Day 3

Hola, Amigos!

Today was just perfect weather-wise...about 80 degrees and sunny with low humidity. It´s around 9 pm now and it´s chilly out...maybe upper 50s and clear, although I still haven´t been able to locate the Southern Cross constellation. We interacted with so many different people today and learned so much more about Compassion International. We started the day with a great breakfast here at the hotel and more delicious Bolivian coffee. I don´t think I´ve mentioned the coffee in either of the first 2 emails but I don´t know how I could´ve forgotten! It´s about the consistency of chocolate syrup and I´m not exaggerating for effect. You pour just a bit of that in your mug and then add hot water to adjust the strength, then cream and sugar if you want it. I made the dumb mistake of having ''just one small cup'' after dinner last night and had a buzz well into the small hours.

After breakfast we went to church in Cochabamba where a Compassion Project also meets. It´s not a very big area, but we found out that they serve 290 children 3 days a week! What a warm, welcoming congregation they have there...so many people came up to greet us and chat and seemed genuinely honored to have us visit. Terry told us that in the 20 years that Compassion has operated there, 4 teams have visited and we are the only ones that have attended worship services there. It was really quite humbling...they treated us like rock stars. Each of us had the opportunity to introduce ourselves during the service, then several people gave testimonies and we performed a drama. The feeling in that small church was unbelievable, as if we had all known each other our whole lives. After the main service, we were able to visit Children´s Church and it was so much like TKO at Ni River...very high energy, a positive atmosphere, and lots and lots of smiles. We were asked to come to the back part of the church for a snack and Cokes and got to meet many of the members and leadership team. We learned that many of the leaders had been sponsored through Compassion International as children and several of them (and several of us) got very emotional as they talked about how important the Compassion Project had been in their lives. Í´m getting a little leaky just writing about this.

After church, we had a late lunch in an EXCELLENT local restaurant. The food has been phenomenal so far. So much for losing a little weight while visiting the 3rd World!! Then Tim, our guide for the day, took us up to a mountain overlooking Cochabamba to a huge statue of Jesus. You might be familiar with the famous Jesus statue in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. The one in Bolivia looks very similar to that one and is actually a little bit higher, making it the highest statue of Jesus in the world. It was finished in 1993 and Tim explained that it had been built as a symbol to unite Bolvians. Apparently, there is tension between the people of the 3 major geographic areas (highlands, valleys, and tropics) and it is meant to remind citizens that all Bolivians need to stand together. The significance of it being in Cochabamba is that it is right in the middle of the country and was once called the ¨Breadbasket of Bolivia. (remember that...you might need to know it for Jeopardy!)

After driving through some of the historical areas of Cochabamba, we headed back to the hotel for a debriefing session. So many lives have been touched in just the past 3 days and there are so many little stories to tell already. Please keep praying for us and please pray for the people of Bolivia. There could be big political changes on the horizon, and for a country with so many social issues, they could be disastrous. If you feel a little tug on your heart, please consider sponsoring a child or making a donation to Compassion International. (www.compassion.org). Tomorrow we will be working in the same Compassion project we visited yesterday and hope to meet even more of the children and staff members. Buenos noches!


amy