Mission Day #1... The Journey

The team from West Puget Sound Women of Purpose and World Concern are in transit now, having left Seattle this morning. I hope to be able to update you with news as it becomes available during the next 10 days.

Last night, Wendi and I, along with our son Nick, had a chance to join Coleen and her husband David, Sarah, Anna, and Karen and her husband Phill in SeaTac for a brief dessert. (You could say we broke "bread pudding" together, and banana creme pie!) As we drove up to the hotel where this part of the team was spending the night, we parked next to a well-used Land Rover, which apparently had already been to Bolivia as part of it's long trek from Europe to Africa to South America on up to Alaska! Small world, after all...

And this morning, as I prepared for work, and Wendi was preparing for the trip in SeaTac, the Today show had a story featuring the Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan about "Village Banking", the practice of microloans and community accountability that is the model being used by World Concern in their Women of Purpose projects. The statistic noted at the bottom of the screen states that 1.3 billion people, mostly women and children, "struggle to live on $1 a day." Wendi had shared with me that she'd heard another source saying that 2/3 of the world's population live on less than $3 per day. And again, it is this pervasive poverty that puts women and children at risk of exploitation and abuse.

The trip started in Seattle this morning, with a flight to Dallas. The flight then goes on to Miami. From Miami, the team will fly to La Paz, and then on to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. After leaving this morning at 10:00, the team will arrive in Santa Cruz at 8:10 AM tomorrow, local time. (Santa Cruz is four hours ahead of Seattle time.)

The weather in Santa Cruz has been fairly nice. I'll be using this website: http://http//www.wunderground.com/global/stations/85245.html, to keep up with the weather.

I know that the team covets your prayers. Thank you all for your support of the project. The team has a long day ahead, and the team left with anticipation for the work ahead. As we met at the hotel in SeaTac last evening, we were greeted by a rainbow, a reminder of the promises that God has made to us.

(For those of you who would like to participate in devotional messages from the "men behind the Women", click on the link to the Brothers of Barnabas blog site.)

Doug