Baker´s Workshop in Bocachica

This week we have two bakers from Cartagena´s 3 Castillos Flour Company who are giving a workshop at the mission. We have 22 students learning how to make all kinds of bread and cakes. Energy was high yesterday as everyone was excited about getting their hands in the dough for the first time! And of course the best part...getting to eat the fruits of their labor at the end! The workshop will last for 4 days.

TO SEE MORE WORKSHOP PHOTOS PLEASE CLICK ON THIS ENTRY TITLE ABOVE.

Friends...

Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit with our friends Silvia and Marshall Hoyle. We´ve known Silvia for the past 10 years...she is a bacteriologist with the Colombian Navy and her new hubby, Marshall, is a photographer and graphic artist. They met in Virginia, USA while Silvia was doing some post-grad work. Now they live in Bogotá.

Yesterday was Silvia and Marshall´s 1st wedding anniversary!

ANOTHER DAY OF REJOICING IN COLOMBIA!

Yesterday we celebrated the rescue/escape of Congressman Oscar Tulio Lozcano who had been in captivity for 8+ years in the jungles of Colombia, held by the FARC! Another day of rejoicing here in Colombia!! In order to hear the video sound you will need to pause the music on my playlist down at the bottom of the right hand margin. :)

Pizza and Ice Cream

A couple of weekends ago we went out for pizza and icecream with our staff. Not everyone was there but we had a good time. Samy and Werling are in Isla Fuerte still and Robin and Marley stayed in Bocachica.

Jorge and his Angels... :) Erika, Josefina, Jorge, Judith and Conny

Pizza!!

Basic Accounting and Administrative Tools for Beginners

That was the name of the 5 week seminar that we just completed in Bocachica. We had the opportunity of hosting this seminar together with the colaboration of several professors from the Rafael Nuñez University in Cartagena. You may remember that one of our staff girls, Marley Reyes, who has been on staff for the last 5 years, is attending this university full-time, studying Accounting and she was able to help organize and facilitate this event with the help of her professors. Classes were held once a week for 5 weeks at the mission and the topics covered were geared towards motivating and capacitating new small-business owners in Bocachica.

A typical day in class.

24 students successfully completed the seminar and recieved certificates from the University and YWAM.

Mercedes receiving her certificate. Mercedes is also studying part-time on Saturdays in Cartagena in the area of Tourism-related professions. She is one of our scholarship recipients.

¨Jefe¨ is a Daddy!

Jefe at his graduation from elementary school, 5 years ago.

Today, Jefe is all grown up and 8 days ago he became a father!

This is his daughter, Cheili Carolain (pronounced Chaylee Caroline) who is the spitting image of her daddy!

Jefe with his partner, Dina and Cheili. I say partner because they aren´t married. They live together in something like a common-law type marriage. I´m not sure what kind of legal validity it has here but it is very common in Bocachica.

Andrea and Christian wanting their photo taken too! Christian is Cheili´s uncle and Andrea is her cousin.

Proposition 8 - in plain english

I thought this 4 minute video was respectful yet informative. I can relate to Jan and Tom.

Adoption Update

You may know that we have been considering the idea of adoption for about 4 years now. We have thought, talked, prayed, investigated, etc... over these last few years and finally officially started the adoption process here in Colombia in December 2007. However, because of the holidays, the wheels didn´t actually start rolling until January 2008. It is kind of a slow process because it is handled through the government child welfare system and they are over-worked and under-staffed, probably just like our child welfare system in the USA and all over the world!



The children that are legally ¨adoptable¨ here in Colombia have already, for whatever reason, been turned over to the government child welfare system. Once the child enters the system, depending on the circumstances, he begins a process that takes a bare minimum of 3 months (and in most cases probably a lot more) where the government institution first has to assess the situation and home-life of the child. The goal and the ideal is to see if the parents can and will be helped to be able to reunite the child with their natural parents. If that is not possible they then begin to search for any blood relatives who would be willing to assume the responsibility of raising the child. If there is no other recourse and the parents (or if the parents are deceased, the nearest blood relatives) have signed over their parental rights to the child, the child then is able to be considered for adoption. While the children go through this process, which I have heard can last between 3 months to 2 years or even longer in some cases, they are placed in temporary children´s homes or in foster care.


