Patience (Take Two)

Here’s a simple equation for you:

The more time I live here in La Paz = the more I miss my family, friends and Chick-fil-A back home…

I have almost been here in Bolivia a month and the newness of the whole experience is starting to wear off. God is really teaching me about patience again. He taught me about patience just about a year ago when I had to wait to see if this missionary thing was even going to be possible. And now I am here. I AM a missionary. And the lessons on patience continue.

Nothing happens real fast here. Certainly not change. And it is hard to NOT come here expecting to change the world in a month. But I am reminded that God makes all things beautiful in time.

I am getting more and more settled and there are still some things that I need for the house (including the internet…which is a little frustrating) but I am getting to a place where I am ready to work. Maybe it is my personality and I can’t sit still for very long when there are so many needs right in front of me. Maybe it is the spiritual gifts test that I took a while back that told me that I would be most fulfilled when I was serving and helping others.

I am just ready to get my serve and my help on…

But I definitely see it on the horizon. I am starting to get more and more opportunities to help and I am excited about that. Also, I am ready to hit the streets and hang with some kids. And I see that on the horizon as well praise God.

I met a couple from the USA who works with a ministry called Word Made Flesh. They live and work in El Alto, which is a huge suburb of La Paz near the airport and probably the poorest area of La Paz. Anyway, this ministry works with street prostitutes and their kids. They have a drop-in center in El Alto that I am hoping to visit in the next week or so. Just so you know, prostitution is unionized here in Bolivia. There is a movement right now to close all of the brothels but that will only cause the prostitutes to go underground and it will probably guarantee that their regular health check ups will not happen. It will also make it more difficult for this ministry to find the girls.

I am sponge right now. My goal is to meet as many people and learn about as many ministries as possible and prayerfully consider how I might be able to help or serve them.

For different ministries my role will probably be different. I might be a marketing/communication consultant for one ministry and for ministries like World Made Flesh my role might be to just play with the kids of the street prostitutes.

God only knows.