Life...

Let’s see now...

Crash down the side of a mountain in my truck?

Check.

Lose my new laptop?

Check.

Have the house come under some crazy spiritual attack?

Check.

Lose my wallet with all my Bolivian and Canadian ID, the money for the house for the next week and a half and my bank card?

Check.

Alrighty then...seems like we’re good to go.

Yes...that’s right. On top of everything else, I managed to lose my wallet the other morning. I blame Roberto. He and I were wrestling the other day (the guys need to know who’s boss here) and he managed to tear the pocket on my bunnyhug (that’s right... bunnyhug). When I was paying for a taxi yesterday, I put my wallet into that pocket as I got out of the car. The flap promptly fell open and my wallet fell out and got left behind. It was a not-so-happy moment when I realized it in the house. David and I walked back to the corner where I was to see if perchance it was still there on the ground...but no.

Afterwards I plopped down at my desk and thought, “Wow...now I know what Job felt like.” Then I smacked myself on the side of the head and told myself to stop being mellow-dramatic. I mean, come on...I lost my wallet...not my family.

I will say though, this whole not letting my possessions run my life thing is definitely getting a run for its money. =) But truthfully I feel like God’s been giving me a peace through it all. I managed to borrow enough money to keep us going until I can get some money wired down here from my mission. This afternoon I’ll start the process of replacing my Bolivian ID and fortunately I’m heading back to Canada soon, so I can replace everything else while I’m there.

Many of you have been praying for the young guy here who’s been struggling. Thanks very much for that. It’s been tough week or so. At the same time though, it’s been encouraging to hear from many of you how God has spoken to you about the situation. He came back to the house Monday, after being gone for the weekend. Maribel talked to him first and then came upstairs to where I was. I asked her how he was and she just shook her head. So I was prepared for him to tell me that he was leaving.

I prayed and then went down to talk to him. He was still pretty distant and cold. He wouldn’t make eye contact or really respond to much of what I was saying, other than with a yes or a no. I finally came right out and asked him what he was going to do and he said that he would stay, at least until the end of the semester (end of July). That’s a good thing for sure and I was happy to hear it...but I’m not sure that anything has changed really. So please...keep praying for him. It's still difficult.

There are always things to pray about...things that need to be dealt with here. We have our good days and bad days. In general though, the atmosphere in the house has improved immensely since last week. Thanks for praying everyone! It’s made a big difference.

Let’s see...a couple of “Ken’s Life in Bolivia” moments...

Andres and I joined a gym. I thought about adding that to the list at the beginning of this post...but since it was mostly my choice, I can’t really complain. Well...I can. And I’m sure I will. But...maybe not here. As Andres and I were changing that first day, I was explaining that my running shoes were...older...and that I hadn’t used them in awhile (kind of like my muscles). But I was sure they’d still serve me well.

Hmmm....

Fast forward ten minutes to the treadmill. I’m running (okay...walking fast) and all of a sudden it feels like the machine’s going crazy. I look down but I can’t figure out what’s wrong. I’m stumbling all over the place and there’s pieces of white stuff flying off my shoes. It was like I’d blown a tire. Turns out the foam between my shoe and the rubber sole was disintegrating and big chunks of it were flying off everywhere.

I shuffled my way back to the change room with the front and back of my shoe flapping around. I had to walk past the big muscle guys. It was like Jr. High all over again.

I’ve also been doing more cooking in the house lately. I enjoy it. Not all the time mind you...but once in awhile. When I’m tired of whatever fried silliness the guys have come up with. I bought a deep-fryer when I was home in Canada, and the guys have been enjoying that. We hadn’t used it until last week (it needed a transformer). They deep-fried chicken on Monday...beef (?) on Tuesday (hmm...deep-fried beef)...chicken again on Wednesday. I finally made a rule that we don’t deep fry more than once a week.

I helped with the chicken on Monday and came up with a batter to put the chicken into before frying it. I just kind of experimented with a few spices. I think it was pretty good. I sat beside Sandro for lunch and he just kept saying, “Excelente! Excelente!” over and over again.

I also made a Chicken Cordon Blue casserole a couple of weeks ago. It was good. Just very...cheesy. It was supposed to have sour cream in it, but I couldn’t figure out what that was in Spanish at the store. Usually the container says “sour cream” in English along with the Spanish name. This time there was a row of...something...that had a sign on the shelf saying it was sour cream. But I just wasn’t sure. I knew the word for cream but the second word wasn’t familiar.

I stood there for like, half an hour before I finally just bought some. When we opened the container at home it was obviously not sour cream. It was more like some kind of creamy cheese than anything. It tasted fine though... so I threw it in. Tim (our intern) looked it up in his dictionary and came back and said, “It translates as cream of snowflake.”

