AROUND THE SOUTH AMERICAN HORN IN 14 DAYS

What a time we had on our trip. We did a few thousand miles in a mere 14 days, and man was it good. We started it off in Floredenopolis Brazil for a conference for 3 days. We met up with my Dad, P. Stambo, P. Drew, P. Mike Stevens who is in Ecquador, and P. Lamos from Argentina. We had a great time with the small church there in Brazil. We then headed out for a 28 hr. bus ride south to Argentina to be with P. Lamos his sixteen kids and the church. This ride was quite an experience. It is actually not as bad as it sounds. The bus is pretty comfortable and spacious and it makes frequent stops at bus depots. At a few of these depots I had some very interesting experiences. The first experience was embarrassing, the second was frightening.

Know if you have been in a foreign country it is possible this may have happened to you. In all my days of travel this has yet to happen until that fateful afternoon at the largest bus stop on the trip... I have been very close to making this mistake before but I have always been saved by the last quick glance at the door to survey for the universal "Top Hat" on the door or the popular "Little boy" on the pot. Or I have been rescued by a native speaker that would yell out last second with a snicker "wrong one". But at this time in my journey I was about to become one of those guys that has done the universal, NO NO. Now I know you may be thinking, "well its only a small bus station that is not very busy, it probably went unnoticed"...... Well your wrong.. I am talking this bathroom had about 30 stalls, 15 sinks and a woman at the door re-stocking the paper situation at a rapid pace and still couldnt keep up with the demand. This was no ordinary bathroom, this was grand central station of bathrooms..
So I am moving through the bus depot to find the nearest bathroom when I see a young man (which I was wrong about. It turned out to be a young short haired Brazilian girl) enter into the large entranced bathroom. I think "PERFECT".. I walk in completly innocent of any wrong doing. But as I head to one of the stalls I pass a few stalls and notice up on the shelf above one stall a purse. But I quickly throw out the idea that I have entered the opposing teams locker room. This was Inconcievable. Mabey men in Brazil like caring "Man Purses", you never know these days, anything goes.. I proceed to my designated stall. As I come out of the stall I am met with about 5 woman at the sink looking at me as though I am committing armed robbery. At this point reality has set in it. It has happened, So soon in my young cross cultural missionary career...
They all begin to laugh at me and at this point. I have nothing to do but stare at the ground and dry my hands under the electrical hand drier while laughing along. Then the "bathroom attendant" enjoying it herself, realized that this was enough shananigans for one day, began to give me the "get moving fella, dry your hands outside" hand motion. Where I quickly complied. It definatley was embarrissing, but could have been worse. When I got on the bus, I began to tell the story to stambo where he just shook his head and replied with a chuckle, " With you that doesnt surprise me"... We got a good laugh...

