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!