Last Week of Leadership School

Wow, how times flies. Sometimes it seems like yesterday that I began Phase 2, and at other times it seems like I have been here for forever. I definitely can say that I have enjoyed my time here and have grown so much and have been challenged to be a better leader. I am also very excited for the next phase of this journey to begin in August.

So, our week at Eagle Rock (week 10) was great, and our speaker was Michael Berg from the YWAM Orlando base. We got to chat briefly about Orlando, and I found out he lives very close to where my brother and his family live. Plus I enjoyed talking to someone who knew what southern food was (like fried okra) for a change.

The speaker for last week was Dave Gustaveson and he is from the YWAM Los Angeles base. Dave is a very serious guy, but has a great sense of humor. Dave spoke on Spiritual Authority and really challenged me to think about how we are to submit to authority in the context of how God designed it, even when you may disagree with the person in authority. I may not be the fondest of some of the people we have in high political positions; however, I can still submit to their authority and pray for them, but also know that they still answer to the highest authority - God.

Well, as I write this I have 4 more days of classes left and then I graduate the Phase 2 leadership school at 2:30pm on Friday. This week is Director's Choice week, so the schedule is a little more laid back with the focus being on processing everything we have learned during these past 11 weeks, as well as some intentional team time. It is amazing how quickly I have gotten to know my classmates, but I guess when you live in community together 24/7 you become close very quickly. I know that many of the students and staff here will be lifetime friends.

I will be back in Georgia for 3 days after school ends before heading to Florida with mom and dad for about 3 weeks, and then back in Georgia again for about 4 weeks before heading out in August. I hope to see many of you and to be able to catch you up in person about this next phase of the journey beginning in August. I will also be sending out a newsletter within a week of returning home.

God Bless and I pray God's joy to overflow in your lives.

Week at Eagle Rock

So, today the Phase 2 school and I headed up to Eagle Rock (where I did my DTS). The leaders decided to do something a little different for the week, so here we are. At the end of the week we are also going camping for two days. It will be kinda nice for the Phase 2 to just have some bonding time together.

There are still some logistics I am working on with the leaders from China, but when I update you all with those details it will be via letter for security reasons. When I go to China there will be things that can and cannot be said, so I will be sure to let you know those things. On a side note, the leaders had their second child, a baby boy, who is healthy and was born 10 minutes after they got to the hospital.

Last week was a busy week for me, as we have a big project due on Tuesday this week. One of our projects is to plan an outreach to an international location, which includes researching plane tickets, immunizations, budget, etc. My classmate Marcelo and I have been planning an outreach to China and Thailand, and is has been a lot of fun. The purpose of this project is to know what all is required to plan an outreach, so that in the future I will know how to do it if I need to. Even though it is a lot of work, I have enjoyed working on the project.

I hope that you all are doing well. Please let me know how I can be praying for each of you.

Crazy Week

Hey again! I am excited to be back on track with the weekly updates! So, this week has been a crazy one. The Boarders DTS (for those who snowboard or ski) returned on Saturday and Sunday from their outreaches to Mexico, Panama, and Thailand. The Boarders DTS started while I was in Colombia on outreach, but I had the opportunity to meet many of these DTS students when I returned from my outreach for debrief week. It has been good hearing what God did in their lives through their outreaches. They are graduating today, but it has been nice having them around this week. And tomorrow the "Around the World" team that is part of the Multi-cultural DTS currently running here leaves for their outreach that takes them to 7 countries in 80 days. With the schools this semester being so small I have really gotten to know the DTS students, so it will be sad to see them go, but joyful at the same time.

Wednesday night this week was quite interesting. We participated in a worship event from 12 - 2 am that included several YWAM bases throughout the world all engaged in worship together via a program called Genesis. Genesis is similar to Skype, which allows you to see and hear people over the internet, and we were able to have 9 bases pulled up on our big screen at all times. It was a neat experience that included some bases from Amsterdam, Egypt, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Switzerland, Mexico, and some in the United States.

So, for the long anticipated wait - I will be leaving for China the end of August, and I have made a 2 year commitment to this team. With August being only 3 months away, I realize I have a lot to get done in that time, but I am excited. My current passport expires in January 2010, but I was strongly advised to renew it now here in the States instead of waiting to do it in China where it will be more of a hassle. So, that is the next big thing to do before I can apply for my visa. If you would be praying for those two things, I would greatly appreciate it. There are still many more details to come about China, but I need to finish filling in my family on them first, which I will be doing this weekend.

