Catching up on our week in Barranquilla.

With long and busy days, we want to apologize for not bringing you up to date sooner. --- --- Last Thursday was the “Bullying Seminar”. We did give you an overview of our morning session, so here is the update for our evening session. --- --- Everyone seems to have great discussion around his or her tables. Some needed to translate every word in English due to little understanding of our language, yet it was not a barrier to the understanding of the topic and the great need to find solutions to help those who have been bullied or are still in the midst of this horrific predicament. Young and old, boys and girls, they all related to this and many had great recommendation as they used the language skills we had taught them in the first part of the week. --- --- Amanda shared her story, which related to bullying during her high school years, yet did not share how it was resolved. Three questions were put to the group: --- --- 1. Suggestions for Amanda --- --- 2. Suggestions for the Principle --- --- 3. Suggestions for her parents. --- --- Every person was asked to write his or her suggestion. Then a few were asked to share them up front. All of us were touched as they spoke clearly from the heart. --- --- The evening was a great success and we believe without a doubt that the Spirit of our Lord was surrounding us, as we truly felt lifted up. Every day, we were building relationships with them and we knew that there was only one day left with them. --- --- --- Preparing our last seminar on “Decision Making” was exciting as we truly wanted to communicate to them that the best decision is: “for Jesus”. Made some changes of the session for the morning as the students were much younger than expected. Friday - - - Our last day. --- --- First day that Katie and Michelle can join us in the morning. Katie is feeling much better. --- --- The kids were waiting for us as we arrived. Bus was a bit late! They seemed very happy to see us all. --- ---Throughout the morning the kids were teary eyed, they also felt a tug in their hearts, as they knew that this was our last day. The kids had evolved so much in 5 days. Again, we saw our amazing God work through our lack of skills to communicate with them. How awesome it was to realize that even with a lack of attention thought-out the week to our teaching curriculum, many of them were truly attentive to our gestures and our honesty. Wow! The impact we had was truly a wonderful surprise to us. Just before the end of the morning, a few students from grade 11 wanted to show us a power point they had made of the whole week. “Gracias Por Todo” They had taken pictures of everyone and again, we were touched by the warm and loving gesture they showed us. Other students wrote beautiful letters (in English) and share them with the whole group. Letters, which will impact us greatly, as we remember the week in Barranquilla with the students at this school. It was hard to say good buy to them; they didn’t want us to leave. --- --- We were invited for lunch by Sonia, the principal. Ladies from the church, which also meets at the school, had prepared a nutritional lunch for all of us. It was truly humbling to be served with so much genuine love and attention. Sonia gladly gave us a small tour of the school. (Pictures below of the nursery and younger grades.) The classes were in session for the older kids, so we did not disrupt them. --- --- --- Once back at the hotel, with less than 15 minutes to change, we were transported to our first leisure afternoon of the week. It was great to take a break from the city as Pastor Milton and his wife along with members of the church in Barranquilla drove us to a cottage along the coast. First time at the beach☺ Those of us who made it there were so glad to rest and walk along the ocean. It was not a place to swim; yet there was a swimming pool where some enjoyed greatly the refreshing water, as the heat had been extreme all week. Enjoyable afternoon and it was wonderful to enjoy this time with our Colombian translators and the group from the church in Barranquilla. Before we realized it, it was time to go again to prepare for the evening session. --- --- Similar situation as in the morning, as people arrived, you could feel the sadness from them as they knew this was our last evening together. Many wanted this to continue for another week or so, God is making an impact with ESL here in Barranquilla. --- --- the session started and again great discussion around the table. Amanda shared her God story today. What an impact our God stories have had throughout the week. Near the end of the evening Rick brought a small message about making a “decision” for Jesus. Leading people to speak with the church members or any of the Canadian Team if they wanted. Please pray for those who are “on the fence” as Rick mentioned that we can not stay there. The message was clear, it is time to decide. --- --- --- The evening was wrapped up by Pastor Milton inviting the group to come to church on Sunday and to speak with someone about their decision. People just started to hug each of us and it took a while for some to leave. --- --- After much laughter, tears and hugs, we were driven back to our hotel. Saturday, being our last day in Barranquilla, Pastor Milton had planned a wonderful hike near Santa Marta. We drove to “Parque Nacional Tayrona”. Left early, it is a 2 ½ hour drive to the park. Once there, we walked up and down and were in awe at the beauty that surrounded us. Excellent views on a 2 hour + hike through tropical jungle with beautiful beaches. The group hiked together until we arrived at the first nice swimming beach and had lunch there as well. The group then moved on to another beach called “La Piscina” Nicole stayed behind due to her knee giving her some problems after the long hike. Michelle also needed some rest and decided to stay behind as well. For the hike back, I (Nicole) was able to take a horse ride and what a wonderful experience. Felt like riding the western trails through the jungle and mountains. The horse was very gentle and knew the way. No need to guide him at all, so I enjoyed the view of the jungle, the narrow passages through the rocks. Awesome, I arrived ½ hour earlier and enjoyed chatting with Colombians as they notice my Canadian Flag on my pack. People are curious and so friendly. As the group joined me, we headed back to pack up as we left early Sunday morning for Medellin. What a blessing is was to share this whole trip with all of you and see how God worked in his time for all of us. Written by: Nicole --- --- ---

