From there Drew went to pick up our second visitor to Cochabamba, Kristin. Kristin's birthday was on Friday, so we decided to pick up a Bolivian birthday cake while in the market. Too bad we didn't take a picture of it, it was quite incredible. All of us went out on Saturday night for Karaoke and some good food at our favorite restaurant Dali.
Sunday was particularly restful. We left after Church to climb the Cristo. Sundays are the days the Bolivians climb Cristo, with good reason too. Any other day you can only climb up to the statue, but on Sundays, you can actually climb up inside Cristo (109 ft tall).
On Monday, we left early in the morning with our pastor and her niece and nephew to get out of the city for a day. We went to a park about 1 1/2 hours away in a huge mountain gorge. We were looking for a waterfall, but didn't find one because it is dry season right now. There was a small stream which we spent a good part of the day playing in and exploring. It was nice to finally get out and see something outside of the city. Now Drew and I are excited to throw our backpacks on and climb up the rest of the way, following the mountain ridge line until we make it back home. Can you see the girls in the picture?
As we were enjoying the day, I began to talk to the pastor about some things I had been thinking about in Church. Our Church, as we have written before, is very small and full of new Christians. Drew and I are the only married couple in the Church, while the rest are widows, single moms, youth, or children. During Sunday School, I had noticed that not many of the women were comfortable reading the Bible in front of everyone else. The pastor tells us that many of these women are uneducated and are embarrased because they can't read at all. I began talking about starting a reading class for the women in our neighborhood. The primary reason would be so that they could read the Bible, but it would obviously help in other areas of life as well. As I was speaking out my ideas, the pastor's face began to light up. She had felt the need for this as well. A few years ago, she had tried to start a class like this herself and only found it stressful and frustrating. She had been praying for someone to come in and begin a program like this which would not only serve the Church, but the entire community. As it was in Victorian times in the States, we will use the Bible as our text book. Many people then only learned to read so that they could read the Bible. The pastor anticipates many will want to learn, many from outside of the Church. So without even knowing it, these people will be learning about the Bible as they also learn another valuable life skill. I have told the pastor that Drew and I would supply the Bibles for these lessons, so that each person that comes will have their own Bible to read at home, because the Church does not have enough funds to do this. If you want to help with this, perhaps we can figure out a way to get some money wired here.
Outside of our happenings this weekend, we have heard about many things going on all over the country. But that is the extent of it. We have not been affected by any of the voilence or even felt unsafe here. Cochabamba should not be affected by what is going on in other parts of the country. One of the teachers at my school is a US Marshall for the Embassy here, and she keeps us updated on whats happening. If worst comes to worst, the school is a designated evacuation site for Americans. We don't forsee anything like this happening though. We have been told that in the States, the news is blowing up to be a lot worse than it really is. So, if you have seen or heard those reports, rest assured that we are safe and doing well.
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