It has already been over a week since I returned from Bolivia, but I just haven't had a good opportunity to sit and write about my last days there. That's what happens when you return on Saturday, teach Sunday school on Sunday, discover Sunday night that it's finals week at the seminary (It was a week earlier than I had thought. Fortunately I only had one take-home final and a paper due by Thursday.), and have somewhere you need to go every night of the first week back. I have to admit that I did have a few hours free my first day or so back, but I spent those sleeping.

Now for the last few days in Bolivia...

Wednesday evening (12/3) Corina, Marco, Heidi, Jenny, Julie, and I all went to have dinner with Rusty and Joanne Penney and their kids. Rusty works with Hebron Theological Seminary there in Santa Cruz and the whole family was glad to be back after a year of furlough and several weeks of wondering if they would get to return to the country at all (see my Sep 24th report).  They had invited a few other missionary friends and we all enjoyed a relaxing evening of fellowship.

I'm not sure if it was on Wednesday or Thursday, but one of those evenings Corina returned to El Jordán with some good news. She had been delivering a plate of cookies when someone came up to her and asked, "Do you make and sell those cookies?" Corina explained that no, El Jordán did not sell cookies but had someone come specially to make them for gifts each year. "But you do make other things, right?", he replied. Corina smiled and happily told him about the many crafts the students at El Jordán make. The man went on to say that a group he was involved in was holding a craft fair/bake sale in the city that weekend and he offered a large booth to El Jordán for selling their products! It was pretty short notice and everyone at El Jordán had plenty of other things to work on without organizing a display and finding volunteers to man the booth for the Friday through Sunday fair, but it was too good an opportunity to pass up. Fairs like this help make El Jordán and its ministry better known in the city and the sales of their crafts help the students make an honest living, getting them that much closer to being able to leave life in the streets.

Corina tells me this is just one example of the way the annual gifts of cookies have helped open doors for El Jordán. It's great to see the evidence of how my cookie baking helps the ministry.

I spent Thursday baking, as usual, but in the afternoon there was a meeting about "Christmas on the Streets" in the room just outside the kitchen. There is a big, open serving window between the two rooms, so I turned the oven off to keep the rooms a little cooler and tried not to be too distracting as I mixed up dough and put it in the fridge for later. That evening was my last night in Bolivia, so Corina told me to choose whatever I wanted to do before leaving Bolivia. She was thinking of going out to eat at a nice restaurant or going to the area down by the river where lines of thatch roofed eating places sell traditional Bolivian foods. I knew, however, that everyone was tired and we were all going to be getting even busier in the weeks to come and I didn't need another big plate of food to try to eat, so I asked if we could just pick up some snacks and go to her house and play a game.

It was a nice relaxing evening with Corina, Heidi, Jenny and Julie. Corina bought traditional Bolivian snack foods and some ice cream and we played "Ticket to Ride". Marco joined us when he returned from his evening English class. His English is getting better, but he is frustrated with his slow progress. Corina tried to get him to practice some conversational English with us, but he was feeling a little intimidated by being the only novice in a group of native English speakers and didn't want to. I think I know just how he felt. :-) He spoke to me in English several times during my stay in Bolivia, so I know he is getting at least a little practice.

On Friday morning I made up the last of the cookie trays. It turned out that I didn't need to bake the cookies from the dough I had prepared on Thursday because I already had enough, so I formed that dough into cookie-sized balls and froze it in Ziploc bags with baking instructions written on the bag. I'm sure they will be put to good use. My final cookie count for this year is 5825 or over 485 dozen. (That doesn't include the 34 dozen, I froze as balls of dough.)

I spent most of Friday cleaning the kitchen and putting away all the supplies and utensils I had been using. I also washed something like 75 of the gallon sized Ziploc bags I had used to temporarily store the cookies until they could be arranged on plates. It was a tedious job, but Ziplocs are valuable there and if they were washed and dried carefully they looked nearly new. I took occasional breaks from cleaning to wander up to the kids floor, peek in on a class, or tuck a few more things in my luggage.

When the students left at the end of the day many of them made a point of coming to give me a hug good-bye, wish me safe travels, and say "See you next year!!" I said good-bye to El Jordán and loaded my bags into Corina's SUV. It wasn't quite time to head for the airport yet, but Corina's Uncle Norman, his wife, and another couple were going to be arriving on the same plane that would be flying me back to the USA and Corina still had a few things to do to get ready. She took me along to the "florist", actually it was a section of open market where one whole row of booths is flower arrangers and sellers. She selected two arrangements for her guests and I helped her get them safely home. We were met at the house by Heidi, Jenny, Julie, and Marco and we all pitched in with making beds, washing and arranging fresh fruit, and whatever else needed to be done to get ready for the guests. We even ended up having some time to just sit and relax before heading off to the airport.

All in all, it was another wonderful trip. I hope I can continue making this trip for years to come. Thanks for your prayers!

In Christ,
Medin