I am actually leaving in a few hours to fly to Orlando for the weekend where I get to spend Memorial Day with the family, and I will be back Monday night to resume classes again on Tuesday. I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend, and let's not forget to pray for our veterans and their families remembering the sacrifices they have made for us. God Bless.

Weekly Teachings and Phase 2 Fun

Well, it's definitely time for an update. I apologize for the lengthy delay between updates, but I have been having problems with my laptop, and I only get about an hour's worth of use out of it everyday, which I have been using for homework. So, this will be a lenghty update to let you know what has been going on the past few weeks. I will start with a brief overview of all our weeks of teaching so far, and conclude with a bit of an update about China.

The first speaker we had was Dan Thoemke, who spoke on Spiritual Leadership from the book of Esther. The theme I took away from that week was: God has a place for you in His presence; from the perspective of Esther it was a fairytale of a peasant becoming a Queen as well as the redemption story for the Jews. The second speaker we had was Doug Toller, who spoke on Lessons in Leadership. The theme I took away from that week was: True leaders always persevere - we looked at the life of Abraham Lincoln and how he failed or was defeated several times in 29 years before he was elected President. The third speaker was Dean Sherman, whom I also had in DTS, and he spoke on Effective Personal Ministry. The theme I took away from that week was: Ministry is a choice to serve from a motivation of love and a flow of the Holy Spirit through you to meet the needs of people. The fourth and fifth speaker spoke on Wholiness (Wholeness and Holiness) and Public Speaking. The theme I took away from Wholiness week was: Focusing on becoming who I really am as being set apart for a significant purpose as a believer in Christ. And the theme I took away from Public Speaking week was: to quote JFK - "Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary." Or, to create your own style and "groove" to speaking. And this week our speaker has been Chey Foran, a YWAM Denver staff member, who taught on the Strengths Finder 2.0 book. The theme for this week was focusing on discovering your strengths and learning how to "walk in them" effectively. For those of you wondering, my top five strengths in order are: Belief, Responsibility, Developer, Includer, and Positivity (if you would like a brief description of those sometime let me know).

China........well, as long as their baby does not choose to come early, I will be having lunch with the leaders on Tuesday (May 19th) to discuss details of China. While the one of the leaders did teach in my school for two weeks, as well as the Multi-cultural DTS this past week, there just has not been an opportunity before now to sit down with them and discuss work, life, and details of China. I know some basic information based on the leaders sharing during class times, so I will fill you in on those details. It is a pretty amazing story of how God began to put the plan into motion several years before the leaders arrived in China. They especially felt called to China and knew God wanted a specific city, but didn't really have clarity as to where specifically that was. They felt God laid on their hearts for three criteria to be met to know that it was the right city for them to be in. So, a scouting trip to China was taken, and through a conversation, a city was mentioned (to protect the leaders and the work they do I will not place it on here, but it is the one I have mentioned to many of you) that fulfilled all three criteria and to which they felt was God's leading. Later that night when one of them opened their Bible they found a piece of paper with that city's name and part of the map of China from a time when they had torn apart of map of the world to pray for the people of those countries, and not knowing it would be used years later as a confirmation of their calling to China. So, that is the basic story of how this team ended up in China. I look forward to sharing more with you as the rest of the story unfolds.

Last week we went bowling as a class, and were as a small group to "dress up." My small group went for the "gangster" look, while some of the other groups dressed up to look like our guys, or wore one of our Director's shirts that had been borrowed from his wife without his knowledge (pretty funny to see his face when he saw all of his shirts). I have posted these pictures for your amusement. I have also posted a few pictures of snow that we had here a few weeks ago (snow usually still occurs here until after Memorial Day). I also had the chance to go to a Colorado Rockies game (I have been to a spring training game for the Minnesota Twins, but never a MLB game during season before) for $15 - that price included parking, ticket to the game, magazine, and a hot dog and coke. Not too bad!! I had a lot of fun and posted these pictures too!

Thank you for your patience with me this past few weeks with blog updates as well as for your continued support of me. It is my heart and desire for the blog updates to again resume weekly. I pray God's favor over each of you and that you may be blessed beyond measure for the blessing that you have been to me. God Bless.

Work Duties and Assignments

I know many of you are interested about my work duties and assignments for this school, so I thought I would update you on that.

