The Latest in BC

Clinic Update

While we were on our USA tour we were able to raise $17,500 dollars for our clinic construction project. Since we got back in June, we have used about $5000 of that on the floors. We now have roughly $12,500 left to work with and the next step in the process is to do the concrete roof. When we arrived to Colombia in June, the value of the dollar had gone down considerably so it totally threw off all the budgeting we had done. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get as far as we had planned. Now we don’t have enough money to do the whole roof so we had decided to put it on hold until we could raise some additional funds. Last week we were visited by several engineers who were helping us with the budgeting for this next phase. Finally we have decided to go ahead and get started with the money that we do have and build half of the roof until additional funding arrives. Our initial plans for the clinic are only for one level but we are building it so that we can add a second floor down the road if we see the need to expand. Here are a couple of recent photos of the freshly poured floors.

Boat Update

Martin has been working mainly on boat renovations over the last couple of years. This past month he was working on installing the windows. One of the biggest projects that lie ahead with the boat is to get a motor. After investigating different options, we are planning to buy a rebuilt diesel engine here in Colombia. We will have to put the boat into dry-dock to install the engine and, while the boat is out of the water, we hope to do some additional fiberglass work on the hull. We have received donations and promises of donations to go towards this project so please pray with us that all the funds come in so that we can get this next phase completed as soon as possible. We would love to be able to do it before the end of this year!

Library Renovations

Building the stairs that will lead to the children´s library and one of our staff rooms, over the Feeding Center Kitchen.

On the Home Front

Maybe you remember a month or so ago I mentioned in one of our entries that we were going to be working on the kitchen in our apartment…well I wanted to show you the latest. We hired a local carpenter friend from Bocachica to get started on the cabinets and this is what it looks like so far. We still need to do the counters and lower cabinets but we have made some progress! I was able to unpack some of our kitchen boxes that have been packed for the last 4 years.

Meet Samy and Marley

We have known Samy since he was about 10 years old. When he was 12, he gave his life to the Lord, here at the mission. Since then he has been part of our family and has been mentored by Jorge and the rest of our staff. As a result of the extreme poverty of his home situation, he was very far behind academically, however over the last 5 years he was able to finish his schooling and become involved in the King’s Kid’s, a youth oriented outreach ministry for kids and teens, with YWAM in Cartagena. Last year in December he graduated from high school and in January of this year he traveled to Bogotá to attend YWAM´s Discipleship Training School and on to Ecuador and Peru during the outreach phase. Now Samy is back in Bocachica through the end of the year, basically serving as Jorge’s right hand man! His dream for the immediate future is to attend YWAM´s School of Worship in Costa Rica in January. After that he would like to come back to serve with Proyecto Libertad for a while and only God know´s the plans He has for him from there. We are looking forward to seeing what lies ahead for Samy´s future!

Marley has been on staff with us for the last 4 years, since she was just 18 years old! We have watched her grow into a beautiful young woman who has a passion to serve the Lord. She has an incredible testimony and maybe one of these days I´ll ask her to share it here on our blog. Just to whet your appetite, her mother was killed by leftist guerillas when Marley was a young girl and in order to support herself she began working as a maid in return for a place to live and funds for schooling. Eventually she wound up in Bocachica and soon after, she began working on staff with us here at the mission. Throughout her time with us she has served in many capacities such as Hospitality, Feeding Center, Children’s Discipleship, Child Sponsorship Program and Bookkeeping. Just one month ago, she was able to see the beginnings of a dream come true as she started studying in one of the local Universities in Cartagena where she is enrolled in the Accounting Program. It is a step of faith for her. Jorge and I have committed to helping her with half of her tuition each semester for the next 5 years until she graduates. In the meantime she has to find funding for the other half of tuition plus additional expenses (books, uniforms, transportation, etc…) from her family and supporters who are willing to invest in her future. We are excited about the things that the Lord has in store for her.

Short-Term Staff

Danielle Jordan is my second cousin from Mobile, Alabama and we are delighted to have her with us for a month serving in the Hospitality Department.

Yolanda (left, with Conny) is a nurse from Bogotá who has served short term with us several times over the years. She has come for 6 months this time and it will be a great blessing to have her especially since Conny, our staff nurse, plans to be gone from October through March, attending YWAM´s School of Community Counseling in Perth, Australia.

We’ve Got Grass!

We are really excited to finally have grass at the mission!!! It has been one of our dreams for a long time now! In July we bought dirt and grass seed and planted it in our yard. It was very disheartening though to see it growing soooo slowly and sparsely. We just knew that God was going to do something but we didn’t know how He would make our grass grow. We don’t have places here where you can buy sod and even if we did, we wouldn’t be able to afford it! We are in the middle of rainy season and boy has it been raining a lot. Nevertheless, we just didn’t see much progress with our grass. This is going to sound crazy but about a week ago, we noticed that right outside, in front of the mission, this beautiful grass was just growing wild! We never noticed it before but all of the sudden it was there before us! So, this past week we have been cutting pieces from outside and replanting them here inside…homemade sod!! We are only about half way through so far but it is looking so pretty! Hopefully we can find enough to cover our whole yard. We love it!

Samy and Jarol, a local boy, replant the sod.

Looking good so far!

New Furniture

We have been saving up for a few years now to buy new furniture for our back porch at the mission. The old set was already used when we bought it ten years ago and it had survived more than it’s fair share of wear and tear over the years, but it was just holding on by a thread! Just two weeks ago we were finally able to get our new set and we hope it will last us for many years to come!