Team Meets With Ivan From Bolivia

Hola! Todo lo que respira alabe Jah! Aleluya! (Salmos 150:6) Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! (Psalm 150:6)

Last night, the Short Term Missions Team was privileged to meet Ivan Gutierrez and to reacquaint ourselves with Dennis Shierman from Canadian Baptist Ministries (our CBM coordinator). Ivan flew here from Bolivia yesterday morning, and will be in Regina for almost three days. What a way to get us excited about our trip! We shared our first meal together with Ivan, heard a lot of information from both Ivan and Dennis (pictured above), and asked a lot of questions.

Ivan will be our translator, guide and all-around advisor while we are in Bolivia. We want to be prepared for Bolivia, for the UBB (Bolivian Baptist Union), for the Tarija region where we will spend most of our time - but most of all, we want to be prepared for the churches in which we will be spending our time. Ivan had some pictures of the places in Bolivia we will visit - and some of the Death Trap Road, pictures you might have seen on the internet a couple of years ago...and we won't be going there. He showed us pictures of some of the people we will meet, pastors, church leaders and members, and children. We were able to see pictures of a church which has a work project to which we may be able to contribute some labour. Most of all, his pictures put faces on the people we want to meet, and put real images to our imaginings about our trip.

Tonight is our Dessert Auction, held at the church at 7:00pm. Ivan will give his testimony, there will be updates on our team, and we will be auctioning off some amazing desserts for consumption tonight or for taking home. Once of the desserts was already in the fridge at the church (a cake decorated as a gift), and it is spectacular. You will not want to miss this event! The church website information is on the right, including the address.

The thought crossed my mind, as Ivan and Dennis were speaking last night, Paul didn't have the advance team that we have in preparation for his missions' trips. We are fortunate and very grateful, but the most important thing we need to have is our love of Christ, and a willingness to serve as He leads. That spectacular dessert looks wonderful because of the decorating, but in the end, someone will cut into the cake and want to eat the substance of the cake. Our preparations are like the decorations on the cake - very helpful, but in the end, it's most important what we bring to and for God of ourselves. Of course, that dessert is going to attract a lot of attention; hopefully, our preparations will make the beginning of our relationship all the tastier for our soon-to-be Bolivian friends, and for us.

We will be posting more often, so come back and check for new pictures, updates and prayer requests. I'll update tomorrow with pictures after the auction, so check back. The team would love to hear from you, so please post comments as you can and let us know you are out there. It would be great if we could hear from Bolivia before we even go there!

Posted by Nadine