Still heading home

Team member Nick has made it safely to Ottawa. Hoping he got some rest before starting work today. Team from Revelstoke made it to Houston at 5:41 this morning. Now heading for Calgary. Nicole - Had a great night's rest and hoping to have the morning to re-energize before starting on the plan for the Speaking Centre Conversational Sessions. Claudia mentioned that many are eager to start and plans are to get them going as early as Tuesday. Time for some Colombian Coffee, before I send out the updates for Thursday evening and Friday's activities. Don't miss reading the AMAZING WORK GOD did during our last two sessions in Barranquilla! Buenos Dias Nicole

On our way home!!!

Hola from Colombia, --- --- Left Barranquilla early this morning. So HOT!!! --- --- Arrived in Medellin around 9:00 am. Cooler - nice --- --- As soon as we landed, we had to say our good bye to Nick heading for Ottawa. --- --- Also said good bye to Sara, Jennifer, Jenni and Juan Pablo. Lots of emotions happening at the airport. --- --- Day spent near the Airport. Revelstoke team left around 9:00 pm, more emotions and tears from both Colombians and Canadian Team Members. Left Nicole behind for another 2 weeks. Staying at the Cardona's for the night. Sonya just sent a message - arrived in Bogota 10:39. Please pray for safe travels for all. Nick should be in Ottawa by 1:00 a.m. The Revelstoke team will keep me posted when possible. Nicole

Leaving Barranquilla soon

Good evening, --- --- Just a short version of the past few days. Will be able to write more details when back in Medellin on Sunday. --- --- The last two days in Barranquilla were full of activities and emotions. Students always hate to see us go. It's amazing the transformation that happens in 5 days of ESL as we build relationships with the students, young and old. By Friday, we were all touched by the wonderful send off the students from the school gave us. God truly worked through our weaknesses as we tried in many way to communicate as so many barely spoke any words of English. More stories to come. --- --- Prayer request. --- --- Everyone is flying out in the early morning hours again, back to Medellin. Leaving our Hotel by 5:30 AM and hoping on the plane for a 7:55 take off. --- --- Nick is flying out of Medellin around 10:40 to head for Toronto and then Ottawa. Please pray for good timing for him and also that all suitcases and transfers are done on time. He should arrive in Ottawa by 1:00 am. --- --- As for the Team from Revelstoke and Nicole (who is staying an extra 2 weeks), they will be flying to Medellin as well. (same flight as Nick) going to a church near the airport where Rick is to preach and some will be helping for worship. --- --- The Revelstoke team will be spending the day with the Colombians until they leave in the evening for a long day of travel. Will keep you updated as much as we can. --- --- Praise --- --- We are extremely grateful for the support all have given us and we saw the blessings God showered on us through the week in Medellin and then again in Barranquilla. --- --- Grateful for the teachers at the school as they continue to help the student with English. Sonia, the principal of the school is also the Pastor of the church that worship in the same school on Sundays. Please pray for her as her schedule is packed. --- --- Hope to be able to provide you with updates in the next few day. Everything depends on the internet access. --- --- The team.

