Daily Life in La Paz

Moving to a new country, a new culture, involves a certain amount of adapting to your new surroundings. I would like to share some of the "new" things that we need to do here that we were not accustomed to doing in other countries.

Every night I need to remember to set aside water for the next day. The water here is very heavily chlorinated, so we have been advised to let the water sit overnight so the chlorine can evaporate out. Then, for additional safety, the water is boiled, and then is safe to drink!

I also spend quite a bit of time "going to market". I take my empty sacks with me and as I make my way up the street vendors offer bread, meat, fruit, vegetables, cleaning supplies, clothes and just about anything else. There are several markets in the city, but the largest one is just three blocks from our apartment, so it is easy to walk there. I make my way up the street and when the sacks are all full I take a taxi back home. The first time I went to the market all the vendors were telling me "caserita" (little home). Not knowing the meaning of the word, I wondered why they were inviting me to their homes. I thought, "These people are really kind. Here they are already inviting me to come to their house for a visit". Now that I have inquired, I have discovered that "caserita" means that they want you to think of their stand as their home and are asking you to be a faithful customer. (They just want your business!) ching, ching.



Another new responsibility is waxing floors. Since the temperatures do get down to freezing here, most of the homes have wooden floors. Our entire apartment has parquet floors. The owner of the apartment fixed up the floors before we moved in and since we want to keep them nice they will need to be waxed regularly. This is a change from the Dominican Republic where all the floors were mopped. So goodbye mop - hello wax!!

Visas Approved

This past week we were able to pick up our one year resident visas after being in the country for about two months. This visa will be valid for one year. After we had received the visa the agent informed us that we now need to apply for our carnet - a national ID card. This card must be obtained within 25 days. We submitted the papers the next day and should have the carnet by the end of this week.



We are very thankful for all the help we had from Dra. Zulema, the lawyer. With her guidance and Francisco's help, we were able to fulfill all the government's requirements to receive the visa. The Lord has been very gracious in providing kind and willing helpers.

LATTE in Bolivia

What does is mean to be "confessional"? Do I understand what my church teaches? Do I believe the same teachings that other confessional Lutherans profess and proclaim? How can I know when someone is teaching false doctrine? These are all questions that people in La Paz have about their faith. Our focus here is to teach the truth but also to help the people discern false doctrines they have been taught in the past. The LATTE classes have a double focus: teaching the truths of the Scriptures and at the same time helping the people identify where they have gotten off the path onto false teachings. Our prayer is that with the Lord's help the students will believe the clear teachings of the Bible.

For now, most of the work has been focused on the pastor of the congregation. He has a deep desire to be confessional and to teach true biblical doctrines to the people. Philip has spent many hours talking with Pastor Julio, learning the history of the congregation, sharing doctrinally sound materials, clearing up doubts that Pastor Julio has and teaching him biblically sound teachings.

There have also been other opportunities to share the basic law and gospel message with other groups that are active within the church. Many of the members are still confused about the basic message of salvation and when questioned frequently mention some type of "works" as necessary to be saved.

Philip has had many opportunities to clear up peoples' doubts and when they hear the clear message they realize how the idea of works righteousness had become a part of their beliefs and they are thankful to hear the message of salvation by grace-without works-by faith in Jesus.

The Lord has already blessed the work here as people begin to appreciate all that Jesus has done for them and we ask the Lord's continued blessing as we begin regular classes with the other leaders of the congregation.

Migración

"The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord; he directs it like a watercouse wherever he pleases."

This past week we made our second trip to Migración to submit our papers for a resident visa. On our first trip we had been told that we needed one more paper that would need to come from the national church here, FIEL. While we waited for FIEL to obtain their papers, our expiration date passed, so we had to pay a fine for going past the required 30 days for obtaining a visa.

The paper that the FIEL needed to supply also came about in an extraordinary way. They had to acquire a signature from someone at the state department but that office is known for it's lengthy delays. When the FIEL representative took their paper in on Thursday hoping to get the signature he was told it would probably be 2 - 3 months before we received said document. Everyone began to wonder what to do. Could we overstay our entrance visa that long? What should we do?

It happened, that over the weekend the man who worked in that office was changed and a new representative was installed. Being new at his post, the representative quickly signed all the papers that the former agent had left on his desk. We had our paper by Monday and submitted them on Tuesday morning. Our submitted papers were approved and we need to go in later this week to see if the visa is ready!

"As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given" Dan. 9:23


Protest Update
The protests mentioned in the previous blog have ended. A compromise was reached to give the workers a 12% raise. The government has also agreed not to confiscate the worker's health savings fund to start a universal health program - for now.