Overdue Update

I am way overdue for an update! Sorry about that! I have a few ¨excuses¨ but I won´t bore you with them.

First of all this entry will not include any photos because my dinasaur digital camera, the one I have had for many years, finally has given out on me so I haven´t been able to take any photos these last few weeks.

We continue to get settled into our new house...it is feeling more and more like home! We are really thankful to have this place to come home to although we also miss being full-time on the island. There are pro´s and con´s to both sides of this coin but we trust that the Lord will help us to find the best solution to balancing our time between the island and the office and we believe that in the long-run it is for the best for us personally and also for the ministry. Focusing on the positive, some of the pro´s are: having our own office with our own internet, printer, scanner, fax, telephone with international line...no more internet cafe´s and public phone booths, thank the Lord! It makes a huge difference to be able to stay connected to the ¨outside world.¨

Last month we received our first team of 2008. A team of 12 people from Antioch Community Church in Elon, NC. Our dear friends, Thom and Tina Southern, brought their whole family (3 kids) and 7 other people from their church. We had a great time with them and they were a blessing to us and the community. Among other things they built latrines and floors for needy families plus helped with painting the feeding center and organizing and sorting school supplies to be handed out to our sponsor children. I am planning on getting photos from some of our other staff and the team and I will post them later.

Today we recieved another team but this one will be with us for just a little over 24 hours. They are a team of 10 people from South Korea and they have come to get to see the ministry, learn more about what we do and they will also participate in our weekly cell group meeting tonight. Again...I hope to post some photos of them later.

Jorge is heading to Bogotá tomorrow morning. He will be there for a week, attending a workshop that will help us to learn how to present the ministry to charities and foundations for fund appeals. It should be an intense week for him and we hope that he is able to learn a lot...part of the assignment is to actually make a presentation and appeal so we have chosen a foundation based in Texas that a friend told us about and we will make an appeal for additional funds to continue with the clinic construction. We estimate that we need around $50,000 to finish the building (that doesn´t include the equipment and furniture). So pray with us that the Lord will open His doors of provision. Our goal is to finish the clinic this year.

The boat renovations are coming right along. Martin has done a really nice job on the woodwork and still our main need is for the motor and drydock to install the motor and do more fiberglass work on the hull. We have recieved a sizeable donation from Germany plus we have a donor willing to help us get the motor from Miami but we need to get it shipped here...it will require a lot of legwork and logistical juggling so Jorge is investigating what needs to be done next to see all of this become a reality. He really needs an assistant to help him so that he can be in more than one place at a time...

In about 12 days we will recieve our next team, a group from my home church in N.C., Northside Presbyterian. I am really excited to have them, it will be their first time to visit us in person on the mission field and it is really an honor for us to have them! I will tell you more about that later though, after they have come and gone!

Now, on a more personal note... we have mentioned over the last couple of years our interest/intention to adopt a child (children) once we got settled-in again back in Colombia. Well, now we are back and basically settled in so last month we started taking our first steps in the right direction. It´s funny how the Lord uses different people and circumstances to encourage us! Some of our friends at YWAM Ensenada, a British family with 4 kids of their own just adopted 2 mexican children and hearing their story really nudged us along! Also, our new neighbors have encouraged us ALOT. They invited us over to dinner one night and as soon as they found out we didn´t have kids they shared their story of how they adopted their little girl 7 years ago. They were so totally gung-ho about helping us and since they went through the whole process they were eager to give us all their connections and take us to the right places. So far we have had three meetings. The first day I just filled out some forms with basic information. The second day Jorge and I went through an interview process where we had to each write down answers to a list of questions. It was all based on what our motivations and expectations were in regards to adopting. Today was our third meeting and we each had to list the ¨positive points¨ and ¨negative points¨about each other...our personality, temprament, habits, etc... It was an interesting assignment. One thing they told us during the last meeting was really neat...they encouraged us to see this whole process as if it were a pregnancy and that we should go through it with joy and anticipation and enjoy each aspect of it. Jorge especially grabbed a hold of this analogy and sometimes he rubs my belly and asks me how I am feeling...ha! ha! They also told us that the process is a lot faster than it used to be. Our neighbors waited 4 years to get their little girl! However today we were told that it would probably take around 8 months...YIKES!! :) So, I´m not sure exactly but we could be about one month along in this pregancy! :) In regards to sex, age, etc... we told them that we didn´t care what the sex was (surprise us!), we said we prefer an infant but we are open to getting a small toddler. Ultimately I believe that God already has the child picked out so it´s just a matter of us waiting for the arrival... uuummmm that´s kind of how it works in pregnancy too, huh?! Soooo... we will keep you posted! We still have more interviews, workshops, meetings with a psychologist, etc... and then eventually there will be a board that has to officially approve us before the child can be assigned. Pray for us and for God´s control over each detail.

Signing off for now...love and blessings to all of you out there. Thank you for your unconditional love and support of us and for believing in us and what the Lord is doing with us here in Colombia.

Karen and Jorge