My AYC Bolivia Trip
- MissionsMinded
- Dec 9, 2018
- 6 min read
Updated: Dec 10, 2018
In June of 2018 I went on a trip to the beautiful country of Bolivia on an AYC Short Term Missions trip. We got to visit 3 different cities and 4 different churches for services and to help out while we were there, and God did some amazing things in the lives of the people on the trip and the people of Bolivia.
We landed in Bolivia early Saturday morning around 4 AM where we were greeted by Brother Robert Dame, the host missionary for our trip. He had hot Coca tea for us to help with elevation sickness as the elevation in La Paz was 11,942 feet above sea level, where I’m from it is only 296 feet above sea level. We jumped onto a bus and went to the hotel to get a few hours of sleep for the next day. Most people slept on the flight, but if you know anything about airplanes and how little room you have, you’ll know that there’s not a whole lot of room, especially for someone of my size and stature. As you can imagine, I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep, so I got to my hotel room and crashed. That next morning, we had a meeting to talk about the trip and we had music practice to learn the songs we would be singing in Spanish for a few of the local churches, and we had a great prayer meeting to start the trip off.
The next morning, we went to a church in La Paz near the airport where we landed the day before. We had a wonderful service where a group sang and one of the guys on the trip preached while Brother Robert Dame translated. That night we went to another church in La Paz on the other side of town and our group sang again. That service our Chaperone Brother Andrew Sletten preached and we had a powerful move of God with a prayer line after the service.
The next day we took a bus trip for a couple hours driving through the winding hills and mountains to on our way to Copacabana. On our way we stopped and learned about the making of reed boats and took a ferry ride across the Strait of Tiquina, we then kept going until we made it to Copacabana where we took a boat out onto Lake Titicaca and we stopped on an island in the middle of the lake to eat. My favorite thing we ate there was llama sausage, and it was actually pretty good and reminded me of deer sausage. We then took a short boat ride to another island where we learned a little bit about an antient Incan Temple and about half the group took a hike around the island and the rest of us rode the boat around to meet them on the other side. We then took the boat back across the island and had dinner at a local restaurant where I had my favorite meal of the whole trip, which was close to a chicken fried chicken patty you would have in the US, except it was much thinner. We then went back to our hotel where we stayed the night and had breakfast the next morning before we went out and toured the city and did some souvenir shopping. We then took the bus back to La Paz where we got in that night and stayed the night there and rested that day, and we went to a mall that night to do some shopping and eat at the food court. We also rode these cable cars that got us across the city quickly. The view was beautiful with the lights of the city and the stars in the sky. We then woke up early the next morning and had breakfast and prayed over the city before we left for the airport to fly to Cochabamba.
When we landed in Cochabamba, we were greeted by Brother Dame’s wife and daughter, as well as the family of a girl on the trip. We went from the airport to the hotel where we were staying and dropped off our bags before heading to the Dame’s church to work on folding tracks and learn a skit for the revival services we were helping with. Then that night we went to a local park and handed out tracks and invitations to the revival services we planned for the next few days.
The next day, we ate breakfast at the hotel and then headed out to a church outside of town to an area that was affected by a major Landslide/Mudslide that hit the area and we helped with cleanup and digging out some buildings. We also helped them move rocks from where they slid in, to where they could use them to add to concrete for the foundations on the houses they were rebuilding. We then had a revival service that night where I helped setup the sound and sound equipment which was fun to me because of my background of helping my dad with it at my church since I was a little kid (so I may not have helped much as a kid, but I was there) with the help of another guy on the trip with a sound background, we were able to get everything hooked up and working great! That night, God moved in such a powerful way in a way that I have never felt. There were a couple AYCers that saw angels in that place and I could feel them. I have never felt such an amazing presence of God, and in that service, I felt God confirm that I was called to missions wherever he needs me to go.
The next day, we relaxed a little bit, then later that day we went to the Christ statue and we prayed over Cochabamba and we prayed against the spirits that are in the country and coming against the cities and the people that are there. Then that night, we had another service and God moved again.
The next day, we drove to a small little mand made pond outside of town where the water was brown because of the mud, it’s name translates to “Chocolate Lake” in English, where we ate at a restaurant built on the edge of it and several people rode paddle boats on the lake. We then went back to the hotel and relaxed a bit before service again that night
The next day, we had a service at a campground in the city. We had a children’s service for children from a local prison and we had a revival service. Brother Andrew Sletten preached another great message and God moved again, and after service we played and got to hang out with the kids. The group then played a soccer game with some of the older ones. After that, we headed to the airport and flew out for the last time before leaving the county to the city of Santa Cruz, where we got to our hotel and ate, then we had our last group meeting to talk about the trip and give testimonies from what we experienced that week. After that we traded journals so everyone could write something in there, so we wouldn’t forget the experiences we had. Slowly people started to get tired, and most everyone decided to get some sleep before our early flight the next morning. A few of us stayed up all night and just talked and enjoyed our last night in Bolivia.
The next morning, we left for the airport early and we flew out on yet another long flight back to the US where everyone was teary eyed as we took off from Bolivia and as we landed in the US. When we landed, everyone was excited to be eating the foods we were used to and all of us that didn’t have to fly out right away stayed together before leaving for our flights. I flew out form Miami to Charlotte NC, before finally flying to Little Rock where I took a cab to the hotel where my bother was waiting to meet me.
In conclusion, it was a great experience and because of it, I got confirmation from God on my calling to missions, and I made some lasting friendships. I would recommend anyone that hasn’t to go on an AYC trip or a similar trip. Even if you don’t feel called to missions, God will do great things. It’s not too late at the time of this post being published to sign up for one of the AYC 2019 Destinations and I hope to see some of you or hear stories from some of you on trips in the coming year. Don’t forget to check out my Facebook group Missions Minded
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