Today and tomorrow, we are going to be doing a little bit of touring, debriefing as a team, and just thinking about all of the stuff that we have seen, heard and done while we have been down here. Thus, following our pattern of business that we have had during the week, the beginning of our restful weekend started off with: Waking up early in the morning to take the bus to Suesco where we climbed some good ole colombian rocks! Everyone had a lot of fun climbing and we also had fun playing on old abandoned train tracks-balance games and such :D. We then left climbing and went straight to a place where we rode some colombian horses up in the mountains. It was really pretty at the place we rode to, and although we had a few problems with a couple of the horses, a good time was had by all, (except for those with horse issues.) We were able to see Mr. Hector’s side of the family and hang out with them today and so that was really cool to see them all! Man, the place we ate dinner was intense. It is called Galapagos and is famous for their burgers. Yeah, the burgers were the size of my head, no joke. It was ridiculous! I know what I will be having for breakfast tomorrow! 

Anyways, we had a really good day today, and it was nice to be able to enjoy the Colombian outdoors and rest (somewhat). Tomorrow, we are planning to do a little more touristy things as well as continue to just take time to process everything that we learned this past week. There is so much that I don’t think my brain or heart has even begin to process, and while I can’t see everything God has taught me here, I do want to start the process of, well, processing. God has been so good to us (as He always is) and I have so enjoyed the time we’ve spent here. While we aren’t doing any more “official” missions work, as servants of Christ we are always on duty right? :) Today, we had the opportunity to very briefly talk with two kids we ran into while at the rock climbing place. We gave them some fruit and tracks and encouraged them to read them, as it talked about the most important thing in life!

Tomorrow, as we have our last full day here in Bogota,

Please pray for wisdom about what things we need to discuss and cover as a team. There are many things that we just need to talk, think and pray about as a team, so please pray that God will give us wisdom to know what those things are!

Please also pray for further opportunities to share the gospel with people we run into! (We still have a few Bibles left from Nina Maria!)

Please pray for individual application as we continue to try to process the things God has taught each of us, and then look for ways to apply them to our lives. 

Lastly, please, please continue to pray for the kids we visited this week!

Gracias Amigo! Dios Le Bendiga!

Ruth 

“Clink, clunk” “vamos” your eyes turn the corner, you see another locked door, the fourth one, and its glass. behind it are about 15 girls/women. They scream when they see you and one of them you see shoving her way to the front, she gets there, she is the reason you are there, the reason this thing is tucked under your arm like a football so that its not lost in all the chaos. Her face, thats why. You show her what is tucked under your arm, she stops jumping and screaming, she puts her hand on the window, nods, smiles, and with her eyes she tells you this, “you did come back, you did keep your promise, you do care about me…”

Your heart overflows. 

You finally get through that glass door, she is nowhere to be found, you run to the hallway and see her screaming and reaching out now for you. You start to run but then realize that you’re not allowed down there, you stop, turn around, hold tight to what is under your arm. You can’t look down the hall, you’re about to bend in the knees and your eyes are about to leak. 

Your mind and heart are racing, the people are speaking the language that you don’t know well enough to communicate, you look to the person next to you for help. 

Finally you are told that this thing you have protected with your every ounce and poured every bit of hope onto it will have to be given to the girl by someone else.

You don’t even care, you want her to have it. 

You race to hand it to the person that will be delivering it and watch them walk away down the hall. You have accomplished the task, your part is done. Well done, my good and faithful servant. 

The girl is deaf, the item is the Bible, you were simply told to hold onto it, carry it, and then let it go and be ok with it. 

That is what I was taught today when we returned to Nina Maria. Words will not properly describe the quick 37 minutes we had with the kids again, handing out what they all craved more than anything, the Bible, and receiving the only things they had to give, in radical abandonment for the gospel. 

Brokenhearted Boldness. That is how I functioned today. My heart was broken as I left the little boy I have spoken of a lot. But at the same time, I gained a brother in Christ today. I can’t tell you the feeling I had when I was praying over him as he was offered to talk to Ruth about asking Jesus to be his Lord, and I felt the muscles in his arm move to raise his hand, I open my eyes from weeping and praying behind him and release my grip a little to allow him to raise his hand high and start crying all the more as I see his face. 

I am honored to carry out the gospel in brokenhearted boldness. I had the ability to plead before the Lord for the heart of this one child, to do it continually with tears, and to do it out in the open. The Lord answered my prayer. He did what I asked, and He did it without me. 

HE IS GOOD.

I love you all. 

-haley

Hello everyone! Katie and I requested that we be able to add an entry to this wonderful blog before the trip was over, and we were given our chance this evening. Happy St. Patrick’s day to all!

First of all we just want to say how blessed we are to be with Haley, Ruth, Taylor and Felipe - they love the Lord with all their heart and have the knowledge of the Gospel to properly lead people to Christ. It is amazing to see them in action and a blessing to see their love for Christ shine through their actions. They are the salt of which Christ spoke. I privately call them the fab-four !

Today was another great day, as we had an unexpected surprise (to us, of course, not to The Lord) when two student helpers heard the gospel message and dedicated their lives to Christ. We have gotten into the habit of just “going with the flow” when things like this happen because the Lord does work in ways that are mysterious to us. We only asked to be involved as vessels; that He fill us with His will, so that God may get all the Glory — but we are still stunned by the confluence of events that are manifested in myriad, unscripted ways. 

We were blessed to be joined by isabelle, Sebastien, Laura and Maria Buitrago on both of our mission trips today. They have actively supported our mission by providing us wonderful meals at their house, as well as usage of their laundry machines and providing other favors as well. They showed an interest in following-up with the children that gave their lives to Christ, which is a great blessing as the Buitrago’s live here in Bogota and are actively involved in their own mission work as well. It was so very good to see them again.

