COCHABAMBA, BOLIVIA Dear Praying Friends and Family, Greetings from Cochabamba, Bolivia, a lovely Andean city of an altitude of about 8,000 feet. We flew here last Friday and it seems like a lovely change from the jungle. The weather seems like spring to us: a sweater in the morning and then just perfect days. There is sun most days and city is very friendly. We are staying at a hostal near the center of the city and have a bedroom, bath and an all-purpose room with three small tables for eating and our computers. We can heat water for coffee or tea in the little kitchen right below us but we really haven't done any cooking beyond that. Nice rolls, fruit and coffee are a good breakfast and supper for us. Every morning we leave at 7:10 for the print shop of the Bolivian Bible Society. The bus passes 1 blocks from the hostal and takes us right to the front door, so that could not be much more convenient. And buses go everywhere for about 12 cents US. How many of you can remember back to those days? Tomás, a technician at the Bible Society, has been helping us with the many steps of preparing the Kashinawa New Testament for printing. We have checked everything from having the quotation marks in pairs to the cross references being in agreement with the Spanish NT that we had used as a style standard, to checking over 22,000 words to make sure that those which occurred four times or less were all good words. Every one of these checks brings up corrections to be made, so they are important and are not anything that we can rush through. Now we are finalizing the formatting and early next week should be able to begin having print outs of the text to check. I am not sure how long that will take to read, but we have been able to continue on another three or four hours most nights in our room at the hostal and that has helped a lot. We are also choosing maps and have to set up all those first pages of the NT with the appropriate information necessary in any book. Besides working hard we have really enjoyed the folks we have met here. Last Sunday we went to a church we really enjoyed. There was an 8:00 service, so we chose that one, and it lasted till 11:15, with two full hours of singing, which we always really enjoy and is very much a worship experience for us. Although there weren't very many folks at the church at 8:00, by 9:00 or so it was full. The church has met for many years in what used to be the storage garage for a car import business. It is obviously a large storage building, decorated to make it in "church style". After the service was over, lunch was served to all who wanted to stay, and we joined them for a lovely meal for $1.00. Today, Friday, is Fathers' Day in Bolivia. At about 11:00 we were all called down to the print shop to have a special Bolivian pastry "empanadas", Coke, and Fathers' Day cards for the men. It was really nice, and then lunch at about 12:30. The food is really good and undoubtedly it is a big help for the employees to get a good and nourishing meal every noon without having to leave the building. We sure appreciate it! This evening we have tickets to have Fathers' Day dinner at the church we went to last Sunday, then tomorrow a woman in the office has invited us to join her family for a celebration, and on Sunday afternoon we will go with Tomás to the youth group he leads and answer question after they watch "The Passion of Christ". That ought to still give us some time to wander around the city and see some new places. Last Saturday we walked for about five hours, saw much of the open market area, and got the odds and ends we needed for "life". The city has a large statue of Christ overlooking the city, something like the one that overlooks San Paulo, Brazil, and we are hoping to get to see that over the weekend. We really enjoy seeing the sights, so I imagine that each weekend will have a bit of that. There are some archeological areas, hot springs, interesting towns, and will probably be some Easter fiestas to see. Thank you for your faithful ongoing prayers for us. We pray for you, too, most of you at least weekly and many of you much more often. Setting the alarm for 5:00 gets us started. I wish this was a personal letter to each of you but we are trying so hard to use our waking hours to make progress with the NT checking and other work projects, and I just cannot write to all of you whom I would like to. I do pretty well at answering letters, though. So if you write to us, I will do my best to respond, for we are deeply grateful for your love, prayers and financial support that keep us here. The God of the Impossible is our ever-present guide and strength. Please continue to pray for:
May I leave this passage, which I remember daily, as a challenge for each of you: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual, reasonable act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:1,2
Our Lord reigns,
Write to us at:
- March 26, 2004 |