In my somewhat more permament home

Hello everyone. I am now unpacked in Santa Cruz. It appears that I won't be here very much until school starts in Aug. I have this next week to prepare for a youth retreat. If all the plans go correctly, I will be heading to several different places with several other missionaries here in Bolivia. I could be living out of my suitcase for the next 4 weeks. Some places mentioned on my schedule include; Rio Selva, Guarayos, Beni, Tarija, and Chaco. Of course everything can change but the hope is that I will be able to visit these places next month.


Now, I am sure your wondering "what is up with the Jesus statue?" In Cochabamba, they had a statue of Jesus at the top of a hill looking over the city. It was built in the 80s? At least I think thats what I was told. Anyways, he is a pretty big guy, I thought they said something about having a 120 foot wing span (he should try out for the basketball team). Ok so that was a lame joke.

Yesterday, I spend most of the afternoon in training with the assistant field director. He gave me information about the expectations of the Bolivian missionary team. It was a good meeting. Afterwards, we went to supper at Burger King. Apparently it's the only American food chain that has made it down here. Then we went grocery shopping. It's hard to shop when you don't know any products, correct prices, or where anything is. I think I'll make a habit of shopping with someone for a while. One thing that was mentioned to me is that WGM will pay for Spanish tutoring if I am interested. I am very interested. Once I get back to Santa Cruz, that is one thing I want to get worked into my schedule.

Today I went with the Browns to church. Not sure what they said but I did get through half of 1 Samuel before the sermon was over. By the way, if you haven't read 1 Samuel, I would recommend you take some time to do so. It's good reading. After church, we went out to dinner and enjoyed some Bolivian food.

As far as the weather here, It has been overcast and windy here. I would say it got up to about 55 here today but it felt colder. The wind is a south wind. That would be like a north wind in the US.

As you may have noticed, I am in the process of figuring out how to add pictures and videos to my blog site so that you can see what's going on. The site may be in construction stage this week.
Continue to pray for safe health (especially since I am supposed to start drinking the water here.) It isn't bad, the water at my house is well water. But you never know. Pray that I will continue to stay focus and do my reading for school so that I don't get behind. Pray that I will continue to be an effective tool for God's work.

God Bless,
Jon

One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place.The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was. Then the LORD called Samuel.
Samuel answered, "Here I am." And he ran to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."
But Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down." So he went and lay down.

Again the LORD called, "Samuel!" And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."
"My son," Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down."

Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD : The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.

The LORD called Samuel a third time, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."
Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, "Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.' " So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, "Samuel! Samuel!"
Then Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening." (1 Samuel 3:2-10)

Continue to listen for God's voice, you never know when it will come and if you aren't paying attention, you may miss it.