hola mis hemanos y hermanas en Cristo!!
I am so happy that you all are posting comments! You have no idea how encouraging it is to hear from you at home! This has been a bit of a hard week! We had a surgery planned on Tuesday for a woman to have a laproscopy. Well the anesthesiologist had some trouble getting the epideral in (apparently here they don´t put someone under general anesthesia, they only do an epideral or oral anesthesia). The woman moved and the needle went through her spinal membrane and they could not do the procedure. She was apparently in a lot of pain! The staff was very discouraged! Be in prayer for them! They have had a hard time the past few months getting surgeries scheduled because a few months ago a women died after undergoing a hysterectomy! The news scared a lot of patients out of even coming to the hospital! Tuesday evening at the volunteer house (where we stay), there was some spiritual warfare going on as well! There were some problems among some of the volunteers! I spent most of that night in prayer in my room!
Other than that, it has been a great week! The Lord has made His presence known in each of us following that night! I Praise Him for that! In the ER that day it was pretty slow, although we did get to transfer a patient by ambulance to another clinic to have an ultra sound done! That was cool because it was one of those old ambulances (kinda like on Rescue 911 remember that show:) We went to a deaf orphanage this week and spent some time playing soccer with the kids there. That was awesome! We also learned about a beatle that carries a well known disease here in Bolivia (Chagas disease) It is a parasite that gets in your blood and causes flu like symptoms but is a serious disease! We have all been checking our sheets closely for that beatle!
A lot of you have been asking about the kinds of food we eat! Actually we are too blessed in that department! The food is awesome! Just last night we went into town to a steak house! (not like the ones in the states, but it was sooooo good!) hopefully I won´t come home bigger than when I left! :) I have two friends here that are on the track team at their college and they keep me in shape! we all excercise together! I am going to learn some of the recipes so I can bring them back to you!
on a more exciting note, I am going to share my testimony with the patients in the waiting room next Thursday! I am a little nervous but excited about that! The pastor that usually speaks to them is going to translate for me! We are also gonna be doing VBS with kids in the city! It won´t be like ¨trading places¨but God will be praised none the less! It is something a few other girls and I are putting together! We will be spending most of the weekend working on that!
Oh, I was gonna fill you in on the experience last week at the local orphanage! We made salvation bracelets with them and shared the gospel! One of the volunteers speaks spanish so she did all the talking! We also sang some songs(in Spanish) I learned a few! Yay! The Lord has opened a door for me and another girl to take one on one spanish lessons twice a week for the rest of the time we are here! How awesome is that!! We have to take a taxi into town by ourselves so pray that the Lord will guide us!
The hospital and the Volunteer house is in Vinto about 30 minutes outside of Cochabamba. We are in the mountains and it is beutiful! I can´t wait to show you God´s creation here!
Robb, I wanted to tell you that I am praying for you as you get ready to head out to Greece! I am so excited for you! I know how the Lord has blessed me already in the short time I have been here! I know He will do the same for you! He has opened my eyes to so much just by being here by myself! I have no choice but to turn to Him for comfort! It´s awesome! I can´t wait to read about your experience!
I love you all and I know I am leaving stuff out! I am trying to give details, but so much is going on! I am keeping a journal so that I can fill you in when I get back!
Keep praying that the Lord will be glorified in all I do! I don´t want any credit because I know without His grace I would not be here in Bolivia today!!!


hablamos pronto,

For Christ´s Glory,
Colleen

I forgot to mention, be in prayer for Boivia as a country on Sunday! It is election day and depending on if the wrong people get elected, their constitution is going to be re-written to make Bolivia a more socialist country! We are not allowed to go to church that day because any public meeting of more than 7 people is considered a political rally! No one is allowed to drive that day either, so we are stuck at the house!!