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.

More Minnesotans

As I mentioned in my last post, we had an awesome team from North Heights Lutheran Church from Minnesota with us ... this group is from the same church that raised a big donation for our clinic construction. Here are a few more photos of their time with us.

Team photo on the boat.

The guys did a sand trip for the clinic construcion. This is an extremely long and grueling day that involves two trips to Cartagena to bag-up, load and unload 6 tons of sand.

The girls cheering the guys on as they unload sand.

Lucas and Mandy spent their anniversary making latrines and floors in Bocachica!

Making cement blocks.

Passing buckets of stones for floor construction.

The Minnesota Team

This past week we hosted a team from North Heights Lutheran Church from Arden Hills, Minnesota.

We had a great time with the Minnesota team this past week! A great group...worked hard, wonderful attitudes, well-prepared, generous, etc... lots of good stuff to say about them!

Rochelle playing with the kids in the cancha.


Lindsey helping in the kitchen.

Cell group night...Robin leading worship Bocachica style.

(If you are on Facebook, I posted a video of this...check it out!)

Wish you could have been there for this one...Neider and some buddies doing a rap song at the cell group. They brought the house down!

(This one too!)

Jeff sharing a testimony at our cell group meeting and Ben translating.

Jeff and Reinel working on latrines.

(I must confess that I stole this photo from Rehanna off Facebook)

Playing Limbo in the rain.

(This one too.)

Bathing and playing in the rain.

The first couple of days the team arrived our cistern was dry so the rain was a welcome sight! Thank the Lord, the water barge came the next day and filled us up!

Lindsay playing with the kids.

This week in Bocachica...

This week we hosted a team of University students from Matthew´s United Methodist Church from the Charlotte, NC area. They were a great group with great attitudes and lots of energy! There were 22 people on the team and we had pretty much every bed full this week. They did 3 letrines, 2 floors, made concrete blocks for us to use for clinic construction and made lots of friends in the process!

The team with our staff and community volunteers.

Breakfast time at the mission.


Building a latrine for Mariluz and her three children.

John and Cameron Riordan visited us for 2 days from Virginia. They joined in on the activities with the Charlotte team and were a blessing to us as well! Thanks for the jalapeños, peanut butter and printer cartridges, guys! :)

Do you think our sign is old enough?! It´s about time for us to make a new one. Jorge made this one so many years ago that I can´t even remember how long ago it was! One clue is that this isn´t even the YWAM logo anymore! This logo was replaced nearly 9 years ago, in September of 1999!

Jorge hosted a few pastors from near Isla Fuerte so that they could get to know us a little better and see what we have been doing in Bocachica. Our YWAM Colombia national director, Markus Buser came out to join us for the day as well.

Antioch Community Church Team from Elon, NC

Antioch team...Bottom row: Chelsea, Sarah, Tina, Alyssa, Kyle, Joy, Kelly

Top row: Nick, Thom, Vic, Jordan, Caleb

Antioch Team with Proyecto Libertad Staff

Chelsea and Sarah painting at the Feeding Center

Alyssa and Kyle

Samy and Kyle

The team introduces themselves at our Thursday night cell group

Joy taught a dance to a group of girls and they performed it at the Cell Group

Leveling the floor before the cement is poured

Emptying sacks of stones and sand to make the cement

Mixing cement for the floor

Thom starts digging the hole for a latrine

Moving the top of the latrine over the hole...next step is to build the walls and install the toilet

Getting the plates ready at dinner time!

October's Gone?!

Wow, I can't believe I didn't even make one entry during the month of October and now it's gone! Yes, it was a pretty busy month!

RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY...
Some are praying for it to start and others are praying for it to stop.

It has been raining like crazy the last couple of weeks! This is the most rain I've seen here since we first arrived 10 years ago! We even have a few leaks in our apartment roof in Bocachica! The other morning we woke up at 4 am to drops of water hitting us in bed...we had to move our furniture around so that we don't get wet at night and once things dry up a bit we will have to look at repairing the roof and ceiling. Check out the flooded streets of Cartagena!

Our friend, Tym Kemp, is the DTS director with YWAM Ensenada and we were thrilled to have him visiting us in Bocachica!

