This world is not my home, I'm just a passin' through

Okay, so my two girls are sleeping safe and sound in their beds and I thought now may be an opportune time to write. Thanks for your prayers regarding our travels. Our flights occured without any major complications and we arrived actually a little early to Cocha. Praise God!

Upon taking our first nap in our bed after nine weeks on the road I turned to Katie and simply said "words cannot express", and Katie said "I know, you don't even have to finish the sentance". We loved seeing everyone and we loved sharing about the work and getting to witness other great works going on out there. However, how truly sweet it is to be back in Cochabamba. During our last driving trip from Brownwood back to Dallas I asked Katie where she would like to see us ending up when we come back to the United States. We talked a little about all the places that we had visited and we mentioned a few places that we felt would be "doable". Although, I must say that all I along our trip we had been saying how we felt God has truly placed in the right place at the right time for our family. Arriving in Bolivia, and especially once we finally got to Cocha, I immediately felt a sense of coming home and our conviction that God has placed us where He needs us and where we need to be was reinforced tenfold.

Of course, I say that Cochabamba is our home with the understanding that even tomorrow we could for some reason have to leave. If we learned nothing else from the events of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it was that nothing on this earth is guaranteed. Therefore, Katie and I try not to ever feel too at home anywhere, except for when we are in fellowship with our Heavenly Father and His children, for those times are the glimpes of our true homeland that we have awaiting as Christians.

Now that the Forbess family has joined the ranks of the globally mobile we have learned evermore to trust in the truth that our true citizenship is in Heaven. When we are in the United States there are many people and aspects of the culture that we love and there are aspects of the culture that we find hinder us daily in our goal to be Christ-like. The same is true of life in Bolivia, though those hindrences be different. What we have also grown to understand in greater depth and appreciation, is that we don't have define ourselves by the standards of geographic or political boundary. Yes, there is a part of me that is very American and that is part of my identity that will always be there, but as I try to live each day in the footsteps of Jesus, I am drawn to an earnest desire to define myself first and foremost as a disciple, a brother, a mentor, a student, a husband, a father, and a son of the Creator and Master of the Universe. I love the United States and I love Bolivia as well, but it is not because I think one is so wonderful. I love these places because they are inhabited by people who are all precious because they are creations of the Creator, but people who in their majority still live unaware of the peace and joy that is found through the grace and mercy Jesus offers. Wherever God asks Katie and I to be I am sure that His will is that we share with others His love through our words and more importantly through our actions. During this brief moment of our life God has placed our family in Cochabamba to be messengers and ambassadors of a living hope and we are thankful for the awesome privilege and blessing that is.

Our prayer request for this post is one of thanksgiving; thanks for the precious time we had with our family, our church families, and our friends; thanks for safe travel; and thanks for being able to come back. Taking a quote from our teammate Julie's latest blog entry, "God is good all the time". May God bless you on this day.