Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Oswald Chambers said, "The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, but if you don't fear God you fear everything else." I have had almost a surreal peace about this adventure from the beginning, and I can only credit God with this tranquility.

For the past couple months, I've been asking people to sign their name next to their favorite verse in my Bible, to remind me to pray for them. Today, I came across Lindsay Kuhl's signature next to a passage that describes her faith when moving her whole life to Baltimore to start Mosaic, and now fits nicely with my transition to Bolivia: "By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God's call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going. By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents. Isaac and Jacob did the same, living under the same promise. Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations—the City designed and built by God." -Hebrews 11:8-10, The Message.

Living in the Miami airport for the past seven hours, I must have assimilated well, because I was just mistaken for a Spanish speaker. A man started talking to me in Spanish, until my ineptitude at replying convinced him to switch to English. As a coca producer who lives in La Paz, Bolivia, but has five kids in France, Bruno has taught me a ton about coca and Bolivian culture, and shamed me in his understanding of four languages. But he's also reminded me of the people I'm going to help and the reason I'm leaving all the people that I love so much in Estados Unidos. Hasta Luego!