Morning Session on Bullying

Greetings from Barranquilla. --- --- This morning on the hour bus ride to teach the children, Brad reminded everyone that there is only 4 days left in Colombia!!! Most of us were completely taken aback as to how time is going so fast. Nicole will be staying for another 2 weeks in Medellin to start the work in the Speaking Centre with Diego and Claudia. --- --- This morning’s session we all noticed that the children arrived quietly and seemed to be more engaged in the lesson than they have been previously this week. It was a complete answer to prayer and an encouragement to us who were feeling a bit overwhelmed during the teaching sessions. --- --- Laura and Jordan did an excellent job with the upfront teaching and it’s been really cool to see Jordan coming alive and being more confident while he’s up front. He’s getting really into it and the kids and adult students really love his enthusiasm… it’s matching Laura’s spunk (she’s amazing up front and is talented at teaching English! We are really thankful for her). --- --- Our translator Sara is doing such a great job at interpreting for us and we are so thankful for her and for all of our other translators…where would we be without them??! --- --- Our talk on bullying went very well, with all of the adjustments (you’d never know we changed it, it went so smoothly). Amanda filled in with a bullying story for Michelle who stayed at the hotel again with Katie. --- --- We are glad to report that Katie seems to be doing a bit better than she has been all week long. However we would still appreciate your prayers for a full recovery. --- --- It is a stark contrast from the morning session to the evening session, as we have written already, but we’d like to emphasize how much we appreciate teaching the night class. The adults are really enjoying what they are learning and for them to be able to practice the English words they already know with us is such a blessing they say. --- --- We have been showing short video clips of each town that we come from (Ottawa, Revelstoke, Vancouver and Vancouver Island) at the start of each class and it’s neat to see the students engaged in where we come from. Our open-ended question time, where they can ask us about ourselves has been really great. (The students get to use the words/phrases we have been teaching them and it’s so great to see the “light” bulb coming on when they figure out words. --- --- Yesterday afternoon we decided to teach our Colombian translators what “Floats” are. We bought ice cream and soda pop and they loved it!!! How sweet to be able to share a wee bit of our culture with them! ☺ --- --- PRAISE REPORTS: --- --- Katie is feeling better --- --- Some of our tables seemed more engaged with us during this morning's session. --- --- The water hasn’t affected us in a bad way (yet… keep praying!!!) --- --- PRAYER REQUESTS: --- --- Full recovery for Katie --- --- Nicole's knee is still bothering her --- --- Continued strength/stamina for our teachers, translators, and people teaching at the tables. --- --- Please pray that Friday as we discuss "DECISION MAKING" that we communicate clearly the truth and are able to share our faith boldly with those we are interacting with at our tables (that is mainly why we are here right?!) --- --- To be able to use our time wisely for the remainder of our trip. --- --- Written by Amanda --- ===

New prayer request

We have changed our lesson for Thursday morning to better suit the students. As we mentioned our topic is on bullying and we would so appreciate your prayers that we would great discussion around our tables. Please pray that we would have the words to say and discernment to know when a student needs to talk with an adult. thanks so much.

