Forgot to mention yesterday how the final English classes went. We had a smaller number of young people show up, but still in the neighborhood of 60 or so, including some new ones. We all made a particular effort to  make a final presentation and urging to the gospel which, in my class at least, was soberly received by most of the kids.

Rachel and Carol took it easy this morning, and both are feeling better. Don’t know if it was something they ate, or just the winding road and altitude adjustment that hit them, but we’re thankful for the Lord’s strengthening them. They were ready for the day in the afternoon.

Today was our last early morning broadcast, and I finished up with the church at Philadelphia. I’ll have to cover the other churches that I have left (Pergamos, Sardis, and Thyatira, in that order) on Sunday and next Wednesday. Ed is looking forward with a little trepidation to the final two home Bible studies in the evening next week, but I’m sure that he will do well. He has been a blessing to the people. Some of them have even been calling him “Pastor” which really makes his day!

We wrapped up VBS this morning, with about ten children. The kids were really terrific this year. School is in, or we’d have a lot more, but we are glad for what we had.

The last music lessons were also done today. We will include some of the students in Sunday’s concert in the afternoon. The participation has been enthusiastic, to say the least. We’ll have students playing violin and piano numbers. We had the rest of the afternoon free, so did some practice for our own music on Sunday and came up with a good program for that afternoon. It will be more of a “personal” kind of concert, doing some of the music that we have done so far, but also doing a lot more solo and small group songs. Roldan is even going to do a solo on his harmonica – he’s pretty good!

The choir “invitational” in the evening was quite a big deal. We started doing this four years ago with the first team that we sent down here, and it has become a tradition. This one was the best organized and executed yet. There were five choirs that came, and our team, each singing three songs. The choirs come from all over La Paz. Some are from specific churches, but most are Christian community choirs that any believer can join. The music was almost all done in Spanish, and was a blessing to listen to. Some of the songs were hymns that we know in English, and others hymns and gospel music that is indigenous, at least to South America. Other songs had a decidedly classical touch. Wonderful variety without being worldly. We marveled at the piano accompaniment of a young man that Susan had taught four years ago, and has essentially taught himself to play anything by ear with tremendous skill and virtuosity. He played for almost all the choirs, all by ear, sometimes only glancing at the music (when it was available) to make sure he had the tune in his head.  Then, one of the choirs asked me to play for them, two songs that I had never seen or heard before! Well, I didn’t do as well as Christian, but I survived and so did the choir, as the Lord helped us put it together as they performed the songs. Our team did two songs in Spanish and two in English. It was a beautiful evening of worship and celebration together. Susan was given an engraved silver plate in thanks for her coming for the third time. They really love her here.

After the service, Gloria Quisbert and Roldan had a surprise for us — ice cream! Roldan overheard Liz saying how much she was longing for some, and he went out and bought some for all of us. We enjoyed it all together with our Bolivian brethren before our evening devotions and bed. God is good. It was a great day!