By Pastor Steve
Tony Bennet may have left his heart in San Francisco, but I left mine in Cochabamba.
Our host Emigdio Veizaga warned us at our farewell dinner that “it takes some time for your hearts to catch up to your bodies when you return home”.
I quipped, “I think a big part of our hearts are going to stay here permanently”. One of the best lines of the evening came next, from Emigdio’s wife Gladys, “Well, then you’ll just have to come back and get them!”This kind of friendly exchange characterized our last evening in Bolivia. Our team was treated to a feast in a beautiful restaurant, surrounded by almost all of the new friends we had made, about 20 people in total (the majority of people whose stories are in these blog entries were present). Ivan Gutierrez, our host, interpreter, counselor and expert driver began by saying this meal was a celebration in honor of our team and the work we had done together. He expressed his gratitude for the flexibility and teamwork of the Laurier team.
Ivan recommends a Bolivia dish to Terry, Chris & Steve
We feasted on a buffet including traditional Bolivian cuisine, oriental cuisine, a variety of pasta and seafood dishes prepared to order before our eyes, a salad bar, dessert bar, and even a selection of dessert crèpes also prepared to order before our eyes. I particularly enjoyed the crème caramel…
Following the meal, I rose to thank our hosts personally. “We came with a prayer that we would encounter God’s presence around every corner, and praise God, He has answered that prayer in abundance. Our team has been transformed.” On behalf of our team I expressed our love and thanks to each of our partners personally. We blessed Terry and Pat Janke and their work in the seminary. We repeated our promise to pray for unity and leadership development of the Bolivian Baptist Union. To Thomas Gabriel (Project Director of Jireh), we repeated our pledge to find prayer partners for each of the 45 kids in their program.
Dinner provided opportunity for a host of deep conversations and connections. Norma connected with Carla Botani (Interim Director of the Casa de la Amistad) when she discovered Carla’s dad was struggling with cancer. She also connected via cell phone with an American Baptist missionary named Iris whom Norma had been praying for since October, and who had been fighting the same cancer Norma had walked through. In God’s perfect timing, Iris had just discovered that day that her cancer was gone, and the two rejoiced together. Yolanda (President of the Bolivian Baptist Union) shared with me an upcoming personal challenge in trying to negotiate an arrangement with Compassion International (a child sponsorship group active in Bolivia) to enable them to continue to minister to the needs of the poorest children in Bolivia in the light of the shifting political climate. “I’ve seen where these kids live, and they are desperate. We must find a way to keep this support for them, or else what will they do?” she said, with tears in her eyes. 
All around the table, these deep conversations were peppered with spontaneous bursts of laughter.
Following the meal, I rose to thank our hosts personally. “We came with a prayer that we would encounter God’s presence around every corner, and praise God, He has answered that prayer in abundance. Our team has been transformed.” On behalf of our team I expressed our love and thanks to each of our partners personally. We blessed Terry and Pat Janke and their work in the seminary. We repeated our promise to pray for unity and leadership development of the Bolivian Baptist Union. To Thomas Gabriel (Project Director of Jireh), we repeated our pledge to find prayer partners for each of the 45 kids in their program.To Carla of the Casa, I said “we will come back to do more”, which received an enthusiastic “Perfecto!!”.
In addition to verbal thanks to Ivan and Emigdio, we presented them with a few small gifts brought from Canada, which Isabelle had lovingly 
wrapped in Canada t-shirts. We also gave a bouquet of flowers to Cristina, Ivan’s wife, for sharing Ivan’s time so generously. They are a very special couple. The maple syrup seemed to be a big hit!
My expressions of love and thanks were quickly and spontaneously reciprocated. Carla rose and said,
“On behalf of the children we are very thankful and may God bless you. We hope you return again and our hands and minds will be open.” Tomas said, “thank you for your visit to Bolivia. Here sometimes we don’t have gifts, but we can provide work for you! God bless you.”
Last words came from Ivan. “It has been a privilege to serve with you guys. You have been incredibly supportive. I see it in your open hearts. And as you learn from us, I learn from you. Then he quoted Jesus who said, “may they be one” (Jn 17:20-21), and ended with a challenge: "if we have a sense of brotherhood, we can do incredible things for the glory of God.”
wrapped in Canada t-shirts. We also gave a bouquet of flowers to Cristina, Ivan’s wife, for sharing Ivan’s time so generously. They are a very special couple. The maple syrup seemed to be a big hit!My expressions of love and thanks were quickly and spontaneously reciprocated. Carla rose and said,
“On behalf of the children we are very thankful and may God bless you. We hope you return again and our hands and minds will be open.” Tomas said, “thank you for your visit to Bolivia. Here sometimes we don’t have gifts, but we can provide work for you! God bless you.”Last words came from Ivan. “It has been a privilege to serve with you guys. You have been incredibly supportive. I see it in your open hearts. And as you learn from us, I learn from you. Then he quoted Jesus who said, “may they be one” (Jn 17:20-21), and ended with a challenge: "if we have a sense of brotherhood, we can do incredible things for the glory of God.”
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