Melting Mid Week

Enjoying such wonderful hot weather quite a change from our Canadian Winter! --- --- --- Prayer request --- --- Kaitie still has some discomfort in her stomach and is feeling weak. Unfortunately she has not been able to participate in the morning ESL sessions here in Barranquilla. She did come on Monday evening, but on Tuesday and Wednesday needed to rest. Michelle has stayed with her during this time. Please pray for complete recovery for Kaitie so she can be part of the teaching again and join us in the last few days in Barranquilla. --- Nicole’s voice is getting better. Reducing her chatting and keeping her voice for the session seems to be working well. If you could continue to pray for healing for her knee that would be much appreciated. --- Our morning ESL in Barranquilla has been very challenging. The first few days we found it difficult to even cultivate relationships with the students. It almost felt like we were teaching at an insurmountable wall. It is quite different teaching young students as opposed to adults who desire to be learning English. We keep reminding ourselves that we are here for God and to represent his love to these students. Today, we had a break through. And we know this is only because of God. The students were much more engaged and each of the facilitators at the tables felt like they were finally building relationships with them. We ask that you would continue to pray for us – especially as we make alterations to the two seminars that are left. These are big topics (bullying and decision making) and we want these topics to give us opportunity for good discussion, and ultimately to share the love of Jesus. --- Laura, Eleanor, Nicole & Sarah (our main translator) worked late last night after the evening session to plan and organize the 3rd lesson for the early morning activities. Melissa & Nick also worked together to translate his testimony as he was sharing it on Wednesday - both morning and evening. Nick’s testimony this morning talked about God’s love for him, and that this same love was available to the students as well. We pray that it will have an impact on their hearts. --- Laura and Eleanor were teaching and managed to keep everyone motivated this morning and on track even with the changes. Brad mentioned that his table had more interest this morning and he was encouraged. Nicole has also found that the girls at her table were more understanding and willing to share their thoughts as we taught them how to share their “opinions”. --- We did notice that discipline is a problem and bullying is all around, even as we work throughout the sessions. It will be interesting to see how God will work in the hearts of the young teens as we talk about bullying tomorrow. Both girls and boys are very aggressive towards each other, in words and actions. Jennifer mentioned that: it is important for the children learn from people from other countries and their culture because when they grow up they will remember what they learn when they were young and it could be a motivation to change their future. --- --- PRAISE --- Melissa would like to thank everyone for praying for her interview for Qwanoes. How cool that she had friends in a completely different country praying for her. She is so grateful. --- Sara is very thankful about the prayers for Qwanoes as she also was accepted to work at the camp this coming summer in Vancouver BC. She is really glad to be on this trip because she sees the importance of each part of the body in this team. --- Juan Pablo is very comfortable around the table in the evening session because it is like we are talking between friends. It is really interesting seeing how each and everyone of our participants is eager to maintain a good English conversation with both Nicole and myself. --- During the evening session, Adam found that everyone was happy to talk in English and share willingly. There was a lot of laughter around the table, which really shows the comfort, and building of relationships that is taking place. --- Philip truly enjoys teaching kids, as they are very energetic and fun. They have bonded with him and they are excited because we are from Canada and they feel very fortunate which is encouraging for Philip. They are very curious about him and about the English language even the one who are not so comfortable still want to be involved. ---

