We're BACK!

Well we're back in the USA, with mixed feelings. It's good to be home around what's familiar and our family and friends, but it's also sad to be so far away from new friends we have made while in Bolivia.
The Lord blessed us with so many great friendships with the Bolivian Campus Crusade staff, student leaders and the students at San Fransisco Xavier Universtiy in Sucre.
Last night we all meet together to debrief our trip and we began our time with sharing some highlights from our trip. Some of them you've already read about in previous entries. But others we just didn't have enough time and reliable wireless internet in order to write and post them on our blog while we were gone. So I thought that I'd write about a few of our highlights and show you some more pictures from our time.
The Orphanages...
Toward the end our time in Surcre we visited two state orphanages, a girls and a boys. In the past we have handed out clothes and care packages including snacks, socks, toothbrush and paste and even sometimes shoes.
This year we wanted to spend some more time interacting with the kids and also intentionally presenting the gospel in a way that they could really understand.
So we had a time of singing with motions (of course) that was led by some high schoolers on the trip and then we played crazy games like the hula hoop pass (seen above), dodge ball and the human knot. Then we broke into smaller group and did an activity called the Treasure. This is an activity where the kids have to try to make it across a path only stepping on small pieces of newspaper and not touching any part of their body on the floor. The goal is to reach the other side where a leader is holding a treasure that they desperately want to share with each child who can make it to them. It's designed to look possible but is impossible. When the kids touch the floor, we yell, DIE! or MUERTO! and they have to dramatically fall to the ground. The leader than says "Que Lastima!" or "How Terrible!" you couldn't make it to the treasure on your own, but because of my great love for you, I'm going to make a bridge for you to make it over to me and recieve the treasure. But you each have to tell me if you want my help. So the leader rolls out toilet paper from where they're standing to each child and offers them their hand. The kids usually accepted it and they walked across the toilet paper to recieve the treasure.
We then sat them down and explained to them the parralles between the activity and our relationship with God. And then end with an opportunity for them to recieve Christ as their Savior. Many of the kids GOT IT, and prayed.
We also gave out some new and used clothes along with a care package with snacks socks and hygiene stuff. Unfortunately we didn't buy shoes this year, but you can see

from the picture they really needed new shoes.

Mid Afternoon Tea Time

Besides the daily siesta that we could take, I think that my other favorite daily routine was having afternoon tea. This great woman standing next to me would bring her baskets filled with freshly backed pastries around 4 PM everyday right outside our Hostel. And I loved buying cunapes from her, they are round cheese breads eaten with tea, along with other things like sonso (yucca with cheese put on a scewer and browned) and empenadas. I loved the food and the friendships you get to enjoy throughout the day.

--Donna