My work duties these three months actually consist of two jobs. My first job is child care every Monday morning. I get to work with the toddlers and we do crafts, play on the playground, etc. while the parents are in a staff meeting. My second job is kitchen crew leader every other weekend. Every other weekend my crew and I (there are four of us total) are responsible for making all meals, cleaning the kitchen after every meal, cleaning the dining area, and washing and drying all dish towels that are used. We cook for an average of 40 people each weekend, and Sunday's lunch is our biggest meal. Last weekend we had pot roast for lunch on Sunday and it required that it was in the convection oven by 6:30am - luckily for me the new convection ovens for the kitchen had just come in the day before and were installed, or I would have had to put the pot roast in the old ovens at 4:30am (we have problems with the temperature of the old ovens being off by 100 degrees from time to time). I am definitely not my mother when it comes to cooking, but I am enjoying being in the kitchen and trying new things.

Well, my assignments this semester have definitely been keeping me busy. Here is a look at the different things that we are required to do:

Book Reports - we are required to read the following books and to turn in a book report on them every other week. The books are: A Tale of Three Kings by J. Oswald Sanders, Teaching to Change Lives by Howard Hendricks, The Shack by William Young, and a book of my choice.

Spiritual Leadership book by J. Oswald Sanders - we are required to read 3-4 chapters of this book every other week and do study questions at the end of the chapters.

Cast of Characters by Max Lucado - we are required to read 2 chapters every week and to be prepared to participate in a small group discussion of the chapters on Wednesdays with the class. We are also required to facilitate the small group discussion at least twice.

Memory Verses - we are challenged to learn passages of scripture and to "store them in our heart". Every other week we are tested on the memory of the following scriptures: Matthew 20:25-28, Colossians 3:12-17, Phillipians 2:5-11, and Ephesians 4:1-6.

Projects - we are required to do 3 projects during this school. The first project is leading a corporate intercession time. For this project we are placed in groups of 3 and required to research places in the world where the gospel is not being preached. Then we present the information to the YWAM community during worship time on a Friday and then corporately spend an hour in prayer for the different needs of this country. My group is researching Dayr az-Zawr, Syria. The second project is planning an outreach. We start this project this week, and we will be partnered with a classmate and will be required to plan a outreach, just like the outreach I went on to Colombia. The third project is called Holy Discontent. This project is done individually and is to open your eyes to the things of this world that burden you and spur you on to find a way to help. For example, if someone is burdened by child sex trafficing that occurs in Asia, they would do their project on the subject and how they can get involved in changing the statistics and preventing other children from being sold into this industry.

Sometimes I look at all of the assignments and think it is a lot, but I am learning so much and am challenged everyday. I am blessed to have this opportunity and am taking every chance I can to soak up all that God has for me through this time. Thank you again for your support of me through this season.

God Bless.

Phase 2 Leadership School

Hey everyone! Well, I realize this post is more than a week overdue, so I will do my best to update you on the past two weeks.

The new quarter for schools started on Monday, March 30th, and this time there are two schools running at the same time (Phase 2 and the Multi-Cultural DTS). Both schools are being housed at the main campus in Arvada, and the campus is located across the street from a grocery store, some coffee shops, the church I attend here, and is within walking distance of many other places. While I did enjoy being at the mountain campus during DTS, it is nice to be at the main campus this quarter.

For those of you wondering about the two schools, I am in the Phase 2, which is a leadership school, and we have 13 students (9 ladies and 4 guys). The other school, the Multi-Cultural DTS, is the same school that I just completed in February, except this time the emphasis is more on representing multiple countries with the students. So, in that school there are 16 students (8 ladies and 8 guys), and they represent 6 or 7 different countries.

Our first week was spent bonding with our classmates and our school staff, as well as a few opportunities to bond with the Multi-Cultural students and the non-school staff (those that work in the accounting department, etc.). At the end of the week my class took a field trip to Boulder, where we did a picture scanvenger hunt, and we ended the day with a group photo.

This week, week two, has been spent with Dan Thoemke, a Pastor from Hillside Church in Golden, Colorado, speaking to us about Spiritual Leadership based on the book of Esther. I honestly can say that I never looked at the book of Esther before as a place to see Spiritual Leadership until this week, but it has been an amazing eye opening experience. We also started out the week with an amazing opportunity as a class that no other Phase 2 has had before.......we had a baptism of 4 of my classmates. Chrissy, a student from Germany admitted in class on Monday that she had never been baptized and really felt it was time to make that commitment. Three of the guys (Marcelo, Scott, and Josiah) all had been baptized before, but they all had made the decision to do it because their friends were doing it, so they wanted to do it this time as an act of obedience and as a representation of the transformation God had made in their lives. It was a really neat bonding experience for us as a class.