Catching up in Colombia

Good morning everyone, Writing to give you an update from our weekend. The blog is not working where we are right now, so here is an update of our weekend. By the way, it's 2:10 A.M. - can't sleep, and will need to get going in about 1 hour, so thinking would be nice to have a coffee but everyone else is sleeping and Jordan is actually sleeping in the kitchen apartment, so not a good idea to wake him up, from what I've been told. Decided to eat my KitKat...mmm. (I had to move into the apartment with 4 of the Revelstoke team were staying as my host family left early for a vacation.) Being flexible with the joy of the Lord...) It's been as busy as the week was, yet not as stressful. We have been lacking time to work on the computer as we don't always have the internet when there is some free time. Rick and myself lost our voice completely on Friday evening, we managed with our translators to work with our groups at the table. Mine is Yuan Pablo, he is 16 and has great charisma with everyone and wonderful english. Because I'm also doing the power point for the sessions, I'm up and down from my table to the sound booth, so Yuan Pablo is doing a good job co-teaching for me. My lack of voice did not change the flow of the lessons at all. Friday evening was our Decision Making Seminar and much discussions around every table was flowing. Every team member reported good english conversation, people expressing there Opinions the way they were taught during the week. Then Diego gave a small message near the end for people to make a decision on Jesus, and invited people to come to church and also say goodbye to the Canadian Team. Saturday, Rick took a day of rest as he was giving two messages on Sunday. One in the morning at El Redil del Sur and another in the afternoon at SanDiego church. (Diego has been pastoring another church for the past 2 months as the SanDiego Church has lost their Pastor. They are struggling and ask Diego to help them out) did not mention what happened? Please pray for Diego and Claudia as this is very stressful for them - working in two communities - ( ex: church would be in Orleans in the morning and then having to drive to the west end of the city to preach again and care for the people of two churches throughout the week) On Sunday, Rick's voice was miraculously restored. He was able to preach and many of us worked in the children's program. Katie, the youngest of the Team organized games and crafts and bible studies. she did a great job. I was put in the nursery, because my voice was still but a small whisper, so please continue to pray as the week in Barranquilla will be challenging. We have two groups and most of them are students from High School and University. We did the same in the other church, yet less children and no babies so I was able to stay in the service and hear the message. Praise - Rick's voice was restored. people responded well to Diego's call to come to church. some students from the ESL came as they were touched by our testimonies during the week. more registration for the Speaking Centre which Diego mentioned on Thursday/Friday and again on Sunday, that I would be there for another two weeks and people signed up on Sunday for classes. Prayer needs My voice (Nicole) Safety in Barranquilla (if your up early enough, pray for our flight which leaves 6:00 am Colombian Time - Ottawa 7:00 am - Revelstoke time (sorry, but I'm not sure and Jordan and Michelle and Katie and Rick are still sleeping) Pray for Stamina as we work both session - some morning - some afternoon - and every evening. Health for everyone as we adapt to new climate - it has been cool in Medellin so very comfortable, we are told that it will be very hot in Barranquilla. WE HOPE TO HAVE THE INTERNET IN BARRAQUILLA to be able to communicate more through the Blog, so if you don't hear from us, don't worry. We will do our best to communicate with everyone. Blessings and hope you can forward to friends. Nicole Below is an update Nick wrote to the men's group, (he gave me permission to send it to everyone) some may have received this already. [Nicole, you can use and edit this for the blog if you want] Just back from our little day trip. We went to Guatape to see "La Piedra Del Penol", a big rock with a mere 740 steps stairway to it´s very top, plus a small tower. We all made it in good time and enjoyed the view of the reservoir. We then headed to the very colorful town were you can determine what each commerce is about by the mosaic on it front wall. We all decided to try this zip line that usually run over water. I say "usually" because the low water level meant that it runs over land right now. The whole thing was an interesting experience to say the least. Maybe the $5 cost should have been a red flag to us, but who can pass that good a deal. I guess that plays right into yesterday´s seminar/english lesson about decision making where the students said that the most common way of making a decision is... impulse. Peer pressure was in there somewhere too. :) No instructions, simple finger pointing to sit in contraption, get trolleyed up to the high point squished with your friends, hear click, get shoved off to where you came from, ram into mattress to stop. Quick enough to not entirely realize what just happen, but fun nonetheless. We then had to rush off before the rain storm hit. Since we didn´t listen to our mothers advice to put sunscreen on, many will be shedding skin soon. Lesson learned for our upcoming time in the hoter Barranquilla, I hope. A neat thing happen on the rock. On the way up, someone from our group asked a gentleman what was in the bag he was carrying (so I was told). While at the top, I noticed a gentleman praying with his family, turns out it was the same gentleman. They were in the process of disposing of his father´s ashes. He asked if we could also pray; we obliged gladly. They went on to throw the hashes in the wind a handful at a time. Quite emotional. A bit more on this past week. On morning after a session we were taken on the metro to the metro cable; that´s the gondola part of the metro system. It leads into the poor section of town. Nothing I haven´t seen before, but always troubling. It is amazing to see the government trying to help that part of the population, though. For starters, the metro cable give the whole area easy access to the main city where the work is located. For seconds, it built apartments to host the athletes of a major football/soccer event and give them to the people. Unfortunately, poverty is not a simple issue to fix, but it doesn´t hurt to at least try. On Friday, our last day with english classes in Medellin, me and another team member (Brad) attended a men´s community group. This was during the morning session, so it was not a big deal due a lower number of students. We were able to join the end of the session and say our goodbyes. I was glad. Men are men, and the dynamic seem to be universal to any country of the world. Brad and I unexpectedly got called on to give our testimony. Brad had given his a couple times already during sessions, but as for me, I was still polishing it for next week. As christians, we are told to always be ready to give the reason for our hope, so I had to wing it. Both our testimony connected with someone present. In mine, I added the fact that my parents had moved from the catholic to evangelical faith. This detail is not in my current written version. This triggered some tough, but very good, questions from a new believer. We admitted not being any sort of experts, and shared our experience and opinion. Ironically, sharing opinions is also one of our english lesson. :) In the evening, we said our goodbyes to our many students. Each table leader would have had a different experience, so I will simply say that everyone had a blast. The survey results show that practically every student had a good time and enjoyed the way english was taught. The way we feel about our performance then becomes irrelevant because this mission is not about us. Tomorrow, Sunday, we participate in two church services and head out really really early Monday morning to Barranquilla for our second week. This will not be goodbye to our Medellin friends and new families, but only "hasta luego". Written by Nicole and Nick pictures from Brenda

