WHAT`S NEW IN BOCACHICA!

¡THANK YOU!
About a month and a half ago (see blog entry dated Dec. 2, below) we shared about a need we had for financial help for Reinel, the second recipient of our nursing scholarship. We are very grateful to the Lord and to two very special families who have adopted Reinel and have committed to help him during the 2007 school year!

MINI-DTS
Some really neat things are happening in Bocachica! As I write this, our staff in Bocachica are holding the ministry`s very first Mini-DTS for the youth of Bocachica and the other communities on the island. Yesterday I recieved a report from Erika and this is what she shared:

¨Some very good things are happening with the Mini-DTS, God has been ministering to the youth very deeply in many areas, including deliverance. The Mission is like a Temple where the presence of God is living. We have recieved a lot of help from the YWAMers in Cartagena and we have really enjoyed this time a lot. There are young people from both churches in Bocachica and also from Tierrabomba and Punta Arena. Today we are going to be ministering inner healing and later this week we`ll share about missions and we will also give a presentation about the ministry... Several of the kids are motivated to do their DTS in Cartagena and some are thinking about serving here at the Mission. We are convinced that God is bringing something new to Proyecto Libertad this year, through this school. We are seeing that God`s purpose in this is bigger than what we inicially thought and the impact is going to be big.¨

NEW STAFF

We welcomed a new member to our staff. Josefina Hernandez is from Tijuana, Mexico. Jorge and I met her when Josefina did her DTS at the base in Ensenada and she later did part of her outreach in Bocachica. Josefina is going to be working with Chilren`s Ministries which includes the Child Sponsorship Program, Children`s Feeding Center, Children`s Library/Study Center, and Discipleship. Her arrival was an asnwer to prayer because the person who was in charge of Children`s Ministries, Blanca Rosa Salcedo, has finished her committment and is now working with YWAM in Costa Rica.

Soon we will try to add a photo of the Mini-DTS and the staff with Josefina. For now we would like to show some photos and share what has been going on with Proyecto Libertad.

GRADUATES!

Yorcelis (left) was the first recipient our our nursing scholarship. With the donations of a few generous supporters, Yorcelis was able to complete her first level of nursing. We are very proud of her! Marley (right) has been on staff with us for several years and over a year ago we sent her to study a computer course in Cartagena. She was very diligent in her studies and along with fulfilling her responsibilities at the Mission (bookkeeping, children`s discipleship, etc...) she also graduated in December ´06.

Many of you remember Samy, he met the Lord through our cell group meetings at the mission and since he gave his heart to Jesus we have seen beautiful growth in him! Even though he was very behind in his education, due to not being able to afford school fees for several years, he really applied himself and was able to finish like 5 grades in about 3 years and in December he graduated from High School! Now Samy is praying because he wants to do his DTS this year. He is a very special young man who wants to serve God with all he has and we are sure that God has many things planned for his life. It has been a priviledge to have him with us these years at the Mission and to be able to help him in this whole process. Samy was one of the recipients of our Child Sponsorship Program. If you would like to help Samy financially to be able to do his DTS this year, please write us and we can give you more information. We would love to be able to send him on an international outreach too! (In this photo Samy is with Marley and his Mother.)

OUR SYMPATHY

Martin Hakenjos, who has been with us in Bocachica since the very beginning, had to fly home to Germany because his mom was very sick. We were sad to hear that on December 13th his mom passed away. In spite of the sadness, we are thankful to know that she went to be with Jesus and we will meet again one day. This photo of Martin and his mom was taken a few weeks before she passed away.

CONSTRUCTION COURSE
In September we were able to host a construction course at the Mission. This time was extra special because the course was approved by the SENA, a Colombian governmental institution that give free technical level education. The men from the community spent several months learning skills like how to build walls, cement work, drainage and metal structures. In order to put what they had learned into practice they were able to work on the clinic and library projects at the Mission.

NEW LIBRARY

We were finally about to start the construction of a second floor over our Feeding Center in order to house our Children`s Library. The library was founded years ago by Lucha, now my sister-in-law, and from the beginning we were using a borrowed building which was owned by the local church. It was a blessing to us for many years but the building was in bad shape. When our contract ended with the church we decided to build our own place. The library is a place where the kids and teenagers can go to get help with their homework and school projects.

THE BOAT

As you know we have been working on renovating our minisry boat for years, as the Lord provides the funds to do so. This past year Martin was able to focus on this almost full-time and he accomplished a lot. Now what we are mainly lacking is the motor. We have about half of the money in savings but still need to raise the other half. We continue with the vision of sailing to other islands and river communities of our region taking physical and spiritual help to the needy.

This is what the boat looks like today.