Proyecto Libertad Through The Years

Here´s a video we made to share at a couple of churches to give an update and overview of what is going on with us and Proyecto Libertad.

View From My Window

Look out the window of my bedroom in Bocachica and this is what you will see!

Bocachica Memories

Andrew Burnette from Mission Trek International recently visited our ministry and made this short video of his time with us. It shares a great overview of life in Bocachica!

Pause my playlist on the right hand margin so you can hear the video sound.

Boat Out of Drydock!

On Saturday, April 4th, we were finally able to take the boat out of drydock! What we thought would be a 10 to 12 day project turned out to take 25 days! Which of course means more money, time and energy...but thank God, He provided all we needed!! Below are more photos of the continued process of carpentry and fiberglass repairs and getting her back into the water. What a blessing and an answer to prayer to see this project completed!! Now the boat is anchored once again in Bocachica, awaiting the arrival of her new motor from Germany. It could take several months to get it here but we will keep you posted.

Libertad Repair Update - March 2009

Another update on boat repairs, thanks to Andrew Burnette, from Mission Trek International who came for a visit to check out our ministry. Be sure to turn off the music on the right so you can hear the video.

More Dry Dock Photos

As promised, here are more photos of the dry-dock process so far. You can see how they take the boat out of the water, all the rotten wood we found underneath the fiberglass and part of the repair work in process.

Dry Dock

We were finally able to take the boat to dry dock on Tuesday, March 10th. We were a week behind schedule because of paperwork needed for our workers. The dry dock facility requires us to provide health insurance, pension and worker´s comp. for the workers we were bringing from Bocachica, even though we were only hiring them for about 10 days. It took a lot of time and running around for Jorge but he was finally able to get it done. We were hoping that we could get the boat out after 10 or 12 days but the other day when they took off a portion of the fiberglass on the hull, they found a lot more damage (rotten wood) underneath than they expected. So, it will cost us a bit more money and take a bit longer than originally planned. The carpentry portion of the job is nearing completion and the next stage will be the applying new fiberglass to the portions of the hull.

Here are a few photos from the first day when we towed the boat from Bocachica to the dry dock facilities. It is a hot and dusty place so the guys (Jorge and Martin) come home really exhausted every night! More photos to come soon, I promise!

This photo is funny, it looks like she was ¨birthed¨ by the big ship behind her!

This crane lifts the boat out of the water and wheels her to our slot on the shipyard.

BIG, HUGE, AWESOME, MIRACULOUS NEWS!!!!!

On February 17th Jorge and I spent the day running errands in Cartagena. It was a good but busy and tiring day. Finally, around 2:30, we had time to stop to take a lunch break. We went to eat in the food court at the new shopping mall in Cartagena. We were sitting and talking about the fact that it was our 12 year anniversary of having arrived in Cartagena to start the ministry, Proyecto Libertad! Jorge was sharing with me about some feelings of discouragement he has been having lately, frustrations, etc... and then his cell phone rang. I think he even thought twice about whether he would answer it or not because we just wanted to eat in peace. He did answer though and it was our German staff member, Martin. He had just gotten off the phone with his pastor in Germany and it turns out, to make a long story short, that there is a factory in Martin´s town, called MTU that makes marine diesel engines. We had been talking with Martin and his pastor about the possibility of them helping in some way but nothing seemed to have come of it. Until that day when the call we received was to tell us that the company has decided to donate a brand new motor and generator for the boat!!

Just hearing one end of the conversation brought me to tears! Tears of relief, gratefulness and joy!!! Those tears you cry when you feel like God finally shows up and does what you thought He´d said He´d do but you had wondered if you heard him right in the first place because the years pass by without much light shining at the end of the tunnel.

In 1998, with the help of Haw River Christian Church in Haw River, North Carolina, the ministry was able to purchase the M/N Perla del Mar, re-naming her the M/N Libertad. Our vision has been to renovate her with the purpose of traveling to isolated island and river communities, taking the two hands of the Gospel!

Initially the boat was used to transport personnel and materials back and forth from the mainland to the island community of Bocachica. Not too long after the purchase our "guard" organized and facilitated the robbery of major parts of the boat's motor rendering her out-of-service! Later the boat was towed to a private dock and there she sat for several years as we made occasional repairs.

One leap in the right direction was made when we were able to fiberglass the boat's hull with special donations made from a church in Germany and a Bogota hospital. In 2002 we took the boat to Bocachica where she has been at anchor ever since. In 2003 we received more special donations designated towards boat repairs and were able to put her in dry-dock once again to replace rotten wood curves in the inner shell as well as doing maintenance to the outer hull. 2005 brought blessing with the return of staff member and carpenter, Martin Hakenjos. Martin took a lot of initiative to help raise funds for the continued renovation of the boat and since then, slowly but surely, the boat has been brought back to life.

In 2008 we had another big setback. A year earlier we received a donation of about $8,300 usd designated towards the purchase of the motor. This was a huge step forward for us but it still wasn´t enough to buy the motor so after a year without seeing any progress, the donor asked us to return the money they had given. So, as you can imagine, we felt like we took a huge step backward when our boat fund dwindled back down to what it had been before!

In spite of discouragement and obstacles our dreams for the boat were kept alive and we have been eagerly looking forward to the day we can make our maiden voyage, taking the ministry of Proyecto Libertad (medical, dental, community development projects, evangelism and discipleship, etc...) "on the road" so to speak, reaching out to other needy island and river communities!!! Now, after 11 long years, we can see the light shining bright at the end of the tunnel!

On March 3rd we are scheduled to take the boat back into dry dock to do some urgent hull repairs. The process of getting the motor and generator shipped from Germany will probably take at least another 3 months or so. At that time we will have to put the boat into dry dock again for the installation process.

We would also like to let everyone know that all the money that has been donated towards the boat project over the last 11 years will be used to cover the installation and dry dock expenses. Even though the motor has been donated, we still need these funds to finish the process!

We want to share our joy with you as we know many of you have played a part in making this happen through prayer, donations and encouragement!! And we also ask you to continue to pray for all that lies ahead with the shipment and installation of the motor and all that goes into making that a reality.



To see photos of the different stages of the boat renovations so far, click HERE!

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!

YWAM Denver DTS Outreach Team in Bocachica

Last week we hosted a DTS outreach team from the YWAM base in Denver, CO. They were with us for 11 days and made a latrine and a couple of floors for local families, made cement blocks for the clinic construction, helped clean our feeding center kitchen getting it ready for service and also did drama and testimony presentations at the schools and churches and with the elderly.

Two of the team members, Promise and Nabel, were our first ever visitors representing Nepal and Ethiopia, respectively.

The team visiting the boat on their last day.


Heading back to the dock after visiting the boat.
Heading back to Cartagena for their last two weeks of outreach.

Boat Renos To Date

Here are some recent photos of the boat renovations...recently completed projects include fiberglassing the deck and parts of the hull. Martin has been doing a great job overseeing these projects!

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

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!