These last two weeks
have seen a flurry of activity for us. It started out with a farewell given to
us by the pastors of the Bolivian Evangelical Holiness Church in La Paz at the
regular quarterly meeting of the denomination’s pastors. I was asked to preach,
not really to preach but to share my testimony of how we became involved in
Bolivia and my reflections on where the church is now as compared to where it
was in the beginning. I am not given to being overly emotional while preaching
but I shed some tears while trying to express our appreciation and love for the
brothers who were there. After my sharing we were presented with some gifts and
then properly greeted by each one present with a traditional Bolivian abrazo
(handshake – hug – handshake) and kind words. Following the service there was a
cake in our honor and many pictures taken with different brothers and sisters.
All in all it was a good day with lots of memories, laughs and tears.
I have never played
the lottery. I suppose that if I did I would only be throwing my money away.
Whenever I buy a product that has some contest going on, instant winner and all
that I always get, “You are not a winner. Try again.” But somehow or other I
managed to win the airline upgrade lottery. Right after the farewell in La Paz
I headed to the airport to fly to the States to attend the annual board meeting
of the mission in my new capacity as Liberian field superintendent. When I
purchased my ticket for the trip a few weeks before, I was offered an
immediate, $16 upgrade to business class. At first I was suspicious. What was
this going to really cost me? Lots of money at the airport? All my frequent
flyer miles? But after a phone call I was assured that there were no hidden
strings. So I flew to the board meeting going first class. Wow! It could become
addicting.
When I returned to
Santa Cruz I had diligently filled out my custom’s form on the plane. But I had
misread a question and answered incorrectly so I changed the answer. When I
gave the form to the lady she looked at it and said, “You didn’t sign it.” I
had forgotten so I went over to a desk to sign the form. Then she sent me over
to have my suitcase examined by an agent. While he was looking at my stuff she
appeared with a new form. “You have to fill this out again because you made a
change on it.” Ok. I took the new form and filled it out, signed it and
returned with it. I figured that I could go now since I had had my luggage
opened already and the form filled out again. No. “You need to go over there
and talk with an agent.” So a second agent began to open my luggage. When I
told him that it had already been opened he told me to go on but the lady was
there again. They still didn’t like what was on my form. I had tried to be
honest and answered yes to a couple of questions about items that I had. So the
agent looked at me and said, “You need to fill this out again and you need to
answer NO to all the questions.” Ok. So back I went for the third try. This
time no one gave me a form so I removed one from the tablet of forms. I filled
it out AGAIN, SIGNED IT, ANSWERED NO to all the questions and turned it in.
“Where’s the carbon copy?” Do I have to fill it out yet again? “Just go,” they
told me. I was by then about the last person and I am sure they wanted to be
done. So much for trying to be honest. I guess they weren’t worried about a
little fish like me.
Two days after
arriving home we had our second garage sale. It is amazing how much stuff can
be accumulated even in a “third world country”. But we were glad to sell most
of what we had out. Following the sale we had invited the district pastors and
wives to come for a meal. So Mark, Bryan and I did the cooking while the sale
was going on and then served the lunch. It was a pleasant time of fellowship,
singing and sharing together. And, as frosting on the cake, they bought most of
what we had left from our sale at a special pastors’ discount!
I share my meanderings with
you because these are the things that I will miss about Bolivia. I will miss
the times of sharing with pastors, eating, laughing and praying together. I
will miss the warmth and love that these brothers and sisters have so
consistently shown us. And, yes, I will even miss filling out custom’s forms
three times to get it right.