Thursday's Events

Hola from Colombia, We apologize for the format of the blog for the past couple of days, we are working on a different computer and it does not post properly. Yesterday's sessions were outstanding. God's power could be felt through the room, both in the morning and evening. During our morning session our main translator, Jean was having surgery and we were able to use one of the students, Brian, whose english is amazing, very funny and vibrant. Everyone had a blast. My (Nicole) testimony was given near the end of the evening with 15 minutes for people to respond to one question: Have you been bullied by satan? The conversations around the tables were very open and many identified to my story and shared with us and others around the table. How amazing, remember most of these people only met 4 days ago and have already built a friendship with each other and us. For example: I have a school teacher at my table named Eliana and she teaches children who are mentally challenged as well as physically challenged and some deaf/mute. She shared that during the afternoon class, a young teenager came to her and disclosed that she felt unwanted and unloved by her parent because all the attention is given towards her handicapped brother. This young girl has no hope and is wanting to take her life. With the language student learned all week in the ESL they were giving great advice about the situation to Eliana. One person even shared that without Jesus, she would never find hope, and recommended that Eliana share Jesus' love with her. At the end of the evening, everyone wanted to pray for both Eliana and the student. This is only one example of what God has done throughout the week at each table. During the evening session Diego had a survey done to evaluate the week's lesson plan and invite people to the Speaking Centre for a continuous Conversational English Program. It looks like the response is positive. The most humbling thing that is happening this week, is that the Colombian hosts are amazing. Some get up at 5:30 to make us coffee and fresh squeezed juice, some even make us a hot breakfast. There is a group from El Redil who come every morning at 6:30 and pray for us as we head to the business centre. God's people are praying throughout and we are blessed by the great support Colombians, the people from Revelstoke and those from Ottawa and around the world are giving to our team. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! The people from El Redil wanted to take us downtown to show us the city centre during the downtime in between sessions. Most of us went and got to enjoy more of the Colombian Culture and experience the hustle and bustle of Medellin. Part of the Metro was shut down and caused an overflow of people in the centre of the city making it a challenge to walk around. There was as many people crammed into the Main Metro System than there is in Revelstoke! (Around 8,000) PRAISE ITEMS Amanda and Nick were teaching Thursday evening and did an amazing job. Neither of them fainted:) It has been very neat to see the interaction around all the tables, constantly getting deeper. Melissa, one of our table interpreters who also applied for the Canadian Summer Camp on Vancouver Island was accepted today. PRAYER ITEMS Diego will invite people this evening to come to church this Sunday, please pray they come and that they connect with someone at El Redil once the Canadian Team is gone. written by: Nicole & Amanda

Wednesdays Wonders

After a good nights sleep despite the rain pounding down outside our host families houses and a wet walk to our meeting place, we gathered to pray and start our day. We feel as though our morning teaching has been going really well.We feel as though the students have warmed up to us. We have been having some really neat discussions with our students at our tables. These discussions can be varied about things in their lives or the topics we are teaching about. We are feeling our way into being more bold about our faith with the students and sharing about God in the work place. After our morning teaching time, our groups went with two guys from Vancouver Island, Adam and Phillip (Jen Eadie's second cousin)for a tour of Medellin via the Metro. We took the cable car ride, which is quite similar to taking the gondola in Revelstoke. It was such a contrast seeing the different lives that people in this city lead. We got to see some of the poorest of the poor, The imagery that was right before our eyes was shocking; shanty's, cardboard huts, as well as Colombian highrise apartments, and at the top of the gondola on the way down were some very classy looking individual dwellings. It seems so surreal that some can live in such fancy accomodation while others struggle to find something to cover their heads. We got to experience another wonderful homemade Colombian lunch, made by some ladies from the church. You should see the size of the avocados!!! (4 of ours would fit into one of theirs!) The same girls, minus Amanda, went back to the Orphanage (about a 15 min. taxi ride) for a second time. They took a suitcase full of clothes, shoes, candies and stickers for the children. The children were grateful for the company, as starving as they were for attention. The children had their homework, and some got to practice their Spanish while helping them with their English. The childrens ages were 2-17 years old. Sara Cardona (18 years of age whom we have been working with the last few years we have been here and who is one of our translators) has been accepted to the partner camp of SunnyBrae, Qwanoes, on Vancouver Island. ANSWERED PRAYER: We are thankful for our team bonding. We had a really great team discussion about how people are feeling this morning and how we need to continue to put God first during our time here, despite how busy we can become. We are all healthy. PRAYER REQUESTS: Please pray for Nicole's knee as it is bothering her. Melissa, also a Colombian girl who is one of our translators, and has also applied for the same camp as Sarah has an interview for the camp tomorrow. Please pray for her as she interviews. Good weather, it makes a difference for how many students come out to our evening English classes. Please pray for God's direction in partnering with the Orphanage in the future. *****Written by Brenda and Amanda**********

Tuesdays Tornado

PRAISE:

We are happy to share that at our tables during the English lessons we have started to form some great relationships with the students.