Yea, that was less than helpful. Like I said, it tasted fine. It was just kind of heavy. We all had a nap afterwards.

Finally...the insurance company is going to fix my truck. They’ve said it should be ready by the end of July. It needs to be...we have a team visiting in August. I’ve already decided to sell it as soon as possible though. It’ll look pretty with the new paint, and as far as I’m concerned, once a vehicle has crashed down the side of a mountain...I don’t want it anymore. I don’t care what my insurance company says.

Thanks again everyone, for your prayers. It’s been really encouraging to me personally. As I’ve said, there’ve been (and still are) lots of things happening here, and it’s good to know people at home are praying.

I’m home in less than a week! See (some of you) soon!

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A glimmer of hope?

The young guy who's been struggling was packing his clothes up today to leave tomorrow.  I was pretty sure that was it.  It was a sad day for sure.  I explained to a couple of guys what was happening and they took it hard too.  We're really become a family here in the past year or so, and it's tough to see one of our own leave when it's obviously not time yet.

I called Maribel in the afternoon to let her know what was happening (she's on vacation this week).  She had planned to come over tomorrow to see him, but then decided to come here tonight instead.  She didn't want to chance missing him.  This guy doesn't get home from classes until 11 PM so that's when she came.  It surprised him to see her.  =)  They talked for a long time and had a good conversation it seems.  He openned up a little bit.  I'm still not sure what's going to happen, but I think the door is open again a little bit for this guy to stay.  Honestly...I'm not sure.  He said he'd make a decision tomorrow.

Please pray hard.  I've really seen God at work this week in the house...I can't even begin to tell you.  So many people are praying (literally around the world) and we've felt that a lot.  I've just been asking for peace no matter what happens.  To be able to trust that this is not just in my hands and that God knows what He's doing.  Trust me though...it's been difficult.

Thanks for being so faithful in your prayers for us.  For those of you who've taken the time to write and encourage us (me) that's been amazing too. 

I'll let you know what happens in the end, but for sure we've already seen God's faithfulness through all of this.  Thanks again everyone!
  

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Please continue to pray...

So I know I'm good at the asking for prayer and not always as good at the what happened afterwards part. =) The skinny is, we've got a young guy here who's been struggling in his faith. It's been going on for awhile now. He's not totally sure if he's ever believed in God or not. Recently however, he's been very close to making a decision. He's been doing really good over the past month or so. It's been great. He's one of the nicest guys here and a huge help to us.

Then all of a sudden he took a major stumble this week (Saturday night). I'm not entirely sure why, but I have my suspicions. Along with that, it's like he's a different person. Very closed and hard. He decided last night he was leaving the house, and there hasn't been anything I can say to convince him otherwise. It's been tough to see such a dramatic change and not understand why. I've been praying practically non-stop for this guy. And I know many of you have been praying without really knowing what's going on. Thanks for that.

This morning he's a bit better but I have a feeling he's still going to leave. The main reason is that he doesn't want to go to church anymore with us. In the past he's said that he enjoys church even though he doesn't really know if he believes or not. Suddenly he's decided he wants nothing to do with it. You can see how that feels like a spiritual thing.

Along with this situation, there was a heaviness in the house starting on Saturday night and continuing until yesterday. The guys were more aggressive and were throwing around more attitude.

Then one of the boys shared something with me Monday night that really made me sit up and take notice.

About 5:30 AM on Sunday morning, he was woken up by someone talking to him. He felt a preasure on his chest and found it hard to move. At first he thought maybe it was a dream, but then he realized he was totally awake. He thinks it was an audible voice talking. Among other things, it was telling him that God didn't love him and that he could never be forgiven for his sins...that God would never forgive him. This guy is one of our spiritually strongest guys in the house and he responded well. He responded by saying that he knew who God was but he didn't now who this thing was. The voice was all surprised and said, "You don't know who I am?" Our guy was like, "Nope!" And with that, the voice and preasure were gone.

Yesterday we took some time after lunch to pray as a group and take authority over what's been going on. After that, things were better in general in the house. I actually ended up having some really significant conversations with some of the guys. Unfortunately not with the original guy that I'm worried about. But last night I just completely put it in God's hands. I've been praying that first of all, this bondage/attack thing would be broken in him but also that I would be able to trust in God's hand in this no matter what decision he makes. Our wisdom is not God's wisdom. Obviously He sees the bigger picture in all of this and He knows what needs to happen.

So....that's the long story of what's been going on. Thanks for praying everyone. This has been a tough one. We've lost guys in the past and in general, none of them are doing well. I have high hopes for this young guy and it's tough to feel like we're losing him.

Thanks for praying everyone! Please continue to do so... We definitely need it.

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