Saturday was a lighter day, with only teaching and helping with the children’s OANSA program in the afternoon. That’s the Spanish version of AWANA in the States. More on that in a moment.

Well, we took some time in the morning to get some money changed and walked downtown, about a mile or so, to the exchange place. It’s located about a block from the San Fransisco church and plaza, in the heart of La Paz. We passed out tracts as we went, and more when we reached the plaza. None of us have enough Spanish under our belts to really engage people with the gospel, but we are thankful that most receive the tracts willingly and even begin to read immediately. Roldan spent some time with a drunken man in the plaza, and tried to relieve him of his liquor. It’s so sad to see this sight frequently – men staggering through the streets in midday in a stupor. The verse that reads, “without God, and without hope in the world” comes to mind. After exchanging some money, we walked through the church, which is about 460 years old or so. Its façade is an ornate blending of traditional Inca, Tihuanacan, and Catholic art, and the interior is a blend of baroque and neoclassical Catholic images and designs, much of it covered in gold leaf or gold paint. The walls are lined with images of saints, with people praying to the images and offering flowers and incense. The mix of pagan and Christian symbolism is obvious, typical of the Romanist tendency to syncretize with local religions rather than remaining true to biblical Christianity. The devotion of many to this false religion is an occasion for sorrow, and reminds us of why we are here.

Back out in the fresh air, we decided to take a stroll back uphill toward the church to find a taxi. This area of La Paz is a big tourist draw, and the streets surrounding the church are lined with shops that sell every kind of tourist trinket, traditional handcrafts, musical instruments, and Bolivian clothing of all kinds. And, the famous “Witches’ Market” is also in this area, interesting to be so close to the Catholic church! The walk uphill can be grueling, with grades of 10-15% sometimes, so we went slowly, did a little browsing along the way, and enjoyed soaking up some local sounds, smells, and sights. There was the traditional wedding we saw a part of in the streets, the crowded Saturday market streets, fresh-squeezed orange juice from a street vendor’s cart (one of my favorite things to do in La Paz!), and doing our best to avoid becoming a hood ornament on taxis and busses! We never did find a taxi or bus that was free along our route, so we ended up walking the entire way back to the church, tired but happy from the experience. We had handed out about 250 tracts, and found a few bargains on gifts for people back home, and become one with the city for a time.

The afternoon OANSA program is an outreach to the children of the neighborhood, and from 3-5 every Saturday afternoon the kids pile into the sanctuary for a time of singing, Bible stories, Bible memory, games, and activities. Today, our team was privileged to be the leaders (helped a lot by Gloria, Martin, and Gonzaga!). The kids did a great job with their memory work and crafts, and they loved the game time, too. I brought a Bible story from the book of Job. I think there were about30 kids present. The church has been doing this outreach for a little over a year now, and is sponsored by the Grand Island BPC in New York.

Since we didn’t have anything planned for the evening, we continued a tradition of taking the team and the Quisberts, Irustas, Roldan, and the kitchen helper out to a nice dinner as a thank you for all their hard work. We went to a awesome restaurant at the top of the Hotel Presidente downtown. The food was superb, and the view was incredible 17 stories up. You look all around and see the panorama of La Paz at night. It was beautiful.

The Lord’s Day services went very well. Susan and Carol taught the children’s Sunday School classes, and I preached in the morning and evening. It was a blessing to see the church pews full, and to know that this is the regular attendance, too. With some of our special services, we have a lot of visitors, which is wonderful, but it is nice to see the regular attendance at good levels. In the afternoon, we had a kind of in-house concert where the music students for the week played piano and violin, and team members did more solo or small group pieces/songs, and the whole group did several Aymara and Spanish songs. It was low-key and a great time of fellowship. These music students have worked with our teams before, and continued their practice in between, and they really make progress with our music teachers. This year, Carol had the violin students, and Susan the piano students. It was a special treat to have our friend Christian spend the concert time and evening service with us. Susan had taught him piano four years ago, and while he had had lessons before, he hadn’t made much progress. He took what he learned from her and just took off. He plays mostly by ear, and plays with incredible virtuosity. And, he especially loves hymns, and when he plays he just grins from ear to ear with joy in the playing. It’s a blessing to hear him.

I’m not feeling well this evening, not sure what is going on. Hope this doesn’t turn into what Carol had this week.