The first part of the year we saw slow but steady progress as we attended different appointments and interviews. Towards the middle of the year things came to a stand-still and our appointments were canceled and postponed and we didn´t hear anything for about 3 months. Then in September, things started rolling again and we recieved our home visit as well as attended several required workshops. At our last workshop we were informed that we had officially completed this first stage of the process and in a week or two they will put the finishing touches on our case file and it will be sent to the regional adoption committee who will give us official approval or denial.

If accepted, we will then be put on the waiting list and they will begin the process of matching us with the children in the system that are ready for adoption. They emphasize, and we agree, that they are trying to find a family for the child, not a child for the family! The priority is the child. We have requested a sibling pair, either sex, hopefully between the ages of infant and 2 years. So, most likely we will receive two children at once, although we are open to other options, depending on what is presented to us. They have told us that we could probably expect a placement by early 2009, although you learn to just take it a day at a time and not to put too much stock in those kind of statements.

Once a placement is made and all parties are in agreement (if the child is small, he unfortunately doesn´t get much of a say in the matter...imagine being in that situation!) then the legal process begins and we will have to hire a lawyer to work alongside the government institution´s lawyers and begin another process of paper-work and other things that remain a mystery to us at this point. We aren´t sure yet how long that part of the process usually lasts. We are learning as we go.

Depending on the situation of the child, I have heard of different transition scenarios. In some cases the child moves instantly to their new home, in other cases there is a time of visitation and the child gradually makes the move. I think the latter takes place especially when the child has been in a certain foster home for an extended period of time and attachments have been made with the family.

As you can imagine, we would really appreciate your prayers on our behalf for all the things that lie ahead of us on this road.

Bad News for the Boat Ministry

In October of last year we recieved a donation of 5000 Euros towards the boat project from a foundation in Germany. While very generous, the donation was still not enough for us to complete the purchase of the motor and put the boat into dry-dock for the installation and final renovations. Since a year has passed and we haven´t been able to use the funds yet (because we were/are still trying to raise the remaining money needed which is between $17,000 to $20,000 dollars) the foundation has asked us to return the money back to them. We are not legally required to do this however we chose to oblige them and we are now in the process of wiring the money back to them.

We recently printed out a new ministry newsletter and just after we got them back from the printer we found out about this so unfortunately our newsletter says that we have approximately $12,000 usd in our boat fund. Now we actually only have about $3,175 usd.

While this was not mentioned in any official communication between us and the foundation, we did find out from a third party that at least one of the persons involved in this decision happened to read in our blog about how God provided for us to get a loan to be able to buy a house last year and there was suspect that we had mis-used the funds they sent. That was very discouraging to hear, but since we know it doesn´t have even a hint of truth to it, we were able to shake it off and not let it get us down. It actually made it easier for us to do what we had to do...send the money back and be free of any misconceptions that someone might have about us.

Of course this was disheartening and nothing like this has ever happened to us before but we have given this up to the Lord and feel like this only makes the situation ripe for Him to do something amazing and get even more glory for it! So we are excited to see what lies ahead for the boat ministry. We trust that His timing is perfect and the looooong road we have travelled so far and still have yet to travel to get to the goal, serves to teach us many lessons along the way!

Blanca Rosa is in SOUTH AFRICA!!

A week ago Blanca Rosa left Cartagena for South Africa to start the next phase of her mission´s service. She will be studying English with the purpose of working in the area of community developement on the African continent, which has been her dream for many years! It was a big challenge for her to get the visas and the finances to travel and now she is facing new challenges living in a place where she doesn´t speak the language or know the culture or customs. Below is an excerpt from an email I got from her a couple of days ago:

¨I can´t believe that I am actually here in SOUTH AFRICA!! It is SSSOOO cold here, can you believe it?! Thank God, I arrived just fine and it was a good trip. Challenging, but good. I saw God taking care of me with the luggage and even though it was a 3 day trip, in 5 different airplanes with about 20 hours of flight time, everything went well. And now, I am here learning a new language...English! But under the circumstances, it seems like I will be learning some Portuguese as well. It turns out that there are a lot of people here from Brazil, so you can imagine how that is! Please remember me in your prayers, that I can learn quickly and have an open mind with this new language. I love you a lot and send a big hug for everyone! Please write me and don´t abandon me here!! Bye!! Blanca Rosa.¨

PS: For those of you who don´t know her, Blanca Rosa is a Colombian who worked on staff with us in Bocachica for about 3 1/2 years.

