Goodbye Peña de Horeb

This is where we stayed of the final night of the slat flat tour - not a bad view to wake up to...

Sitting here in an internet cafe in La Paz, having arrived this morning from Uyuni after a 11h 40m bus journey, catching my breath before we head out for our last dinner in Bolivia, it seems somewhat strange recalling the goodbyes of last week in church. We say goodbye to Bolivia tomorrow morning, as we head off to Puno in Peru for a day and a half at Lake Titicaca, after which we will be travelling to Cusco to embark on project number two!
This week has been a somewhat hectic team holiday, in which we've encountered illness and travel changes, due to blockades which amazingly haven't effected us. Despite this, we've spent 3 amazing days on the stunning salt flats and a day in Potosi, just enjoying being good old tourists. As this week has been somewhat random and my brain is feeling very slow due to lack of sleep, you'll once again have to forgive any mistakes as I try to recall last week's goodbyes. But for now, I'd like to say, thank you Bolivia for being an amazing country, and with a bit of luck I can sign off tonight with a nice fat lama steak!

The Week of the Lasts (mark II)...

First on the list was the kids classes. Normally we'd be treated to classes on Tuesday and Wednesday, but Wednesday was a national holiday, meaning Tuesday was the day to say goodbye. I did my standard morning stint in the 6-7 class, taught them verses 1 and 2 from psalm 121, served them up lunch, and with that my final class was over. After serving up lunch I walked back into the class, somewhat dissappointed at the lack of reaction to my last class, and announced that I was going back to the house. Never before have I been bombarded with so many hugs and people pulling me to themselves, was a little bit painful if I'm honest. But the love I was shown was overwhelming and I was even given a card but a child, Diego, whom I barely know (but a lot more was to come on Sunday...).

Meals...

Obviously we were invited to even more meals in our last week: (once again blogger is being a bit silly so the photos don't all fit with the right bit of text, so just be decearning)

• Monday - we went over to Vikki's house for dinner. Her house was lovely, but wierdly British, its furneshing and layoutand even the food was spag-bowl with chips. Another amazing evening of good food, bad music, and great company.
• Friday - the first of two breakfast invites at Hermano Narcasit's (yes, that's his real name) house in the countryside outside El Alto. Narcy was our maestro on the building site and he took the time on Firday to apologise to the girls for not giving them much work, a lovely gesture but a bit late. After our light breakfast of bread and fresh heated milk (one of the nicest things ever) we took a few photos and got ready to headback, but Narcy suggested he took us to some old Aymaran remains so we hopped in the car. What we came to five minutes later was what I can only describe as a Bolivian grand canyon, with a bitmore green. You'll just have to see the photo's, but round the corner from La Paz, unknown to most, was one of the most stunning places I've ever been! The 'walk' to the remains ended up being more of a 3 hour round trek/scramble, but wow, what a breakfast it was...
• Saturday - breakfast numero dos was of course never going to match up to the trek of the pervious morning, but the food definitely took the win. We were given this amazing hot drink called Api which I've had once before and I enjoy more than horlicks (bold claim I know..). For food we were given sort of bready pancakey things whos name escapes me, which were equally amazingand I ate about three. 

Me at the edge of this amazing canyon thing.

Wednesday Worship...

One of our amazingly made stations.

We'd been wanting to do something like this for a while just not sure how best to go about it. In the end we set up eight prayer stations up in and outside our house and invited people from the church to come over and pray and worship with us. Eight stations being prepared with explanations in Spanish for each one takes a while, but the teamreally pulled together and the evening, food, worship and all was truly blessed. Afterwards we did a thing where you throw someone in the air along a line. Very very dangerous, especially when Kevin and I decided to throw one of the Hermanos so hard that he did a full 180 flip, narrowly missing the ceiling and prompting a laughing fit from everyone.

The Final Service...

Much as this was a sad occation, it was also very exciting as this was the first church service to be taking placeon the new roof. Although the construction work has often been slow and sometimes frustrating, when we arrived to church on Sunday and went up onto the roof to see Fiedel's ridiculous speakers and the benches set out, then thought back to how it was when we arrived, I couldn't help but feel a warm sense of pride at what we'd acchieved. The service followed its usual format, however after the kids had come back in and done their presentations, it was our turn. We were each invited up one by one, and for each of us a different member of the church presented us with a little bolivian shield thing (great description I know) and a cetificate of thanks from the church with a photo of us in the background. As touching as these gifts were (and they really were) the thing that got me was the personal tributes that each person gave to each one of us. Erwin persented me, and said that I speak with wisdom and with clarity and don't use many words to fluff up my message. He said that he enjoyed my sermon and that he is sure I will become a great pastor in the future, yes Fran and Adrian, lap it up...

Rachael with Vikki

It was a very special moment though, and from then on, members of the church just came up and gave tributes and thanks to us (and God of course). To add to this, we were bombarded by gifts and cards and all kids of random homemade things from the children throughout the service, so that by the end I had a folder stuffed full! I've said it before but it was overwhelming..
 Just how much our presence here means to the church is staggering, we were off to a winner before we began almost. But its not just about what we gave them, which hopefully is a lasting impression and more than we can ever imagine, but of course, what they gave us.

Without sounding too cleche, the love, hospitality and care that this church have shown me with stay with me forever. The perseverance and committment of the people depite difficult situations and the ability to see so much value in what they have, which is frankly very little (I keep forgetting the about the poverty here, which although not the worst in the world, is still a real issue). These people are reallymy family, and I will miss them hugely! Please pray that they can complete the church and that the church grows and touches many lives because of it.

Goodbye Peña de Horeb, forever in my heart...

JJ