Sunday

Our schedule has been so busy, it's been tough to blog during the trip. So here I am in the Phoenix airport on a long layover catching up. Danae Wolf did an amazing job with the daily FB posts, so I'm sure a lot of you were seeing those scroll by.

 Sunday morning began with some tragic news. The pastor of one of the local Grace churches, Herland, passed away, so that put a big question mark on everything that had been planned for the day (multiple church services, Cumbre sessions and the unified church service planned for the evening). The local pastors and mission leadership ended up deciding to continue with the ministry events with the realization that many folks would be grieving and maybe stay away to mourn with their families. , our team split up; Adam and Danae went to the Emmanuel church. He was able to do some troubleshooting with them re. their sound reinforcement system. Jeff and I went out to the La Guardia Grace church. Their Sunday morning service is actually Sunday School. What a great time! We had about 15-20 minutes of worship music followed by some announcements; then the kids went off to their classes and Guillermo Choquebarra, the pastor, taught the adults there in the sanctuary. Then, all the adults moved to the left half of the room and the kids filed in by classes. A leader went up front and cited the statistics for the morning for each class: # of kids, # of Bibles brought, # of visitors, tithe, and then had each class recite their memory verse. It was an orderly, joyful morning. We were all edified! After church we went to a local barbecue place where some of the culinary delights of Bolivia were spread before us: keperi, churrasco, arroz con queso and of course, jugo de maracuya.

That afternoon we were back at the Jesucristo Vive (Jesus Christ Lives) church for 2 Cumbre sessions. Adam spoke first on worship theology while Frosty translated. Adam presented a great balance of biblical underpinnings of worship and practical insights. Adam and I hosted a Q&A between sessions 1 and 2. Those always introduce the risk of questions that take a hard left turn; we did have a couple of those, but honestly enjoyed the challenge of "being prepared in season and out of season" as it were. Overall, the Q&A times were well worth doing since it provided a chance for conference attendees to ask practical questions germaine to their individual minsitries/churches. 

We set up the second afternoon session as an interview where Jeff Johnson was able to share his insights, stories and techniques involved in playing Guitar 2 in a worship band. I hosted the interview and also translated for Jeff. Partway through the interview, we moved up onto the platform to model a few of the techniques Jeff had presented. It was great fun for all. 

Once session 2 wrapped up, we quickly made our way over to the Km 6 church for the culto unido, which doubled as both a closing service for the Cumbre: Ministerio de Adoración as well as an all-Grace-church unified worship service. They had a worship team made up of leaders and musicians from the 10 area grace churches. I had the privilege of taking the pulpit for the evening.

Saturday-a slower pace

Henoch (eh-NOHK), a local worship leader, paid a visit to the Hansen's house along with his Andean folk group, Zamara, to share some of their music with us. They write a lot of their own songs. This one is an instrumental piece featuring the quena (KEH-nah). The string instrument that looks like a guitar and a ukulele had a baby is called a charango (cha-RAHN-go). 

Today was a lighter day in terms of our activity because the normal Bolivian work week is such that most people work Saturday morning up until noon. The Grace churches in Santa Cruz usually feature Oansa (Awana) and other Bible studies and student groups Saturday afternoon and evening, so the Cumbre summit was on hiatus. It was a welcome respite and gave us a chance to gear up for tomorrow.

I also had the sweet opportunity to visit a children's choir rehearsal led by Eloy Ortega, a local worship leader. They're elementary age kids singing 2-part harmony and it was beautiful! 

beneath the purest air

The anthem of Santa Cruz has a phrase people love to recall. The elegant lyric says that Santa Cruz resides beneath the purest air in all of the Americas. Also referred to by locals as "el paraíso terrenal" (terrestrial paradise), we are most definitely in a beautiful place. The secret to the beauty of this place is the Cruzeños themselves. They are welcoming, kind, passionate, hard working folks. 