We had the final meeting with our afternoon group of children, and it was a bittersweet departure (it took us longer to say goodbye than it took for the entire class today.) The kids are fantastic - it is really neat to see the breadth and depth of God’s Love in these kids. The universal language of God’s Love is in all of us - and it is not always evident from the outset in some of these kids because of the abuse they have undergone in their short lives, but as Christ said “With God, All things are possible.” As long as we didn’t quit, there was a way, and even some of the most hardened youths have been transformed by God’s Love and Grace. 

This evening, through one of Ruth’s contact’s, we were able to pick up dozens and dozens of bible-related gifts to take back to the Nina Marie Orphanage, which we will do tomorrow. It was great that they were so gracious in asking us to come back, as we wanted to deliver the gospel in printed form as well, because so many kids had asked for that. Money - even for Bibles for the orphans - is in short supply there. With hundreds of children, they do an amazing job and we are looking forward to going back tomorrow.

Please say a prayer for us all. We ask that you ask God to grant us the wisdom to deliver his good news in a manner worthy of His Goodness, and with the Love of Christ in our hearts, minds and souls.

We uploaded a video which you should be able to click and view.

God Bless you all.

In Christ,

Tom and Katie.

PS - all typo’s are Tom’s. Ahem.

hello friends. I feel like I haven’t posted here in quite some time when in fact I have everyday. But I haven’t gone into full detail on a day in awhile. 

the past few days have been up and down, hilarious things have happened, like today; we were just driving down the road and all of the sudden we see two cops booking after this guy, then we look at the guy…it was a clown! I have never seen something so funny, only in Bogota folks. I love this group of people, I know I’ve said it so many times but the Lord could not have picked a better team. 

I was given the scary honor of teaching the bible lesson today. I love teaching and I’ve been doing it for 6 years, but when you teach and have it translated it’s a totally different ball park. Your thoughts get stopped because you have to let the translator translate and then pick back up. Everyone said I did great, all I can say is the Lord did it. I was so worried, I didn’t understand the way of teaching, I felt like there were a lot of standards to meet, and I knew I couldn’t do it. So I prayed for Him to do it. I woke up, I read the passage I would be teaching in the bible and I depended. He taught today, not Haley, or anything in her. 

Hallelujah! He is so good!

The children are completely warmed up to us now, It’s incredible! I love what we’re doing here, honestly I want to just stay. 

I know this is the kind of ministry I will be doing, like I said in my personal blog before I left: “I have a passion for children who have a warped view of love and a clear view of loss.” This is exactly the definition of these children. It hurts to be graphic but these children are hurt and they live lives full of graphic things. One little boy at our first club has taken a special liking to me, he’s so hilarious! He will make me feed him, (he’s ten years old!!) He latches onto me and will just hug me like there’s nothing better he could be doing at that moment, for me there is nothing better I could be doing at that moment. He is constantly saying how much he wants to come to the states, and today he asked me if I was going to college. I told him no and then told him why; I said, “I’m not going to because I love spending time with kids just like you, and I love you so much!” He looked at me with the biggest smile and gave me a huge hug. He knows that I love him, that’s all I wanted to portray. It is going to rip my heart when I leave him friday, because I have given him a piece of it, gladly of course, but for this little boy to go back to the life he lives and for me to no longer be there with him…He has been sexually abused by his cousin. I know I cant stop it, but I can show him that love is real and out there, and when you and a child have a special bond that you share that is greater then words because you don’t even speak the same language it deeply hurts to know that you have to walk away, and when he asks you, “are you coming back tomorrow?” and you have to say no…I would rather lose all my luggage than have to see the look on his face.  

I know abuse is real everywhere you go, but children don’t always talk about it, and background changes your entire view of a situation. I love this child, and if I could adopt him, I would take him in a heart beat. All I can do is pray for him and make an effort to see him again one day. But I hope the Lord is using me to make a lasting impression on him, because he has made one on me.

Our team has made a few changes that I thought y’all should know about. We are shortening our second club to four days so that on friday after doing our fifth day at the first club we will be going back to Nina Maria! Those children so desperately wanted bibles, so we have made some calls, talked to some people, got a church involved and we are almost to where we can pick bibles up to take to these kids! We’re all so excited to go back, that day we were there I believe was the most emotionally draining, mind bending, hair pulling, extravagant, magistericle day we have had. So going back scares me personally, but it excites me more than it scares me! 

Prayer requests:

1) a lot of the team is getting sick, colds, congestion, coughing, all that good stuff. But Ruth is the worst and we need her to be well to translate and help lead. So please pray that Ruth will have strength for at least during the clubs. 

2) the bibles are not ours yet to give out, pray that we will have them by friday!

3) tomorrows our last day at the second club, thats gonna be tough…

Thank you for all the encouragement! I love you all!

-haley

Yesterday a little girl from the first club smiled and laughed for the first time since we’d been there. She’s two years old and giggling should be a normal thing for kids her age.

A little boy named “Carlos” (he lied and said this is his name) has made a huge change in the past few days. When we first got there he would hold his fist up in the air and growl and punch. Now all he wants to do is kiss you!

The kids there are paying a lot more attention than normal pre schoolers and so far in this same class one little boy has prayed to receive Christ! 

At the second club, two more girls were added to the family of God! 

The kids were doing the review game yesterday and it was a funny face game, every time your team answered a question they would get to draw another feature on their teams face! It turned out really great! One looked like a fish!

The kids are all opening up really well and they’re getting used to us, the kids love all the stories and really are listening and learning!

-David