Special visitors!

Some of our friends from Bocachica came over to spend the day with us on Saturday. Loida and her husband, Felipe, and Yolaida (her husband couldn´t make it). Loida and Yolaida have been with us since we first arrived to Bocachica , over 11 years ago! They are a HUGE support to us in the community and bless us in so many ways! Their husbands are also a big help as well, especially with the clinic construction! I don´t know what we would do without them!!

In this shot you can see our new windows that we got installed earlier this month, thanks to a generous offering by some very special friends! We still need to paint the walls and the window gaurds though.

Christmas is just around the corner!

We decorated our Christmas tree tonight with our friends, Astrid and Juliana. Astrid was on staff with us for 3 years and is now working with a Canadian foundation in Cartagena and is living with us in the meantime. Juliana is our new friend who we met through the Bienestar adoption process. She is one of the Psychologists who is processing our file. She is only working temporarily with Bienestar, until the end of December when she returns home to Bogotá. We invited her to come and stay with us for the next month so she is moving in this weekend. The girls will be house-sitting for us while we go on vacation to Mexico to spend the Holidays with Jorge´s family.

Lights first...

The finished product.

We didn´t have anything to go on the top of our tree so we got out some cardboard, paper, scissors and glue and made our own star! :)

Werling & Samy are home!

Jorge drove to Isla Fuerte yesterday to pick-up Samy and Werling and bring them home to Bocachica for the Holidays! It´s great to have them home!

Samy and Werling say goodbye to some of the new friends in Isla Fuerte.

A view from the shore.

God Can Use YOU! Yup, EVEN YOU!!

The next time you feel like GOD can't use you, just remember...

Noah was a drunk
Abraham was too old
Isaac was a daydreamer
Jacob was a liar
Leah was ugly
Joseph was abused
Moses had a stuttering problem
Gideon was afraid
Samson had long hair and was a womanizer
Rahab was a prostitute
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
David had an affair and was a murderer
Elijah was suicidal
Isaiah preached naked
Jonah ran from God
Naomi was a widow
Job went bankrupt
Peter denied Christ
The Disciples fell asleep while praying
Martha worried about everything
The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
Zaccheus was too small
Paul was too religious
Timothy had an ulcer..
AND Lazarus was dead!

Now! No more excuses!
God can use you to your full potential.

Besides you aren't the message, you are just the messenger.

One Year in Turbaco!

Today is our first anniversary in our house in Turbaco! Even though it is a lot of work and a lot of responsibility to have a house, we are so thankful with God for this gift He has given us! It has been so neat to see this dream come true...something that we dreamt about a lot but never imagined would really come true! God has been so good and we are very grateful to HIM!!

2008 Soccer Tournament

On Saturday, Nov. 15 the championship game of our Annual Soccer Tournament was won by THE ENFERMOS, after a week of play-offs! Here are some highlights of the week in photos:

The teams march in for the opening ceremony.

Opening Ceremony

Jorge shares a message from the Bible at the opening ceremony.

The Referees at the trophy table.

One of the teams, Los Primos (The Cousins).

La Playa (the Beach) team. They give themselves some very intersting names.

Our Child Sponsorship team played in the Children´s Division. They were named Los Pitufos (The Smurfs)

Sorleis had her baby!!

Sorleis and Aldamar´s precious daughter was born on November 3rd. Her name is Marsolis, a combination of both her parent´s names.

2009 Teams

Wow! Our 2009 Team Calendar is filling up! We are already full for the first half of 2009! Would you like to bring a short-term missions team next year? We still have the months of July - November open so please contact us if you would like to reserve a spot! The cost is $20 usd per person per day which includes food and housing. Additional costs are construction projects, transportation (land and sea), flights and personal spending money. We can send you more details if you are interested in coming! But hurry...time is running out! :)

Here are some great memories from our 2008 teams:

North Heights Lutheran Chruch from Minnesota ...guys bringing tons of sand out to the island for clinic construction. Hard labor!!

Northside Presbyterian from Burlington, NC (my home church)...making a new door for our children´s feeding center.

Antioch Community Church from Elon, NC ...group photo...they also did lots work projects and kid´s ministry.

A team from South Korea doing traditional cultural dances at our cell group meeting.

Matthew´s United Methodist Chruch from Charlotte, NC ...latrine construction.


YWAM Denver DTS outreach team...heading back to Cartagena after a week in Bocachica.

Friendship Community Church of God from Greensboro, NC... Floor construction. They built a floor in the house right behind them.

More Music

You may have noticed that in August I started posting music on my blog. My idea in this is to give you a taste of Colombia through it´s music...which is a big part of life and culture anywhere you go!

I debuted my Playlist with Andres Cabas, a well-known Colombian singer, singing one of my favorite songs, ¨Colombia, Tierra Querida.(Colombia, Dear Land)¨ Here he is known as ¨Cabas¨ and being from the northern coastal city of Barranquilla (just a couple of hours from Cartagena) he has a unique style that combines rock, jazz and the many sounds of the Colombian Coast such as puyas, bullarengues, porros, fandangos and cumbias with an African influence mixed in.

Later I introduced you to Alex Campos. Alex is a well-known Christian artist from Bogotá who started out at age 14 playing and singing in worship bands at his church. His style is a mix of rock and ballads and his message is one of hope, Christian values and new life in Jesus Christ.