Looking forward to updating you again next week on what I am learning in class. I just wanted to say thank you again to all of you for following me on this journey, and for being a part of it with your support and prayers. I feel blessed to know each of you.

Also, for information sake, this time I do have cell phone service since we are at the main campus, and we are 2 hours behind Eastern Standard time. And my mailing address this quarter is:
Name
YWAM Denver
Spring Phase 2
12750 W. 63rd Ave
Arvada, CO 80004

God bless you and may His face shine upon you!

Preparing to Leave Again

Hey everyone! It was great getting to see many of you during my break between schools, and again I cannot thank you enough for your loving support of me.

So, it seems like the past six weeks have flown by. I am just spending the next three days packing and doing the little things that need to get done before heading back out to Colorado. I heard from some friends in Colorado that they had a blizzard today with 8-12" of snow. So, while I guess I have gotten used to the sunshine these past few weeks, I may have a few more weeks of cold weather ahead of me.

Once back in Colorado I plan on resuming updating this blog weekly on what I am learning in school. And I will also update you on China when more of those details surface.

God Bless.

Back In Georgia, Soon to be in Florida

Hey everyone! Well, I am officially back in Gainesville, GA for a few days before heading down to Cape Coral, FL for two and a half weeks. I am here in Gainesville until the morning of March 1, and will be back again from March 19 until the 30th. So, for those of you in Cape Coral, I hope to see you sometime between March 2 and the 19th!!!

Well, to let you all know my future plans. While in DTS God revealed to me two specific things that He desires for me to do in the next several months. The first thing was for me to go back to YWAM Denver and to complete a secondary school called Phase 2. Phase 2 is a leadership school that prepares you to lead in any aspect of ministry that God may lead you into, as well as, it is a required school for anyone desiring to become staff at YWAM Denver. Phase 2 is a three month school that will be from March 30 - June 19. There is an optional outreach for Phase 2 students; however, I do not feel that God is asking me to do the outreach at this time. The second thing that God revealed was His desire to send me to China sometime after completing Phase 2. There is currently a group of married couples and singles who are in China doing work (coffeehouses, workshops, etc.) and sports camps as a way of ministering. They are also currently working on ways of getting teachers into the university as a means of opening up doors for clubs, etc. One of the married couples (and also the ones leading the group in China) will be in Denver next month to have their second child, so while they are in the States, I will be sitting down with them and openly discussing with them all the things that cannot be discussed in an email. After that point I will be able to share with you more details of what the need in China is, and how I will be able to help this group. It's not a coincidence, though, that God laid on my heart to contact this couple while in I was in Colombia considering I only knew their names and where they were in China. And then to get back to Denver and find out their association and what type of work they are doing was unbelievable. Not to mention that one of my classmates' sister and brother-in-law are one of the married couples on this team. Small world, huh? No, that's just God!!

Well, I know that was a lot to give you in a short updated post, but hopefully I will be able to speak to many of you in person and share more about each of these next phases of my journey.

I have also posted pictures from Colombia for you to enjoy and they are in several different categories (food, places we stayed, etc.). Remember to click on the sunset on the right side of the page to access the pictures.

God Bless and hope to see many of you soon.

Coming Back to the States

Hey everyone! So ministry is officially over for us in Colombia. We did our last church service last night, and have had our debrief sessions (time of discussing strengths and things done well during outreach) with our leaders today. I know I personally have had a great time here these past seven weeks. It has been kinda hard leaving the friends we have made at each place, but we know that we have fulfilled all that God had for us here.

I am definitely looking forward to getting back to the states and enjoying the food there. The food here has not been bad, just sometimes lacking flavor. And I probably will pass on rice for awhile considering I have had it for every meal since being here. What I will miss though is the bread and pastries the most. I don´t know anywhere else that you can find a loaf of cheese bread for $1, and pastries for $0.10. And it was nice too that there was a bakery practically on every corner.

Well, the Argentina and Mexico teams leave tomorrow (a day ahead of us) to return to the states, so it will be a nice reunion of the entire DTS on Saturday night when we arrive. Sunday morning our team will be returning to our assistant leaders´church to do a follow-up service for them, going out to lunch as a team, and then doing the necessary laundry that has been building up. And then Monday - Thursday will be spent in a classroom discussing how to acclimate back into your own culture after being gone, sharing with the current DTS (that started after we left for outreach) our experiences, and then graduation on Friday. So a full, but somewhat relaxed week too.

