Keeping Focus

Dear family and friends,


I have to confess that sometimes it is hard for me to keep my life centred on the real meaning of Christmas. I fall in the trap of the world of forgetting or ignoring what Christmas really means.

In Bogotá, people are rushing to the shopping malls to do their last minute purchases. I went today with Simon to three of these huge malls looking for a propane gas stove with an oven for one of our ministry’s houses. The two young ladies (Bibiana from Venezuela & Jessica from the US), who live in the “Kiwi House” are keen to do some baking for their Christmas meal with the kids they look after. Simon and I were happy to leave behind the rush and hectic atmosphere of the shoppers

Anyway, after meditating on my life and how I lose focus on this season, I started thanking God for willing to leave Heaven behind and come as a baby to experience what we humans experience everyday on earth. Christmas started making more sense to me. I’m so thankful that some years ago some thoughtful people did not get dishearten when I was so reluctant to accept the message of the free gift that Jesus gave us more than 2000 years ago.

This month’s highlights:

Thanks to a friend who is graphic designer, we were able to get a brochure of the ministry produced. We handed a couple of hundred out to people attending a ballet over 4 nights. The ballet was focused on awareness of children at risk. We had a stand at the functions and one of the youth was able to share his testimony with the dancers. This was a whole new experience as we usually talk about the ministry in churches.

A thank you afternoon tea that we organized for supporters of the ministry went well. Many people have given or helped in one area or another of the ministry and it was good to be able to talk to them about the whole process. Again, a youth shared his testimony and they could see the fruit of their giving. We feel very blessed to have so many people help in the work, it was good to be able to say “thank you”.

The usual Christmas end of year party for the fulltime volunteers was a bit different. We went to a park with a team of Venezuelans who were visiting. Lots of noise and good food was shared by the 70 who attended.

An outing with some of our foreign missionaries

Our director, Steve Bartel playing "Granpa"

We have had a lot of sickness in the family this month, colds and bronchitis mostly. Simon and Gabriela are still on the mend. Please pray that they will be healthy soon.
Today is the 24th here so no sleep. We get to have a big dinner at 10:00pm or so, the kids then ride around the block in a horse and cart driven by the neighbour Santa. Midnight is when the presents are opened then around 2pm we hit the sack.

The extended Paez family, grandparents, aunts and uncles and the 10 kids are going this weekend on holiday for a week. From cold and wet Bogotá we will drive a few hours and be in a warm climate staying at a house with a pool. We are looking forward to this time, though how restful 10 kids in one house are still to be seen.

We’re grateful to God for our precious family, good friends and a wonderful church family. My prayer for this holiday season is that you don’t lose focus like I sometimes do!

KEEP LOVING JESUS... IT IS ALL ABOUT HIM!!

The Paez Family

Giving Thanks

A few days ago we celebrated Thanksgiving! This is an American holiday that we have come to appreciate as we join with our American coworkers to give thanks for the blessings God gives us.
It is quite a feast with a 22 lb turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, roast chicken, a ham, healthy salads followed by ice cream and a choice of apple, pumpkin, chocolate, or peach pie. (Did that just change your idea of how missionaries suffer?) There were over 30 people at the meal most of them like myself had or were living with the Bartel family (our directors) at some time or another. One of the guests self-graduated himself when he was 17 from the ministry. He had been on the streets from 7 to 11 years of age. He is now doing well with a steady job and his own family. For the last eight years, since he left he has faithfully called to ask if he can come for thanksgiving dinner. (The food is a big drawing card but I think that sense of coming together for a family celebration is more so). When he was an adolescent he was part of a group of 5 that I was mum to for 9 months. It is good to see that the years of investment from many people into his life have had good fruit.

As our sons Alex and Simon are at an American/Colombian school they got to be a part of a Thanksgiving musical. The school has a gifted music teacher and along with the students she wrote the songs for the musical. Simon was a pilgrim and Alex an Indian. They had lots of fun!

Carlos and I have been very thankful for many things this last month. We mentioned in out last update that we received a donation for our family car. We are happy to say we got our car earlier this week and are very happy with it. It is a Kia Carens, 2002. It has 7 seats so that we can bless others and take them with us. We saw God's hand in it all – the sellers gave us a big discount, they were from Brazil and were able to receive the payment directly into their bank account from ours in NZ. Due to money laundering of drug money it is very complicated to get money transfers. You have to provide lots of paperwork to the bank to show where the money came from and what you are going to do with it. Our bank said that they still might decide not to receive the money even after they got the paperwork but return it to New Zealand. Wow, what do you do with a bank that won't receive your money? God had it in control and the sellers got the money into their account with no problems at all. To put the icing on the cake the sellers even gave us a box of chocolates.

I am very thankful for the arrival of Madeline from France. She has lots of office and administration experience and is able to help me in many ways in the office work.

Health wise: We have all had some colds but have recovered fully. The boys still made it to school each day. Carlos started a course of homeopathic drugs to build up his immune system for his allergies. This has had good results especially since he has been able to breath easily at night and get some good sleep.

