I-TEC is part-way home

Our travels this day had taken us from Monte Blanco to Chuck's house in Santa Cruz. We all went downtown to several market areas and did some last minute shopping for momentos from Bolivia. This included visiting the Plaza area and then walking to several shops. After completing any purchases we headed back to Chuck's house and pizza was ordered for the team. The WiFi at the mission house was not working at all, so we were unable to post any pictures from the travel of the day. Once the second part of the I-TEC team arrives here in Panama, Shane should be able to post some of the great pictures that he got from our last minutes at Monte Blanco and some of the journey out of the Andes. The fellowship time continued until around 10 PM when we were visited by David Salazar, Monte Blanco Camp Director, who wanted to see us off and to thank us for the work that got done these past weeks. It was a bittersweet time knowing that we would be leaving very soon and the team that the Lord assembled to work together here in Bolivia will never again be together again this side of eternity. Those on the team who would be leaving on the second flight on Saturday morning were privileged to get a few hours of sleep.
The first seven I-TEC volunteers arrived at the Viru Viru International Airport in Santa Cruz a good three hours before take-off time, only to find the check-in line to be very long and not moving at all until the agents finally showed up. It took over 1-1/2 hours to get checked in, and then we had to go through Immigration and finally on to our gate. I am now writing this in Panama after our first leg of travel. By now the second flight of I-TEC volunteers has left VVI and they are on their way to this point. In another 15 hours this trip will be history and most of us will be in our homes. Again I say thank you to the over 3500 times you have viewed this blog to date and for you who have prayed for us and thought of us while we have been away from you all. The Lord has blessed every one of us immensely!