I look forward to updating you in the next week or so of my future plans after DTS, as well as the times that I will be in Georgia and Florida visiting.

God Bless and keep on persevering.

Back in Bogota

Hey everyone! We are back in Bogota for the last ten days of outreach. We started here (even if for a day and a half), and are finishing out here, so that is pretty cool.

We had some amazing outreaches in Medellin and were blessed with eight wonderful translators the entire time we were there. On the last night in Medellin the team went to a really nice restaurant in the Medellin Botancial Gradens, and we invited all of our contacts as well as the translators to join us. We had a three course meal with an option of pork, fish, or steak - I of course choose the steak, and it was great. Each person´s meal was the equivalent of $6-8, which was amazing in itself.

Ministry starts up again tomorrow (we have a day off today) and is packed with doing a children´s program, manual labor at a children´s home as well as the YWAM Bogota base, and several church services. We also have the opportunity to go to Hard Rock Cafe Bogota on Sunday after the church services to watch at least half of the SuperBowl. (And for my brother and sister-in-law reading this, I will be cheering for the Steelers!!)

I will hopefully be able to check in again one more time before departing Bogota, but if not, I will be back in Denver the night of February 7th. All my pictures will be posted later that week, so that you can see the places we have been and what we have been up to here in Colombia. God Bless.

Exciting Ministry

Hey everyone! Quick update for the week. This week of ministry has been centered around working with orphans and street kids. The YWAM Medellin base has 2 houses (girls´ house and boys´ house) that are for orphaned kids. The YWAM staff have a rotating schedule and take turns working at the girls´ and boys´ house and sleeping there. Earlier in the week we did a lot of cleaning of the houses and the rest of the time we have been playing games with them in the afternoon and helping with various projects around the houses.

We also have had opportunities to work with street kids. There are three levels for street kids here in Colombia. Level 1 is where kids go to a facility (to be honest it looks like a prison with all the gates and fences around it, but they are very nice facilities once inside) to stay if they want to get off the street and have a place to sleep and food to eat. The first few nights there the kids have 24 hour supervision as many of them are ¨high¨ from either sniffing glue or doing drugs. There are also several girls that come that have been on the street doing prostitution. If the kids stay at the facility long enough (the sad part is that they can come and go as they want) they have opportunities for good health care, food and shelter are provided for, and they get an education, and they can then move to the next level. Level 2 is where the kids have been rehabilitated long enough that they can move to another facility, which is usually a finca, and there they are taught to continue with education by being integrated into local schools and they have more responsibilities. Level 3 is basically where they try to integrate the kids back into society, either with family (that are not on drugs or alcohol or in prostitution) or if they are 18 or older into a place of their own and help them get a job. We worked with a level 1 yesterday and it was a great opportunity, but a sad experience too, in seeing the girls that were selling their bodies at such a young age (ages 10 and up), and the rest of them being ¨high.¨ They are all looking for love, but just in the wrong places.

Well, tonight we are going to a crack hotel for kids. It is called a crack hotel because the kids that come to the hotel are there when their parents are out on the streets doing drugs, alcohol, or prostitution, and the kids don´t have anyone to look after them. So, we are going tonight to do some dramas and puppets, and then we will pass out bread and hot chocolate afterwards to people around the hotel. I am looking forward to loving these kids tonight, since it may be the only time that these kids ever feel loved.

Gotta close for now, but I pray God´s blessings for you all. Please continue to keep our team in your prayers as well as the people of Colombia.

More Ministry and Fun in Colombia

Hey everyone! Well, it´s about that time to move locations again. So, tomorrow morning we will head out to do ministry at a finca (farm) for boys, and then move to our next location in the evening. This time we will be staying at the YWAM Medellin base.

Ministry last week continued to be great, though I was out of commission all day Saturday with the 24 hour stomach bug that has seemed to plague three-fourths of the team. Even though I would have rather been doing ministry, I really feel like God had other plans for me for that day. I did a lot of praying for the team while they were gone, and for those sharing their testimonies. I have learned that sometimes your ministry for the day is just to pray for your team members.