Mauricio the leader of the group has decided to start going to a men's Bible group led by Diego!!!

MORNING SESSION:

During our morning session we believe that we have been able to bond with the Business students quite a bit. They seem genuinely excited to see us. It seems as though it's easier to make connections with the group in the morning, perhaps because it's a smaller group and they all know each other from work.

ORPHANAGE:

The other half of the group (Brenda, Sonya, Michelle, Katie and "Photographer" Amanda) were able to go for an afternoon tour of the Orphanage "Elena Juan" that Diego's church is trying to partner with. The intent is to create a bridge to a new outlet for outreach closer to El Redil del Sur Church.
They only wanted a small amount of people to go on the initial contact trip so that they could build a trust that Claudia and Diego can work on.

We believe it went well. It was really great to see the whole facility and have an explanation of what they do. It was very neat to see one little girl that latched onto Katie from the start to finish and did not let go. All of the food for the children and clothes come by donation (they say that they have never gone without-however at some points all the kids had to eat was a piece of bread and a hot drink for a meal). People are able to sponsor the kids if they please. There will be more information about this after the group comes back this afternoon from their second visit.

EVENING SESSION:

Brad and Michelle led the session at night time. The topic was about "Giving Advice". We noticed how the students started to become less shy and more interactive. During our intermingling game it was great to watch all of the students eagerly participating.
It was Katie's turn to share her God-story, and she did a wonderful job of interacting with the crowd while sharing how impacting God's work in her life meant to her. The emotion with which she shared about the real things happening in her life and how God's been her rock through it all spoke to the crowd.

Sooo did you wonder Tornado was all about???? A big rain storm blew through just before the evening service but it did not keep the people away from our English lesson at night.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. Continued prayer for Mauricio

2.  For the desired bridge from the church to the orphanage would take place and flourish

3.  For deepening of relationships with our students


**** Pictures to follow on our next blog****

-----Written by Brad and Amanda------

Monday's Re-Cap

 Here is a re-cap from yesterday.

Our day started earlier than we were prepared for.  We met at 6:30am to set up the classroom for a group of business people that sells insurance in Texas. There are only 4 people at the group that currently speak English. 

Last night we also taught the same English lesson which we taught in the morning (we will be teaching the same lessons each day/night to the two different groups all week). 

Our host Diego and his people were quite discouraged as we went into starting to teach the English. We only had 50 people signed up for the lessons at night. 

We did what anyone would do in this situation... We called on the Name of the Almighty and asked Him to draw people to us. We had handed out flyers the day before and had a very great prayer time. 

What sticks out to us from the prayers is how Diego specifically prayed that as we "had casted out our nets" like the verse in John 21:1-7 talks about that we would see many people turn up. 

We are SO THANKFUL for all of you back home that have also sent out your prayers for this situation.. AND we are stoked to let you know that... not only did the 50 people show up but in total we had 120 people come out last night to our English class... we were blown away... God you never cease to amaze us!!

Last night among the chaos of having more people than expected, it being our first night teaching after a long day and our nerves we would like to say that as a group we worked well together, helped each other out and are proud of each other.

Brad was the "lucky" one that got to go first and and share his testimony with the masses. We are so proud of him. He did such a good job in sharing how God has changed his life. We wish you could have been here to see the awe in which people were listening to his every word.

His passion showed through as you looked around the room,  many people were being touched. Such a great moment!!!!

Brad also shared his testimony (in a shorter form) this morning in the business group and people kept asking if it was a "real story" at the tables, but once he started into the thick of it, he had captured their attention and you could tell that they were moved. One of the ladies spoke up at the end and said to him, "we are all your friends Brad".

The work of God is amazing in peoples lives!!!!!

