School of Leadership Development

Since October 12, Jorge has been in Bucaramanga, Colombia attending a six-week YWAM School of Leadership Development.  So far he is having a great time, being encouraged, spiritually refreshed and learning new things.  Some of the topics covered in this school are:  team leadership, giftings of a leader, self-leadership, dealing with conflict, vision, and integrity.  We are keeping in touch via Facebook and Skype almost every day and I can see that he has been very blessed by this opportunity!  Here are a few photos of his time so far:

Students and leaders.

View of Bucaramanga from the base.

Jorge with his school mentor, Gary McKinney who is a part of YWAM's international leadership.  Gary and his wife, Deanna, have ministered in Spain for the last 40 years and are now the base directors of YWAM Madrid.

Jorge giving a presentation to the class.

Class in session.

School leaders.

Jorge in his dorm room which he is sharing with 3 other guys.

I don't have any photos of Erika (our mission operations director in Bocachica), but she is also in Bucaramanga doing the school with Jorge.

I am missing my Jorgito and really looking forward to when he comes home!  I am, however, very grateful that he has had this opportunity.  Originally we were planning to do the school together but since I had these health issues I wasn't able to go.  We hoped to meet each other back in Cartagena in December but I have had some set-backs in the healing process (I'll tell you more about that later) which has delayed the process.  So now, our plan is that when Jorge is finished with the school he will come back to spend the holidays with me here in NC.

The Latest in Bocachica

Here´s an overview of what has been going on in Bocachica the last few weeks...not necessarily in this order:


BASKETBALL WORKSHOP

A last-minute contact brought a basketball team from the USA to do a one-day workshop with the kids in Bocachica.

PHYSICAL THERAPY

For those of you who didn´t know, our new staffer, Guillermo (from Brazil/Chile) is a Physical Therapist and God is using his profession to help the people in Bocachica. What an incredible blessing it is for the them to have this opportunity right on thier door-step!

BUTTERFLY WORKSHOP

Yolanda is back doing her decorating workshops with the local ladies...this time they are making butterflies.

YWAM SWITZERLAND TEAM

We had a DTS outreach team from the YWAM base in Lausanne, Switzerland with us this month. There were 11 of them but none of them were Swiss...we had 1 Brit and 10 Koreans. They did all kinds of activities with the kids, youth and elderly.

CHILD SPONSORSHIP

Last month was the beginning of the second semester of the local school and our staff girls got together school supply packets to hand out to the kids in our sponsorship program.

KID´S STUFF

Every Thursday night during our cell group meeting Pili and Josefina take the kids out for an age appropriate activity while the youth and adults stay to hear the teaching. They usually really have their hands full but they are very gifted to work with kids and it´s a blessing to have them!

CLINIC PROGRESS

Last week we took down all the scaffoldings and supports (I don´t know the correct terms in English so I hope you know what I am talking about) from building the concrete roof on the second wing of the clinic.

MISSION IMPROVEMENTS

Samy and Guillermo built a few new sidewalks in the mission, just in time for the rainy season when things get muddy and yucky!

Purse Making Workshop

Our good friend, Elizabeth Cordoba, came for a week to give a purse-making workshop to a group of 6 women from Bocachica. The idea is for them to be able to use this as a money-making opportunity to help support their families. Elizabeth found people from her home town to donate all the supplies needed for the workshop and donated a week of her time to invest in the lives of these women.

Elizabeth and her students.

Hard at work...

...but having fun in the process.

Jenny making one of her new bags.

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.