During rainy season it's best to go out with shorts, flip flops and an umbrella because this is probably what you will find!

DTS OUTREACH TEAM FROM ENSENADA, MEXICO

Last month we had a team with us for two weeks from the YWAM base in Ensenada, Mexico. It was good to see old friends again and the team did a really good job and worked hard.

Ensenada team and Bocachica Staff

Working with the Elderly.
Puppets!

Digging the hole for a latrine.

Team effort! Moving the cement slab that will be the latrine floor.

Temo helps pour the new sidewalk at the Feeding Center.

Jorge with Tym and "Busta", our friend from the Ensenada base who was leading the team.

Our friends, Ana and Julio, were the team co-leaders...here they are showing of their Bocachica braides!
The team tours the Bocachica Fort.

SOCCER TOURNAMENT

Jorge has been planning a week-long soccer tournament for the boys and men in Bocachica. During the second week of November there is a Carnaval that turns Cartagena into Party Central...big time drinking and all that goes along with that. Sooo... during that time of the year we like to organize this tournament as an alternative so that the community can find their fun and entertainment in a healthier environment, plus it gives us the chance to get to know them better and share with them about Jesus! The tournament starts on Sunday so Jorge and the men have been working hard getting ready!

Jorge organizes the guys.

Doing some renovations on the wall around the court.

It's pretty exciting when the community all gathers together to participate in a project like this. Lots of energy floating around.

Putting up the light posts around the court...




FEEDING CENTER

We've been able to do a few projects at the feeding center with the help of volunteers and teams. We put in some more concrete floors and sidewalks and also hooked up a water pump to the water tank so that the water flows through the faucet. We also connected a water purifier.

Our cooks and helpers are from the local church.

The kids go through the line for the attendance records before the sit down to eat.

Josefina and Yolaida overseeing the line.

CLINIC CONSTRUCTION CONTINUES

This past week we have been buying building materials for the next phase of the clinic construction. This next stage is to start on the roof. We don't have the funds to do the whole roof but we have decided to go ahead and get started with what money we do have and we should be able to finish 2 of the 3 wings. (The building is shaped like a "U") We have made several trips to the city to buy materials and it has been a blessing and a thrill to have the help of the community with this project. Check out the photos below of us unloading the supplies. We plan to start construction of this phase on Monday, Nov. 5th.







"TIENDA LA ECONOMICA"

Our friends, Salustiano and Morena just recently opened a little store out of their home so we went to pay them a visit. Here I am with them both and their two daughters, Helen and Luchita. They also have a little boy who isn't in the photo. Besides our staff, they are our best friends in Bocachica.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WERLING!

We celebrated Werling's birthday with a party...cupcakes, silly games, etc... his family came over from next door and we had a good time!

Werling with Yorkis Jr., his nephew and Yiselis, his niece. They are the sweetest kids! The other day Yiselis came over and asked to speak to me privately... once we were all alone she asked me if I happened to have a Princess Dress she could borrow! How Cute!!! Unfortunately I didn't happen to have one so she went away disappointed.

Josefina was our game planner and Jeeye helped with the food and drinks!

Werling's grandma Froilaina (we love her!!) and three of her great-grandkids. She joined in on all the fun and games. I was impressed.

We played a game kind of like musical chairs except that there are sheets of newspaper on the floor that you have to jump on once the music stops and whoever doesn't make it on the newspaper gets eliminated.

YOLANDA'S CLASSES

Yolanda is a nurse from Bogota and she is with us short term, filling in for Conny while she is gone. Yolanda is a very creative lady and she has been giving workshops to the ladies on decorating with balloons and embroidery projects.

Learning to make balloon figures.

The girls show off their masterpieces.

Ana puts what she learned into practice, decorating for her little girl's birthday party.

This young mother make matching hand embroidered dresses for her daughters.


MAKING IT OFFICIAL!
On October, 26th we became official first time home owners! We signed the final papers and made the final payments. Here we are that day with Leonor the lady we bought the house from (in pink) and Katy on the other side of Jorge, who helped us do a lot of the paperwork and running around. We think we might get to move in by mid to late November.