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