Scene of the Crime

In just a few hours I will be boarding a bus to Cochabamba. It will be an overnight seven hour bus ride. Should cost about $4. Cochabamba is a little place that I like to call the scene of the crime. I was riding through the streets of Coch almost two years ago when God called me to Bolivia as a long-term missionary.

And even this past June when I was visiting Bolivia to discern exactly where God wanted me to be, I still thought Coch was going to be it. I had a great peace about it and I even had a great foundation that I was going to work with – a foundation that is doing some amazing work in Coch. Check them out if you are interested – Niños con Valor.

But God had other plans. He called me to La Paz and He had a much bigger role in the story for me than I had for myself. I am happy to be in La Paz and I have no doubt that it is where God wants me to be. But Coch still holds a special place in my heart and I am excited to be visiting.

I will be in Coch pretty much all this week. I will probably be flying back on Saturday. I have a mixture of meetings and training all related to the Red Viva Network that I am working with. My goal is to learn more about the organization and meet some people who coordinate activities for the network in other cities in Bolivia. I am going to be managing the communications for the Red Viva office in La Paz so I hope to build some key relationships this week.

Pray that God uses me this week. In addition to the meetings and training, I hope to visit some of my missionary friends in Coch and I will also be meeting with Niños con Valor just to see how everything is going and to deliver some medical supplies to them for a clinic that they are working with.

It should be a fun week. So if you need to reach me just send me an email. I won’t be home to answer the Vonage phone this week.

Also, I just want to share two quick verses with you that knocked me over this past week.

The first verse I stumbled across while I was at the House of Prayer on Thursday night. It is Psalm 61:2 – “From the ends of the earth I call to you. I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”

I like to substitute “La Paz, Bolivia” for “ends of the earth.” But man this verse hit me square in the face. I feel just like this verse sometimes. I am calling to God as my heart grows faint. I am serving God full-time but I feel my heart growing faint because I am struggling to spend one on one time with Him consistently. And I so want Him to lead me to that rock, that level of protection, that is higher than I am right now. Father, my hand just can't reach it...

The other one hit me in church today. John 9:39. Jesus’ words after He heals a man who had been blind from birth. “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

…those who see will become blind. Wow. I mean it’s easy to grasp that Jesus wanted to heal people who were blind but what’s up with the part about people who see becoming blind? I have always missed that part. I just realized for the first time today that Jesus wants me to be blind sometimes. He doesn’t want me to see where I am going all the time because He wants to guide me, He wants me to take His hand and trust Him. That's good because I can't see very well right now.

Lead on Savior. Lead on.