Another great experience we had yesterday was different man named Diego overheard us saying on our hour break that we were hoping to find some Colombian ice cream (helado as the locals say). He dropped everything he was doing, and basically took us on a sweet adventure around town, we got some ice cream and a cultural lesson. I don't know many people back home who would drop everything they are doing to show a bunch of foreigners around (whom they can't fully communicate with). It was pretty humbling.

We anticipate many more stories as such and are SO THANKFUL for all of you back home who are praying for us. Without you we could not be covered so well in prayer and we KNOW that because of you many more people showed up last night for the  English lessons.

Please continue to pray against any attacks the enemy may have on us to discourage us.

For our health (the long days are taking a toll)

And for God to continue to work in the lives of those we are meeting.

That we may be bold in our faith despite the language difference.

Also we ask for prayer for rest.

SPECIAL PRAYER REQUEST:

The head of the business group that we are teaching each morning this week is named Mauricio. He communicated to us that he is a Christian and that he would like prayer for him and his family. Two days ago he ended up telling a Paramilitary group that he would no longer pay protection money. They came to his house that evening  (our first day teaching), with guns to threaten him and his family. 

We have been praying for safety for him and his family, protection over them and salvation for the Paramilitary people (God can do all things- what satan means for evil God can work out for good!!!).

We would ask that you would do the same.

Just a note this doesn't affect any of us in the group, we are all safe and sound. We simply share this is so that you can pray with us about this situation.

Morning Session

After Adventure

Evening Session

Jumping In

After a full nights sleep, we have jumped right in and started COLOMBIANIZING ourselves (thats a word I promise). We attended El Redil Sur and were welcomed like we were family. Diego preached from James on prayer and he broke the church into groups and we spent time praying for each other (with one canadian in each group). Many of us could barely understand but in that moment we were all family - and God knew what our prayers were.
Now were are practicing for tomorrow. We are teaching a group of business people tomorrow from 7am-9am. Pray for energy and strength as this is an early start! :) There are 25 students so only 8 of us are going- Jordan, Brad and I (Laura) will be teaching and Rick, Eleanor, Nicole, Nick and Amanda will facilitate. Pray that through the changes we will still be effective in our teaching.
We are excited for the teaching to start. Continue to pray for the students, and for God to amaze us with the number of students who do attend! Even though the Colombians  have been amazing at advertizing, and promoting, the numbers are still low. We have all been feeling like this is a spiritual thing and ask that you would pray into that.
We are all doing well.
We love you all!
More to come tomorrow.

~Laura

Hey friends! Yesterday we met many new friends who are going to be helping us teach english. We handed out flyers around the area to invite people to learn english. This mornimg we are heading to church amd after practising for our english lessons. So far its been so much fun, we are rested and eating lots of colombian food! Please pray that we get lots of people out for our english classes and that the group will stay healthy and happy! Thanks!

we are in medellin and safe! :)

In texas! Heading to Bogota in 2 hours! Please pray for safety. Thanks!

Hey everyone! We got to calgary safely! A big thanks to jason and ken for driving us!!!!:) we leave for texas at 1 pm and then we have another 5 hour layover and then we will be off to Bogata and then off to medillian ! Because of the road closures, we were not able to drive to kelowna so we just drove to calgary to catch our 2nd flght here. Laura is now safely with us as well. Thank you for all the prayers! Please pray for jason and ken for safe travels on ttheir way home and that the weather will be good for them! Thanks everyone!            -kaitie howard

Waiting for the Roads to Open!!!

As a typical Revelstoke farewell should be, we have been welcomed with avalanche control this evening as we await our departure.
This is a good time to get you all excited about this trip as well!!!
We leave Revelstoke sometime tonight to start this God-given adventure and are waiting with anticipation for what is ahead.
We will be driving tonight and spending the night on a church floor, to avoid missing out flights out of Kelowna tomorrow.
Please pray for safety as the road conditions are not great at this time.
Please also pray for protection for us, that our nerves would be calm, and that we would be expectant of a mighty movement in the hearts of those we encounter along the way and upon our arrival in Colombia.
We hope that you follow our journey while we are down in Colombia. We will be updating the blog every day while we are away.

Thank you again for your participation in our journey, for your prayers, financial support, your thoughts as well as encouragement
Praise and Honor to God for what He is about to do in our lives and in the lives of others!!!