Day 4

Dear People of North America.
Monday, May 03, 2010
The day started out great with scrambled eggs and ham, and a devotional by Tracy from James chapter 2. From there we packed up the Trufi, (the Helping Hands van) and headed to the prison school. In Bolivia, when a man goes to prison, his whole family goes with him. The children are let out each day to attend school, and then sent back to the prison to be with their families. This was a great opportunity to spend time with these kids, and share the gospel with them. We sang some songs with them, played some games, and brought them a bible lesson. Before we left, we were able to spend some one on one time with the kids. Several of the kids including Ludien, (the boy I talked to) accepted Christ as their savior. I told him that we may never see each other again, but some day, I'll be able to see him again in heaven. What a wonderful experience.
From there we went to la concha, the South America's biggest open air market. It was quite an experience. We were able to pick up several souvenirs and gifts and no one in our group got mugged. J The ladies could have spent all day there, but we had to move on.
After a great lunch at the pizza place, (yes, you can get great pizza even in Bolivia) we finally got to see the Statue of Christ. The Trufi seats 14 people, but we crammed 21 people in it, and drove up the mountain without guard rails looking straight down the mountain. Yes, there was a lot of praying today!!! Most of you are familiar with the statue in Rio, most people think that it is the largest statue of Christ in the world, but Bolivia did not want to be out done, so they made theirs three feet higher. We got some great photos, and then headed to Kara Kara.
At Kara Kara we returned to the houses that we visited last Friday to do some follow up visits. In the past, we just did door to door, and then never saw the people again. This was a great opportunity to see the people again and build some relationships with them. We heard many great stories from the team.
Then it was off to Chinese food, (we came all the way to Bolivia to eat Pizza and Chinese food) after our experience on Sunday, we took turns guarding the vans while the rest of the team ate. I got a lot of very strange looks from the locals as they passed by me. Apparently a white guy playing a guitar on the street corner is not a very common site in Bolivia. :O)
Tomorrow will be a very physical day as we will get to start construction on the new dormitory for the campus. The first step will be to gather rocks as this is the main staple for their building materials. So we're off to try to get a good night's rest for tomorrow will be mucho duro trabajo!

-Bruce