The second Bus Depot dilemma happened at about 2 in the morning in the hometown of one the best soccer players in the world the great "Ronoldinho" ( This is what are waiter tells us). Now we have been on a stretch with out stopping on the bus at this point for about 4 hrs. total trip time mabey 15 hrs. On these bus trips they are not serving any food. The only thing they serve you is the "New Rambo " movie over and over again in Portuguese. Actually a good flick but not one you want to watch numerous times. For some sick reason one of the bus drivers (there are 4 on the trip that rotate every 6 hrs.) could not get enough stalone. He was loving Stalone blowing people to shreds. He needed Stalone hour after hour and so thats just what we got..
So we pull into on of these Bus Depots and they tell us before we get off we have 30 min. to eat use the restroom and ect. (there really are not any other amenities then those two). So in my mind I am thinking "a half hour that is forever". This bus depot was top notch. Mabey the greatest selection of food to choose from then any other Depot at this point.. Fully stocked Salad Bar, Chicken, Pasta, Fruit Bar, the works. So I start moseying around thinking I have plenty of time to make a decision. But for some reason I took like 20 min. to make a decision. But I didnt decide on a simple chicken sandwich I could take to go, or a slice of pizza that i could wolf down in a couple bites.... No, what do I decide on, I decide on a full 17 course buffett that costs a arm and a leg. I rationalize in mind during this 20 min. that its a perfect decision to blow half my money for the trip on a buffet that probably has been sitting under these heat lamps since last tuesday. That at 2 in the morning on a 28 hr bus ride I should put BBQ Ribs, Mac and Cheese and a Bananna split in my belly within 7 min. That this is rationally the best decision. To me it made perfect sense. So I gave the waiter the nod, telling him that I am entering into the buffet arena, and he handed me my first plate to start the night off.. Steak, potatoes, ribs, fruit, the works, a pure shmogersberg and really suprisingly it was thoroughly delicious...
At this point the other guys on the trip are wondering the rationality behind my decision as they settled for the easy chicken sandwich chips and coke (which was wisdom). So at this point I am racing against the clock. I am looking over at the bus drivers, who were a few tables away, every bite. Thinking that every little move that they made was meaning that my "buffet Party" was over. It was killing me. Pure Anxiety. Now in my mind If I didnt get a solid 4 plates in, it was not worth my money, so I was shoveling like a man in a sinking boat. At a pace that made my traveling companions shiver. I was like that Korean "Nathans Hot Dog" eating champ. My eyes are moving from the bus drivers, to my chicken parm to the clock on the wall. I knew a was racing against the time. And then it happened, the heavy set bus drivers teatered off there chairs toward the door. Then they gave the shout "3min and we are moving out". 3 min. I thought "Plenty of time" At this point I am only on plate numero 3. I need at least 1 more to meet my quota for the night. So i went straight for an easy food to chow through, Watermelon. I hit up a quick plate of melon in about 1 min and a half. Plenty of time for another, which i did. The only problem was that I forget about the whole thing with paying with credit card in these countries, especially this place... So I run to the regester to pay quick and then get on the bus. I take a glance out the window to see the Driver fidgeting around in his seat trying to get the perfect position for the next stretch. The last few passengers puffing on there cigs getting that nicoten in wright outside the bus. My traveling companions are long gone on the bus getting ready for the next showing of "Rambo" for the 7th time.
So I give the girl at the regester my visa, and a "Hurry it up sister" look. She gave the usual snicker as she looked at me then the picture on the front of my visa card of me looking as though I am 7 yrs. old then finally she swiped it. Denied. She Swiped again. Denied.. At this point I am getting nervous because these buses run on a tight schedule and there is no question that they will leave you behind if your not on aboard. Its the passengers responsibility to be in your seat at the required time the bus leaves or you get stuck in the rural parts of Brazil with no idea how to get out of there. There is no bus driver running in to find the missing passengers, or beeping of the horn to get your attention to get aboard. Its more like they move out and they give you a wave good-bye as they wiggle in there chairs for the 17th showing of "Rambo". So I give an anxious look out the window again and I see the last min. smokers hopping on board... She swipes again, I heard the internet connection, and yes it goes through. But it doesnt go through at the normal pace, Its slow motion speed. Each second felt as though it was 10 min. Finally I hear the printer set off and my receipt pops out. A quick signature and off I go. The only problem is that I have unbelievably sticky fingers at this point from the BBQ wings and the watermelon. I come again to another critical cross road. Do I risk missing the bus to make a quick stop in the bathroom to clean the hands or do go for the sure thing of getting on the bus but with unconceivably sticky hands that I would half to put up with for the next 4 hrs. I know that it would be excruciatingly painful for me to do this. Being on the bus with these sticky mits would annoy the heck out of me for every bit of the next 4 hrs. So I made a quick right hand turn and sprinted for the bath room. I ran as though I was going for gold. Washed the hands scrubbing all the sauce off then sprinted at world record speed for the bus.. As I headed to the bus I was thinking, "What Idiot gets a buffet at a Bus Depot at 2 in the morning in Brazil", I do.... As I turn the corner I am met by my main man stambo. Who looks at me and says "Pirates code" (which is a term we used the entire trip, courtesy of P. Drew, for some one who gets left behind.. Its actually from a movie, but we took all rights to it). You are going to get left behind , get moving. If it wasnt for Stambo I would have been sleeping in Southern Brazil. Then who knows what I would be doing. Probably I would have ended up doing dishes to pay for my lunch buffet the next day because the first buffet cleaned out my wallet.... Stambo had them wait as he ran into to grab the "Straggling Buffet Eater" that was trying to get his monies worth..... The moral of the story for me.. Choose the pre-wrapped Chicken Salad from now on.....The rest of the trip on the road was smooth sailing. I gained wisdom from depot to depot..

The visits we had in the churches were fantastic times. P. Drew preached and teached day and night. In Argentina we had service every night. P. Stan called on me and stambo to preach usually every other night. The part that i enjoyed was that we didnt usually get the word that we would be preaching until usually during the song service. I am learning that you have to be prepaired to share at any time. That we live prepaired lives ready to share a word in season at any time. It was fun because I would head to the pulpit with a simple thought and God would bring the direction and thought of the message during the message. Its amazing if we prepair daily in our living, God will bring things back to our memory. A thought we had months before, will come back clear as anything. God is totally behind what we are doing. Its so much fun....We were in Argentina for 5 days with the Lamos family and church then headed for the Andes mts. of Chile to be with P. Christian and the church. This was another 24 hr. bus ride through the beautiful snow capped mts.. What a Ride and what a feeling to finally get there.. We were with the body there for 5 days. Another phenominal time with the people.. The Lord gave us awesome themes and fellowship... P. Christian is in a city about an hour south of the capital San Tiago. We spent the last day in the capital with a group of belivers that are from the original GGWO church from the 80s. At this point there is no church in San Tiago, but these dear believers want a pastor and Greater Grace church there. So we are praying for something to happen there because if so there would be great church there with great potential. We will see what the Lord does.... All in All, the trip was alot of fun and definatly profitable.. It was good to be back in Lima and in the flow of the ministry here..

We only have 2 more weeks of class left which is mind boggling. Then we are having a retreat up in the mts. with P. Hadley for a few days. Should be good.. I cant believe how fast the time has gone. I heading back to the states in a little less then 3 weeks.. Back to the mother land... I am definatly going to miss it here over the summer..
I know the majority of this blog was about the bus depots but its all good. I never know how these are going to turn out, thats the beauty of them I just type until I dont feel like typing any more, which is right now... God Bless

Justin