Most recently you have been hearing songs from Juanes, another famous Colombian rock singer who is from the city of Medellin. Juanes is also well-known for his political activism and being a voice for the many victims of the 40+ year civil war in Colombia. He has a foundation called ¨Fundación Mi Sangre¨ that serves to create awareness and provide solutions for the ¨colatoral damage¨ left behind from this war, especially those of land mine victims.

Today and for the next little while you will hear Pescao Vivo. This name means ¨Live Fish¨ and they are a Colombian Christian group from Bogotá that fuses together the sounds of Rock and Pop with a combination of Latin Folklore.

(NOTE TO ADD)

To explain a little bit more about the meaning of the band´s name... In Spanish there are two words for ¨fish¨. If the fish is alive it is ¨PEZ¨ but if the fish is dead it is ¨PESCADO¨. With local accents the word ¨PESCADO¨ becomes ¨PESCAO¨. Here, band member, Giovanni Olaya, explains where they got the name ¨PESCAO VIVO,¨ which translated would mean LIVE (DEAD) FISH¨: "A fish (pez) is a fish (pez) when it is alive; a fish is a 'pescao' when it is dead. But a live ¨pescao¨ is impossible! Jesus was the first live 'pescao,' because he was dead, he came back to life and he continues working in us. And everything that is touched by His Word, even though it is dead, it will live!"

Enjoy!

PS: I am having trouble with my playlist player (I don´t particularly like IMEEM but couldn´t find the music elsewhere) so if you can´t hear the music and would like to then go down to the playlist on the bottom of the right-hand margin and push the play button.

Trip to San Juan de Urabá

This past weekend Jorge, Marley and I made a whirlwind 36 hour trip, touching 4 states along the northwestern coast of Colombia. On Saturday morning we left at 6 am and drove to Paso Nuevo which is the spot where you take the boat to Isla Fuerte. There we dropped off two guys from YWAM´s university student ministry who were helping to lead an outreach group to Isla Fuerte. While there we got to see Samy who took the boat over to meet up with the university guys. From there we continued on our journey to Montería where we dropped off Marley so that she could visit her family. Then Jorge and I drove on a few more hours to San Juan de Urabá, which is in the state of Antioquia. There we visited with our dear friends, Julio and Dominga, who are pastors. Actually they were the pastors in Bocachica when we first arrived over 11 years ago. They have since transferred to another location but we still keep in touch. On Saturday we drove 9 hours. While in San Juan, Jorge preached twice and the next day at 9 am we headed back home. We stopped back in Montería to pick-up Marley and visit her family, The Reyes Family, who were pastors in Bocachica for 6 years after Julio and Dominga were transferred out. We got home at close to 6 pm Sunday evening. We were happy but exhausted and are still recuperating!

Jorge and I in San Juan de Urabá with Pastor Julio, Dominga and their 9 year old daughter, Esther Cristina.

Visiting with the Reyes Family in Montería.

Marley with her dad, Pastor Florencio Reyes.

CLICK ON THE ENTRY TITLE ABOVE TO SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTOS AND READ A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT OUR TRIP!

Thank-You Dinner

This week we hosted a special thank-you dinner for our community volunteers. We had about 50 guests and after a small presentation, we served them a nice candle-lit dinner.

Our staff dressed in black & white and we served and spoiled them for the night. This is the most recent staff photo we have as well...Samy and Werling are missing because they are still in Isla Fuerte but in the back is Conny, Judith, Jorge, Robin and Grace. In the front, Marley, Karen, Josefina and Erika.

Jorge shared a special word of thanks and told some stories and we also showed them a power-point presentation full of photos of themselves and all the work they had done with us over the last year or so.

We also arranged for some special entertainment straight from Bocachica! We had Luis Fernando, Marlon and Neiver do their Christian Champeta Rap and everybody loved it.

Maybe you remember Juan Carlos, who is a chef and used to be on staff with us? Now he lives in Cartagena and has a pizzeria. He was very kind and generous to come out and cook for us that night.

One of our Bocachica teens, Yeison, has the dream of becoming a chef one day so we invited him to come and be Juan Carlos´helper that night. He worked hard and it was a real blessing to have his help! But the best part was just seeing his excitement over having worked with a chef. I was wondering if this experience might change his mind about the whole thing because it is a lot of hard work...but after dinner that night he was on cloud 9 and he kept telling us how much he loved it! I think this helped give him a little taste of what it might be like to be a chef some day.


Judith serving at one of the tables.

Nerilda, Dianey, Jenny and Danubia all work in our Children´s Feeding Center.

We really hope they all had a good time and felt honored and blessed!

환영 Grace!

Well, I hope that means what I think it does...WELCOME GRACE!! Grace arrived from Seoul, South Korea last week and we are thrilled to have her here for the following 6 months. She will be working in the Hospitality Department as she is learning more Spanish. Grace finished her DTS in Seoul and despite the language barrier has been very eager to arrive to Bocachica! She doesn´t speak much English or Spanish so it is a challenge for all of us. Please keep her in your prayers especially as she adapts to the new culture and language. If you have ever had to live in a place where you don´t speak the language, well you know how hard it can be at times! I remember when I was first learning Spanish, there were times when I was surrounded by people but felt so useless and alone...that just goes with the territory of learning a new language via the submersion method. Nevertheless, we want Grace to feel at home and like part of the family. She has a sweet spirit and is eager to help in any way she can and she got put to work her first night in Bocachica! We had a special Thank-you Dinner for our community volunteers and she just jumped in with both feet and helped us to serve them!