a few of my favorites...

Thirty five smiles... all of these kids were my students in English class at La Fundacion


Andres, Oscar and Brian... after class, it took about 10 minutes for these little guys to actually leave, they kept coming back to the window and saying "Bye teeesherr!"


The littlest ones... even though the letters were hard to write and the words even harder to pronounce, I loved watching the effort these kiddos put in to trying!


Beauties... Paula and Katarina, two young girls so anxious to learn... and be loved

Every day in Colombia was a chance for me to learn something and let God stretch my faith in him. I love the Colombian people, I love the culture, and I see the need for so much more that can be done...

Unfortunately, while playing with some of the kids I re-injured my knee (the same one with the long history or surgeries), and after a lot of prayer and counsel have decided to come home and let my doctor in California try to fix it again. I will be anxious for God to open the door to go back to Colombia, because I think the story is just beginning there...

what a week

After 8 days in the very warm city of Cucuta, Colombia, we (Pastor Jorge, Pastora Sulamita, Karla, Jorge Andres and I) are back in Bogota. We went to Cucuta for a conference at the church of Sulamita’s parents, a big and beautiful church also called Centro Cristiano. Even though my limited Spanish means I couldn’t understand everything the speakers shared at the conference, I loved being there! The passion and sincerity I saw in the people sharing and attending the conference, as well as the incredible hospitality that I am finding typical of South America, were contagious.

Centro Cristiano in Bogota has an amazing group of young women who dance at church every weekend, and they all made the trip to Cucuta to share their dancing at the conference as well. I loved being able to spend the week with these girls, each one of them so mature and so kind. They taught me some Spanish rap, always made sure I was comfortable, and truly blew me away with their selflessness and love for the Lord. I got to sleep in a bed, in a room with air conditioning, and I was still tired every day; all these girls (11 of them) slept on the floor of a classroom with a fan, and they still smiled all day, every day. Great memories with a great group of girls.

In addition to spending lots of time at the church, we got to explore a little bit, too. Swimming in the river, driving over to Venezuela, a quick stop at some kind of outdoor factory where they hand make roof tiles and bricks, and enjoying fresh ice cream at the end of a long day all made their way into the agenda!



Being in Cucuta made me love Colombia even more...

different park, same problem

I’m thinking we should find a place to play that is at least 100 yards from the nearest “ball trap,” but that is harder than you might think around here. Until we can, we’ll just continue to rely on teamwork and creativity…

How to get your ball out of a canal:

1. Assess the situation

2. Determine who has slightly longer legs

3. Help a brother out


The smiles of victory when the ball is safely back in our hands is worth every minute it takes to get it out!

maybe

One day a week, I teach a short English class to the kids at La Fundacion. This week, there were 35 little ninos anxiously waiting when I got there, and I walked into the room to a whole lot of “Hi teeesshherr!” greetings. As I mentioned in an earlier entry, some of the kids go to school and others don’t—so in this class there are all levels of development and ability. So, we started with greetings, learned “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes,” counted to one hundred, practiced pointing out the colors around us, and we are taking a shot at memorizing Philippians 4:13 in English: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. In between all of that, there were quite a few interruptions from curious kids asking, “Teeesshherr, como se dice en Ingles… Teacher, how do you say in English…” So needless to say, it is a fun two hours, and hopefully the kids are learning something, too!

As I watched everyone copy down the words on the board, I noticed tiny little Steven, who was sitting on the floor in the front. Steven was doing his best to mimic the shape of the letters on the board, but while most kids had finished writing a sentence Steven was still on the third or fourth letter. Sometimes he would just give up and not write anything, other times he would really try and when I would ask if everyone was ready, he would look at me with a little panic in his eyes and shake his head no.

Steven is one of the kids who does not get to go to school, for reasons I do not fully know or understand. As I watched him struggle to copy what he saw, and at the same time try to hide the shame he felt, my heart just broke for this little guy. What will life be like for him next year? What will it be like in five or six years when he is a teenager? What will happen if Steven never learns to write, never learns to read, never truly understands the life and world he is living in.