The pastry you see to the right is a traditional Bolivian breakfast food called a salteña. (sahl-TEH-nyah) It is a thin dough pocket brushed with an egg wash containing a delightful, juicy filling of chicken, vegetables and broth that has a surprising touch of sweetness permeating the savory flavor profile. We also get to enjoy tiny bananas, locally referred to as "guineos" (gee-NEH-ohs), fried plantains, papaya and standard bananas. The juice I had with breakfast was guanabana. Pronounce it however you want. You can tell it's guanabana 'cause of how it is. lol Cathy sliced up a few mangoes yesterday to see if any of them were ripe yet. God bless that woman. There were indeed a few ripe ones, so I got to enjoy one of God's richest blessings on this earth, the mango. I don't think one can overestimate the impact of mangoes. Now hear me out. World peace is a noble aspiration and all, but if we could just get more mangoes to everyone on this earth, I think the peace thing would sort itself out. It's just an idea.

Last night we had our third Cumbre session. It is impossible to convey all the ways God is working in this conference. I guess maybe one way to say it is that it has been a time dense with the Spirit of God. He has been working in and through us. The team He drew together for this conference is made up of gringos from Washington, Michigan, missionaries and Bolivian believers, a truly diverse group; however, there is a synergy to the working relationships that can only be described as Spirit-filled. Adam spoke first last night; he spoke on the theology of worship. We had planned to do the second half of the session in an interview format where I would ask Jeff Johnson questions about the techniques and heart of playing guitar in a worship ministry that has multiple guitars. Well, a few hours before the session began, we got word that people had been asking for a Q&A, so we thought we'd throw that in between parts A and B of the session. What actually happened was that the Q&A session was very engaging and went on long enough that it ate up the rest of the time. One of our primary mindsets that we talked about in the months leading up to the Cumbre is flexibility. I am so glad that we flexed. I feel like we ended up with a session that served the worship leaders and volunteers attending the conference; that, my friends, is a win. There is so much more to tell, but I'll sign off for now. Thanks again for your faithful prayers! 

old friends, the mango tree and a widowmaker

5Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man's behalf! 20Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me! These verses from Psalm 66 really sum up how I feel at the end of our first day in Bolivia. To be honest, it was actually two days; we just didn't really have the normal break for sleep in between since travelling from Spokane to Santa Cruz spanned 21-hours. The first thing I saw as we pulled in to the missionary home compound here was a ginormous mango tree. Those of you that know me won't be surprised to hear that I got a lump in my throat at that sight- so beautiful. lol! 😅 (Too bad they're not in season at the moment.) There are 50-ft avocado trees, lovely orange trees in blossom and pomelo trees. Jeff Johnson (far left) and I traveled from Spokane together. We met up with our two other ministry partners, Adam and Danae Wolf in Miami and flew down to Santa Cruz, Bolivia together. It's good to finally be on the ground here together and gearing up for Cumbre: Ministerio de Adoración (Summit: Worship Ministry).

One of the joys of this day was reconnecting with several people I met 13 years ago when I came to Santa Cruz for a pastors conference. It is so great to see them thriving in their walks with Christ and just blooming where they've been planted. Eloy was a teenager I met last time I was here. We connected and I got to hear about how he is now the worship leader at his church, married to a lovely woman named Katherine, and teaching music classes at Henry Prince School. He's a guitar player, so we are getting along famously. 

Tuesday afternoon, which is kinda part B of this extend-o-matic day, we had some down time, so I decided to shower. This gave me my first opportunity to take a shower under an electric shower water heater. (I don't know if that's actually what they're called), but Jeff Roth, the missionary whose shower I was about to use, instructed me in its use and warned me to be sure I keep my hands away from the wires while I'm showering. These contraptions didn't get their nickname "widowmaker" for no reason. In the end, it was a very comfortable experience and I felt refreshed and clean...and I'm still alive, which is super.

In the evening, we had the first official event of the Cumbre (Spanish for 'summit'), a Q&A with worship leaders and a few non-musical leaders from the 10 Santa Cruz area churches. Our purpose was to hear from the leaders about challenges they are facing in ministry, to commiserate and encourage each other in the sometimes lonely path of leadership. It was a sweet time. Thanks for all your prayers and support. Keep the prayers coming!