We´re here!

It´s friday morning in Santa Cruz and it is already 86 degrees and climbing. Tuesday morning we arrived here in a haze after an all-night flight and up until now it seems in some ways we have not escaped that dazed feeling. No honeymoon stage here, we have just jumped right in. The first couple days I think we both felt a little anxious and very disoriented. The disorientation will probably be there for a while in such a big city with no physical features to help us figure out where in the world we are. But we have been able to work through the anxiety. We just have been continually reminding one another that we need to take each day as it comes. At this point we can´t really think too much about the future because we have no idea what is going on. But next week we are supposed to spend a few days with Juan and Eva where they will explain everything they have done this past year and we will then help plan the upcoming year. After that I think we should feel a little more settled down. This weekend we hope to find a bed and some shelves so we can move into our room at the office too.
After that we will head to Cochabamba for a couple weeks where we know people and places and be able to rest! Then beginning in January we will start work in earnest.
Yesterday we did get a glimpes of what we will be doing in the next year. Three Christian indigenous leaders met with us in the office from three different tribes out in the jungle quite a long ways from here. A fourth was unable to make it yesterday. But these people together form a group that Peace and Hope started back in September that aims to help build up the indigenous churches in the Bolivian lowlands and develop Christian leaders that help transform their communities. The all-day meeting was wonderful for me to get to meet these pastors and learn a little more about what they envision for their people and how we can support them. We decided that Ann and I would come visit each community in February (yes, it will take the whole month to reach these 4 villages that are all within a 100 mile radius of Santa Cruz) and we are planning a regional Christian indigenous pastors´conference in June. So yes, I am excited!! Today we are going to visit a neighborhood here in the city that we will also be working in with out domestic abuse project. So just take it one day at a time and things will fall into place. . .
But praise Jesus that we have made it this far! Yesterday when the pastors arrived one asked the other how he was. The other responded, "I`m just happy to be alive!" The other said "Me too!" And a second later I realized they weren´t kidding. So I learned again for the nth time to be thankful for the little things and not to complain about the big things. We have a lot to be thankful for.