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Expectations and Surprises

By Daniel Lins - 2009-01-04

What’s been the biggest surprise for you since you’ve started the trip? Anything completely unexpected or different than you’d originally thought?

That is a good question. I guess it comes and goes.

1) Well, I am ALWAYS hungry. Every minute of the day. Even after I eat, my body still craves food. But that wasn’t a surprise.

2) I guess I thought it would be a little harder. The whole trip is actually kind of easy. Maybe I’m premature, but it has been so smooth. The locals are nice and helpful. We are doing well with decisions and team interactions. I guess it is just a lot easier than I had expected. God is really coming through with everyone’s prayers. It is amazing how I send out a specific prayer request, and God shows up in spades! For example, I recently asked that people would pray for us to meet more locals.

We met a local pastor, ate a lamb with him, attended his Christmas service, were introduced to another family whose house we slept at, used their WiFi for 3 days, went to a youth retreat for 3 days in the countryside, participated in the studies and practiced spanish, shared jokes, learned SOOOO much spanish, so much about the culture, sang songs in spanish, and now we are going to get a tour of the city and stay with the same pastor for the New Year. More than a week with one family. He gave us lots of content for the site, and lots of contacts for future visits. God is really hooking us up. I feel like a kid at Christmas! We are soo undeserving of all these blessings.

3) The truth is, I am surprised most of all by how little mileage we’re making. And maybe that is why the trip has been so easy. Really, we are way behind my previous reckoning. We have only completed a third of what I had planned for us by this time. But it is okay, because we are accomplishing the real goal of the trip, which was to experience the people and the places of South America. It has been wonderful!

In the past, I have had a tendency to push too hard, and that made it difficult for other riders. This time, I vowed to be more gentle and to take it slowly (especially in the beginning). It’s been a good thing. We’ll ramp up the pace in the next two weeks.

4) I lost my shoes before we flew down here, and I’ve spent the last month in my sandals (close-toed Keens). I thought I’d have to buy new shoes, but these have been perfect! I can even jog and climb a glacier in them!

Peace, peace, peace,

Daniel