Just learning to adapt

We need a vacation. Is it a bad sign when you just had the longest vacation of your life and you´ve only been at your new job for three weeks and you are ready for another vacation? Perhaps it´s not quite that bad, but Ann and I both have caught ourselves often feeling very frustrated and being frustrated all the time we have learned is quite a weary way to live. We knew that working with a Bolivian organization alongside Bolivian coworkers would be an adjustment, but I guess we overestimated our flexibility a little. So I, who I thought was a pretty patient person, have realized that God is showing me to be more patient and more flexible. Things move even slower here than in other parts of Bolivia. If someone here tells you that they will do a certain task for you by Friday at 4pm, it might not be until the following Thursday that you get it done (this really happened to us). Here they say it´s just because people are "more informal." So we´re learning to be more informal.
Things at work are really disorganized too, but it looks like by the end of the month we should have most everything straightened out. I´m very excited to get started on my work, which we will share a little more about it in our first newslaetter in March, but it has to do with strengthening and training local church leaders in native villages in the jungle and Chaco of Bolivia. We will be working with at least 5 different people groups. This week I´ve just been left on my own to figure things out for the project while Ann and Eva, our director, figure out how to get this office running well.
In all the chaos it has been a huge blessing to be able to live at the office. Although we haven´t seen much of the city or met too many people because we are here all the time, it is a relief from the craziness that we don´t have to commute through this crazy city or look for a house right now. Once we get things going and know how the office runs and know what is expected of us, we can look for a place to live and worry about ather things. Right now we are just thanking God for bringing us here and blessing us with this opportunity and we are trusting that if He brought us here He will provide everything that we need as long as we continue to seek first His kingdom and righteousness. He is in control! So what could we possibly have to worry about? In him we can find rest in the midst of the chaos.