This week we have done ministry in the neighborhood of the Bible College dorm, where we are staying, and some of the girls on our team were able to go to a girls´home and minister to eight girls, ages 10 - 14, who had either been living on the street or were prostitutes and had been rescued from that. I was one of the few that were not able to go, but the ones that did said it was so heart-breaking to hear the stories of girls who had started prostitution at the age of 6.

As far as cultural things go.....the Colombians don´t see white people (otherwise known to them as gringos) very often, so everywhere we go people stare and us, and even ask to take a picture with us! It was really funny at first when people would approach us and ask us to take a photograph for them, and just when you thought you were going to use their camera to take the picture of them, they put their arm around you and someone snaps the picture. I am sure in some of those first pictures many of us have the weirdest expressions on our faces, but now we just have fun with it. Driving here is crazy, and we definitely pray while travelling all the time. The best way to describe the driving is a cross between Atlanta rush hour traffic with New York City driving, all at the speed of the German Autobon. I really do not understand how there have not been more accidents here (we have only seen 1 fender-bender). It is crazy to the point that people will pass in a no passing zone on a curve of a mountain road when they can´t see around the corner. We have been lucky to have some great bus drivers, who drive defensively, and just make some smart decisions.

And while I may not be proficient in speaking Spanish yet, or even understanding it, I have definitely been immersed in it. It makes me laugh when people here ask you if you speak Spanish and you say no, so then they continue to talk to you in Spanish anyway. I may not fully understand, but I am able to pick up a few words that they say, so I am enjoying that. Plus I think they think I am funny too when I speak to them in English. But, I can tell you that I have learned very quickly how to order ice cream in Spanish - no problems there in saying that one!

Well, I hate to close, but I need to for now. I will update again as soon as I can based on internet availabilty at the YWAM base or an internet cafe. In the meantime, our team prayer requests are below.

Prayer Requests:
* Health - the stomach bug is still affecting our team
* Injuries - we have had a few random injuries (Joe injured his thumb during team game time one night, then fell off a seesaw at park ministry and cut up his arm - yeah, he keeps me busy with the First Aid job I am responsible for)
* Continued team unity
* Continued safe travel

Please feel free to email me any prayer requests you may have, as I am praying for each of you. Thank you for continuing to read my blog and your support of me. I pray that God may bless you for your faithfulness.

Colombia Outreach Update

Hey everyone! Well, our time here in Colombia so far has been great and very rewarding. We have stayed at three places so far and will be staying at many more before it is all over.

The first place that we stayed at was the YWAM Bogota base. It was very nice. The second place that we stayed at was a finca (Spanish word for farm – though nothing like what we think of as a farm, basically it means a lot of land and beautiful foliage). The finca was owned by the church that we were working with the first week, and it was their retreat center. We think that it used to be a mansion because it was so big and beautiful. The third place, which we are currently staying at, is a Bible College dormitory that is very nice too. Several areas of the dorm have an open roof to allow cool air to flow into the building, since many people do not have air conditioning here. We leave the windows open at night while we are sleeping and it is the perfect temperature.

The food here is great too. We knew that the Colombians were very hospitable, but we also found out they are very generous with food too. It is the culture here to eat everything that you are served, unless you have a food allergy. The last two places that we have stayed we have had a cook, and our current cook daily reminds us that there are starving children in Africa (she knows since she lived there several years), so we better eat up! Again the food is good, just enormous portions. Instead of losing weight on outreach like most people do, I may come home having gained 10lbs!!

We have been extremely busy this week with ministry, but I have enjoyed it. The month of January we are working with Mark and Maritza, who are actually YWAM Denver staff, but will be working here in Medellin for a year. So, on Monday we went to a local park and did dramas. Our translators did not show up (other than Maritza), but it was cool to see how God still provided for us. A huge crowd gathered before we could even start the dramas, and then people talked to us for an hour and a half after the dramas. We were able to communicate through Maritza and some Colombian Christians who saw our dramas and offered to translate for us. Tuesday was spent at a farm where special needs adults live just “hanging out” with them and doing a brief program for them as well. Wednesday this week was our day off, so we explored the market shops around the area. Today (Thursday) we did manual labor here at the Bible College dorm. Tomorrow (Friday) we are going to a poor community to do dramas and pass out food to needy families, and then we are doing a church service in town in the evening. On Saturday we are going to a park to pass out food to the homeless, and I do not know Sunday´s schedule yet.

I will check in again in about a week or so. I hope that things are going well for you all and that 2009 has been a good one so far. God Bless.