House-Warming Party

We had a Housewarming Party/Cook-Out to welcome all of our friends to our new place. There were about 50 people here, the majority of them were fellow-YWAMers... people that work with us here at YWAM-Cartagena. I was a little nervous about it because we only had chairs for 16 people and I wasn't sure where everybody would sit, but it all worked out in the end and I never felt like there were that many people here all at the same time. I got a little stressed because I had made a big tub full of potato salad and about an hour before we were going to put the food out I took it out to taste it (I had made it the day before) and it had gone bad!! I almost cried because I had the house FULL of people and I was afraid there wouldn't be enough food. Well, one of my friends, Monica, calmed me down...she said, "Karen, don't worry, the house is full of Colombians and Koreans, just make another pot of rice and everybody will be happy!" And she was right!!!!! The only problem was that I didn't have any more pots to cook in so I had to call around to some of my neighbors and I was finally able to get a couple more pots and so we made more rice and threw together a salad with what I had in my fridge and nobody ever knew the difference!

Jorge and Samy griling the meat.

Mary, Miguel and Martin. Miguel was our very first neighbor when we moved to Cartagena in 1997.



Newlyweds, Jimmy and Elizabeth. They work with the YWAM School of the Arts in Cartagena.

Mildred and Marley taking a break on the swings.

Martin and Rosita Morales with their kids Ana Melissa & Nathan and Rosita's parents from Bogota. Martin (from Spain/France) and Rosa lead the YWAM Street Kid's ministry in Cartagena.


Marley, Erika and Blanca, three of our faithful staff girls... I never would have made it without them that day... they helped me to cook and clean and get ready for this whole event!




Eduardo and Elizabeth will be moving to the city of Ibague (near Bogota) soon to open a new YWAM base there.


John and Monica Hwang lead the YWAM University ministry in Cartagena. Both are Koreans but John grew up in Brazil and Monica grew up in Argentina. Their three boys grew up in the USA but their whole family has been working in Cartagena for a little over a year now.