The Fishers in La Paz, Bolivia

Sorry we haven’t posted, but there isn’t anything we do while in the US that we feel like people would be all that interested in! We have enjoyed seeing family and friends, but definitely miss La Paz and having a place to be settled. Avery is handling this time very well, thankfully.

We feel comfortable enough with the situation in La Paz that we have booked return tickets for Oct. 11th. It’s an overnight flight, so we’ll arrive on the 12th. We are flying American Airlines, so we will hope that they do not cancel the flight. They are supposed to resume flights on Thursday of this week, so we should have a pretty good idea if there will be any problems with the flights by the end of the week.

Highlands continues to be open and according to our friends there, life in La Paz is peaceful and fairly normal. We are following the peace talks between the President of Bolivia and the opposition leaders. Although it doesn’t seem like they’ve made a whole lot of progress, just by the fact they are still negotiating and the violence has ceased, they are moving in the right direction. We pray that they can continue to work through the many sensitive issues on the table. This process could go on for a long time, so it doesn’t make sense to us at this point to try to wait until there is a final agreement.

The US and Bolivia continue to trade diplomatic insults, and the relationship between our countries is definitely at a low point. Evo Morales is following Hugo Chavez’s lead in courting Russia and Iran to try to provide assistance that the countries previously sought from the US. We don’t sense that this issue is going to affect our immediate safety, but is a major concern for American Christians serving in Bolivia over the long haul. Public perception of Americans can be strongly swayed by the government’s statements and positions. We would appreciate prayers for us to be gracious as we may be treated poorly at immigration when we return to Bolivia as well as in other situations.

We also ask for prayer as we continue to feel unsettled away from our home, routines and work. Please pray for all of us to be able to jump back into our ministry and relationships there easily. We are praying that the country will remain stable enough for Highlands to continue to thrive and for us to finish our school year.