Hombres Valientes

There were riots in Cochabamba this week. They actually left two souls beat to death and hundreds wounded. I was in Cochabamba during the riots. At the end of the week I took a taxi to the Cochabamba bus terminal with five mighty men. We drove through streets litered with debris left over from road blockades, areas blackened with soot from burned tires and marchers armed with bats and dynamite continuing to protest, followed by police launching tear gas. It was eerie.

We got out of our taxi to walk the finally block to the bus station. I walked with my hood up and head down to prevent attention being drawn to my pale gringo face. Wilfredo walked with me. He's one of the mighty men.

"So much darkness," is what he said in Spanish. I was busy trying to get to the station, so his statement took a second to set in with me. I looked up at him and my face said, "What?" He clarified, "So much darkness, and we are light. Wherever we go, we shine."

Now it was making sense. It was right out of our last Bible study. The study where together we discovered that we are temples of God's Spirit... that He now dwells on this earth through his people, and so when we walk into dark places, He goes there too. I nearly wept with joy.

I'm witnessing miracles everyday here in Bolivia. God is grabbing hold of young men and changing their world. And watching them change is changing me. I spent this week with Chavo, Gavilan, Abuelo, Dario and Wilfredo being trained to walk into darkness. We heard this sermon at the conference we were at about David's Mighty Men- Hombres Valientes in Spanish. And now we are excited and better prepared to go into the dark places of La Paz to shine and reach shoe shiners.

I had several conversations with the guys this week, asking, "How can we reach more shoe shiners?" They are thinking and dreaming with me. It is exciting. I'm going to be spending more time shining. More time backpacking. More time investing in these Mighty Men, because God is using them to grow His kingdom.

Last year was an incredible year. In fact, I can't hardly imagine a year richer than what I experienced in 2006. But I've said that in the past, and God can always top my wildest expectations and dreams.