My Family

I just got back home from a great trip visiting my family. I was so blessed by God´s provision to allow me to go. I was hoping to get to go home for my reunion but was prepared to forgo it if things didn´t work out. Well, my whole family pitched in to make it possible. My grandma paid most of my ticket from Cartagena to Ft. Lauderdale. Jorge and I bought the ticket to NC. My mom paid my ticket to CO to see my brother. My brother paid my ticket to FL to see my dad. And my dad took me to see my granny and paid my rental car and hotel back down to Ft. Lauderdale to catch my flight back to Cartagena! The hardest part, as usual, is not being able to see everybody that I would have like to, but besides attending my class reunion, I chose to focus on my family this time and it turned out to be a really special time!

With my mom and MawMaw in North Carolina.

With my brother, Kurt, in Colorado.

With my dad in Florida.

With my granny in Florida.

You can CLICK on the TITLE of this blog entry to see more photos from my trip!

And, on a side note...here is a copy of an email I sent to my family when I got home to Cartagena. I had a little luggage crisis but finally made it home in one piece! I´m sure many of you can relate to my story:

Well, I made it home safe and sound today. I had quite an ordeal this morning at the airport!! When I arrived with my two check-on bags and my two carry-on bags they informed me that we were only allowed ONE check-on!! I of course went on to explain that I didn´t know that, etc... yada, yada...and the lady was nice but insisted that there was absolutely nothing she could do, that the city of Cartagena has an embargo with SPIRIT airlines and only allows one check-on bag. I asked to speak to her supervisor and gave her the same speech and she also gave me the same speech back and that was their final answer, there was absolutely no exceptions...only ONE check-on! So I got weepy and am asking them WHAT can I do???? There were several options mentioned but none really seemed do-able...bottom line...she tells me, well, try to get all the stuff in your back-pack into your suitcase to combine those two bags and then you can take the suitcase as your second carry-on (my other carry-on was the guitar and the check-on was a rubbermaid container). I´m looking at my stuffed back-pack and my stuffed suitcase and I´m thinking that this is impossible. She also mentions that I can put more stuff in the container and pay an overweight fee. I was also thinking that that container was already stuffed and it just all seemed impossible. She kept encouraging me to try and said, you can take out some of your clothes and put them on...I´m thinking yeah, right!! So I drag all my stuff over to the side, by a wall and start wading through all my stuff...can you picture this?! You can imagine my state of mind! They told me, just call somebody to come pick up the bag! I said tearfully...I don´t HAVE ANYBODY!!! So, anyways... I take out my two jackets and tie them around my waist. I take off my sandles and put on my socks and tennis shoes instead to use less space, I took out two bags of stuff that weren´t really all that important (magazines, snacks and some other stuff...sniff, sniff). I took out all my toiletries and filled a third bag because I was thinking that they are all liquids and won´t be allowed on my carry-on. So, then I cut off all the tape on my container and find that there is actually some room in there...enough to put my toiletries in and a few other odd items from the bags. I narrowed it all down, taped up the container again (Kurt, it was totally GOD that led you to insist on me taking that roll of tape with me!!! I would have been in a mess without it!!) So I eliminated my back-pack and got it down to the container to check-on and then the guitar and my suitcase to carry-on!! I had to leave behind the other 2 bags of stuff! I never thought that would be possible! So I drag everything back up there and check-in to my flight. The container now weighed 55 pounds...only 5 pounds overweight!! Guess how much they charge me!! $50 USD!!! I cried some more as I handed over the $50 dollar bill Granny gave me before I left. I was having a hard time but finally I had to change my perspective and instead of seeing how I got ¨jipped¨ of my precious extra cash, I had to just be thankful to God that He had provided it for me for this situation! I thought, now what if I didn´t HAVE any money, now that would really be something to cry about! I thought also in the midst of this, I really don´t want to let this put a damper on my trip because I had such a good time! So, I had to just let it go. So anyways, the rest of the day went just fine and I arrived safely after a very rough start!! I was home by 1:30 pm. Moral of the story...if you travel on SPIRIT AIRLINES to CARTAGENA you are allowed ONLY ONE CHECK-ON!!!!!!!!

PS: After all the hassell about the luggage, would you believe that our plane had room for about 150 people and I estimate generously by saying there was only about 50 people on the plane!!! Uuuuggghhhh!!!!