Day 4 - According to Joe and Allie

Buenos dias amigos, this is Josiah writing. I’m going to go over a few highlights from my day.

            Today was kind of a day off for us here at Camp Yungas. A day off is a good opportunity to catch up on some lost hours of sleep, rest up, and recharge a little bit. However, we decided to wake up at 5:30AM to search around the jungle at the edge of camp for monkeys. We woke up to the sound of Bobby, the camp perro (that means dog is espanol ((that means Spanish in Spanish))), barking at something stupido.

           

            We gave the search a solid twenty minutes as a whole group before giving up and going back to our cabin. Then, a smaller group of us consisting of myself, Allie, Tim, Noah, and Anna decided to go look again. We still didn’t find any monkeys. We did kind of watch the sun rise over a river in the jungle however, which is not something you can really do in Cleveland.

            After breakfast, Kep baptized a Bolivian girl named Anita in the river. Then we embarked on a journey that would change my life. Kep led us on a hike through the Amazon and up a river. We spent about an hour and a half climbing waterfalls and trying not to slip on hazardous jagged rocks. It was good time for group bonding.

            At one point about an hour into the hike, I had to crawl on my stomach up a small waterfall that ran under some low hanging branches. As I dragged myself up the waterfall and pulled myself out from the other side of that cold, jungly tunnel, I found myself face-to-face with something that shocked me. I locked eyes with Bobby the dog, who was standing about two feet away from me.

            I was so shocked to see him up in the jungle. It changed my opinion of Bobby from a gross pulgas (that means fleabag in espanol) to a legendary, noble companion. Bobby had followed our group up a river through the jungle. He stuck by our side for the rest of the hike. He was an inspiration. But he still smelled like caca (that means poop in espanol).

            We finally got to the top of the waterfall after an hour and a half of climbing and struggling. It was only possible by our teamwork. It was an amazing experience and a crazy adventure, and I’m so glad we were able to do it. That hike wasn’t quite like anything I had ever done before, and to be able to do it in the Amazon in Bolivia with some of my best friends was incredible. The hike also ended up being a time where we grew closer as a group, and for the first time, I think we were unified in a very real way as a team.

            This is Josiah Keating signing out for the night. Stay tuned to the blog for more updates from the trip.

            Hello. This is Allie. Bolivia is amazingly beautiful. We drove four hours down to Camp Yungas and I stared out the window majority of the ride. The mountains are astounding! Today we took a hike through the jungle, which I’ve been looking forward to since day one. It was better than I could’ve imagined. We literally walked through the river the whole time, climbing up waterfalls, some of which we needed a rope to get up. That was most definitely the most incredible thing I’ve ever done!

            Later, back at the camp, we did our daily devotional. After that three of the Bolivian girls spoke to us about their missionary work, while Kep translated. They are so passionate about Christ. One of them was tearing up while speaking about all the unsaved people in the world. They talked about how our wholes lives should be centered around Christ. If God calls us to leave our home to share the gospel in an unknown place and eat weird food, no matter how uncomfortable, we have to go. Our lives are not about us. To be a committed follower of Christ we have to constantly go out of our comfort zone and follow him wherever he leads. One of them also said we don’t do these things because we are “such good Christians.” We do them because of who God is and how he uses us. God works through us. God empowers us. I was very encouraged by hearing their devotion to bringing people to Christ. It reminded me that this is the main focus of my life. All the worldly things I get caught up with are secondary to evangelism.