would really like to talk to me about some things. Sadly, there wasn't enough time left for me to get together with her before returning to La Paz. I promised her I would try to get a certain book for her (which I will have to try to send to her in the mail). I would appreciate it if you would please pray with me for Janet's salvation.

I'll sign off for now, but hopefully my updates will be a little more regular again!