The purpose of this short little English class is to teach the kids a few words in English, have a good time laughing, and together remember that God is the same God in Colombia and in California. But I think I learned more in those two hours than I taught: I learned that I can ignore the pain an inequality in the world but it will still be very real. I learned that kids like Steven want something more but have no idea how to get it. And I learned that while the problems are way bigger than the solutions are, that does not give us an excuse to give up. Because maybe in the next six weeks Steven will learn to write the alphabet, then in the months that follow he starts to understand what certain words are and eventually finds a book he can read. Maybe that leads to picking up newspapers and magazines and harder books. Maybe he’ll get to go school someday, maybe even high school, maybe even college. Maybe he will understand the life and world he is living in, and even be able to make it better for him and his family…

That’s what I think about when I see his face. And I also think that if everyone thought a little more “maybes” than the world could have more “probably.” My best friend, Kristin, reminded me a few weeks ago that there is so much we can do if we decide to not put our own mental and physical limits on God. Maybe God can and will do a whole lot more if we think He probably will.

the heart behind it

Que-li. One of the girls here drew me a picture and wrote my name on it. Que-li—because in Spanish “Que” is pronounced like “Kay” and “li” is pronounced like “lee.” So since Katie is too difficult to pronounce, much less spell, I am now just Que-li. But the thing that makes me smile the most about this picture is the effort Katarina put into figuring out how to write my name on there. She used everything she knew and came up with her best attempt at giving me a picture with my name on it.

The more I think about it, this is a lot like our walk with God. Not only are we not really speaking the same language, but He has been studying a whole lot longer than we have. So when we come to him with our best efforts at religion, with all we know and all we can make sense of, with our closest attempt at living a life that honors him and models Jesus, I sometimes think it is about as close as Que-li is to Katie.

But I still love the picture, because her heart was in it. And how amazing to know that our Heavenly Father just wants our hearts, not the outcome of our best efforts.

It's raining

When it rains here, it really, really rains. And almost every afternoon you can pretty much set your watch to a good downpour. Today after English classes, some of the kids wanted to play volleyball in the park, so we looked outside at the sun and went for it. I guess it got a little cloudy, but we were having too much fun to notice. Then one quiet little girl says “esta lloviendo… it’s raining.” Looking at the pavement I could see drops but still I said, “Vamos a terminar este juego… let’s finish this game!”

That was my second mistake (my first was wearing haviana flip flops to the park). In about 20 seconds the drops came harder, and then a little harder… and then we decided to run. Mistake number three- not grabbing the ball myself. Mateo, who personifies “little ball of energy” yells “Katie, la pelota!” and proceeds to kick it as hard as he can in my direction—except it wasn’t at all in my direction but wide right by a good 30 yards, right into the nearest canal. Four little ninos scream “NOOOOOO” and run toward it, because try telling a Colombian child to leave their ball behind—never going to happen! So, while the rain poured down Mateo, Jorge and I did our best to find long sticks to reach this ball, but none of us were tall enough so I held Jorge’s hand while he leaned way over the canal with the branch. I really did not want the kids to get in this water because it was the same color gray as the clouds raining on us, but I also knew we were going no where without the ball.

Well, we did get the ball out eventually, four soaking wet shoes later. And we ran the rest of the way home, me in flip flops, two boys in sopping wet shoes, and two girls just squealing to get out of the rain. I hope I didn’t lose supervisor privileges because of our day at the park!

Sonia

I think she might have one of the most important jobs in the world. Day in and day out, she visits the families hurting the most in this neighborhood. She shows them compassion and love, and never leaves without a powerful prayer of encouragement. Everyone knows Sonia, and everyone loves and trusts her. But, Sonia does not mess around either. She sets a high standard for the families she works with, encourages them to go to church, to get the kids to school, and to work hard. She believes in help but not handouts, sympathy but not apathy, strength and not surrender. Sonia is walking grace and truth. I've been spending at least part of the last few days with her, gone with her on home visits, and seen her interact with both parents and kids from la Fundacion. In my eyes, Sonia is a saint, and I am beyond blessed to be in the wake of this woman while I am here in Bogota.