Viva Bolivia!

Bienvendidos from beautiful Bolivia!! Today the weather is the nicest it's been since we've got here . . . feels almost like the weather in SLO! As expected, the weather has been hot and humid since we've been here, so the locals are all wearing sweatshirts today because they think its cold!!

The locals have been incredibly hospitable to us. We can truly see the love of our brothers and sisters in Christ down here. I don't know a whole lot of spanish but you don't need to know very much to see how joyful these Bolivians are that we are here. They bring so much joy to us as well! The kids are especially joyful and all of us have made many new friends. Although we have varying language skills, we have all been able to form great relationships! It amazes me how patient they are with our limited language skills. Learning spanish has been both difficult and rewarding. Each time I'm able to understand them or they are able to understand me, I see it as a mini victory. We've all grown in our spanish skills in this jam-packed first week. We really would be blogging more but the first week has really been that busy; it's been filled with devotionals, church, going to camp, playing soccer and other sports, hanging out with the kids, going downtown, painting, and many other things that I just don't have the time right now to expound on ;-) . . . Haha, yes it has been busy but we've had experiences here this first week that we will remember for the rest of our lives, and I'm sure there are many more to come!!

Today we leave for camp out in the jungle and we will be there until Friday. There will be 141 kids participating and each of us on the team will be leading small groups. The camp will be filled with devotionals, worship services, soccer, volleyball, games, skits, and plenty of joy and laughter I'm sure. We are looking forward to serving and forming relationships with the kids. We hope to be a blessing to them and I know they will be to us. The sermon yesterday at church talked about the passage from Matthew 18 which says that "whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me." I'm excited to see how we can learn from these children this week and I'm excited to see God's presence out in the middle of a South American jungle camp on the faces of each of these kids!

Well, that's all for now I guess. Thank you for all of your prayers and support! We love you all! God bless!

Tyler