Twenty nine people plus the driver and his helper piled into the bus this morning at 4:00 a.m. and headed out towards Altamira for a Conference. The excitement level was very high. Many of these youth have not even been across town. Ivanildo says “They are like chicks still inside their eggshell”.
The driver just drove this stretch of road on Monday. It took him 19 hours. Most of the road was dry but very rough, and one place he had to wait two hours while the tractors pulled vehicles through a huge mud hole. I asked him about the risk of bandits. “There is no problem right now. The police killed a whole pile of them…(he tried to count up in his mind just how many robbers the police killed but came back to his original phrase, ‘um bocada’ – a whole pile)”. So I don’t know if that is good news or not, but it is what it is and everyone felt better about bringing their cell phones and cameras.
I realized as my family all drove away with the rest of our church leaders just how rarely I am the one staying home. It feels kind of good, as long as they don’t get into a “situation”. Sometimes it feels like we are living along the edge of a disaster, but it always works out well. I am so glad we have a living God who watches us carefully. “Oh God, please bless them on this journey and let them return home safely”.
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