We are very thankful that the money for the repairs to the ministry houses has finally arrived. Only a month behind schedule but it is here. The workers have been able to start fixing the floor in the first house and will hopefully be able to do the other repairs soon. The ceiling needs replacing and we only have funds for repair. The contractor says he won't repair it at is too damaged from termites and rain. Please pray that we find someone to repair it and do a good job. Once the repairs are finished we can then get a inspector in to start the licensing of the house.

Another pray request that we have is for Fanny Rocio. She is Carlos' cousin and is very close to his family, as her dad died when she was young. Fanny Rocio a year ago had a stomach operation to try and stop her weight gain. The consequences have been really serious. The doctors don't know what to do as she has lost so much weight and can't put any back on, she has no muscle tone and is seriously ill. The doctor a few days ago told her that another patient the same age just died from the same problem. Please pray for a miracle healing and that through this, Fanny and her immediate family would come to know Jesus as their personal savior. Today we were able to pray with her mother and she said that she has faith and can see that God is giving them this trial for a reason.

In general please join us in giving thanks for God's many blessings.

With love,

From us all.

The Value of Life

Simon at the school festival

Alex dressed as David Livingston with his friend Tono

Gabriela

We just finished putting together our ministry's calendar for next month. It was with much surprise that we put in the date November. What happened to October? Another month gone in a blur.

The highlights for this month have been:

• Alex getting a few excellent's in his school report card and passing every subject.
• Simon becoming more and more outgoing at school- his teacher says that he is doing great with working out what is English and what is Spanish.
• A visit from a fellow Kiwi for a week.
• The news that the grant we had requested for repairs for the homes of the ministry children was approved. Also a matching grant for the purchase of the drop in centre of US $25,000 was approved.
• The amazing news that some people who wish to be anonymous are going to buy us a car.
  

Prayers:

• Thank you for praying for our protection. This was evident when Carlos was robbed at gunpoint a few nights ago. He escaped without being harmed. Please keep praying for protection for us, Carlos' family and the kids and volunteers we work with. The crime rate rises sharply as Christmas gets closer.
• The fact that for some Colombians life has no value has been highlighted yet again. The city register of missing people for this year is more than 2000. It has come to light that at least 8 of these people from poor slum areas have been convinced to leave to supposedly better their lives. Without telling family they leave planning to send back money. The next news that their families have is that their bodies have been identified from dead in a common grave. Their death a result of a supposedly guerrilla and government military battle. Why a fake battle and a body count? It seems that soldiers (who are not well treated or paid here) get a few days leave for each guerrilla killed in battle. Take a persons life in exchange for a few days leave!!!. Gods presence is definitely needed here.
• Gabirela- is growing well, no more accidents, she is continuing to say more words in both English and Spanish.
• Carlos- To find the cause of his allergies and the right treatment.
• Ministry- The work we need to do to get the government licenses given for the farm houses. The adaptation of a staff house to be a children's transition house and the right staff to work in it.
• Thank God for another book for Carlos to translate. The book is titled “No Fear”- very appropriate with recent events.

With love,

Carlos & Katrina

It's nice to celebrate!

Dear family and friends,

This month was a big one for birthday Celebrations. Simon and Alex over a period of just three days had invites to five parties. There were a few more spread out in the month as well. The most important celebration for us was Alex's 11th birthday.

It doesn't seem that long ago that he was 4 and we officially adopted him, nor that since he was 22 months old under Katrina's care when he arrived to the ministry with Sarita (his biological half sister) and Juanita (soon a good friend). It is good to look back and see how blessed we have been by God to have him as part of our lives. We celebrate to see him growing into a young man of God. He enjoyed his Birthday celebration with a trip to the movies with friends.

Sarita, Juanita and Alex

Sarita, Alex and Juanita

Juanita, Alex and Sarita

Alex, Sarita and Juanita

Apart from birthdays, there have been other celebrations. September is the official month of love and friendship in Colombia. At work and in school everyone plays the game of angels or secret friend. Today we had a special lunch and exchange of token gifts among the staff. It was good to have a fun time as a team. There are 6 foreign volunteers who finish their time of service with us in the next two months so we were able to farewell the first of them also. It is always sad to say goodbyes and at times it seems to be a constant part of missionary life. Then the other side is the many hellos. Our home group is made up of most of the volunteers who are leaving so that will be coming to a natural end. We will see if there is a need for it next year with new volunteers. We enjoyed hosting and getting to know our coworkers more.

Children are the main headlines this week. Colombia as a whole is grieving and reflecting on how it treats its children. Today an 11 month old baby that was kidnapped was found dead. This has especially impacted the country as it appears that the baby's father is the one that committed these crimes so as not to pay food allowance for his son. It is hard to believe that someone would do that. Sadness and grieve have been present in our local church as well with two unexpected deaths. One was a lady that was very involved in the life of the church. She died suddenly from an illness and the other was a 22 year old who was hit by a motorbike. As the church body and Colombia goes through a time of grieving please remember us in your prayers.

In our ministry work this month there has been a lot of reading of laws and requirements and we still have a lot more to do. We are getting ready to apply to the family welfare department to accept our family based method of working with children as an official model. The main difference between us and the government institutions, apart from the smaller number of kids, are that in one house we mix the ages and gender of the children just like in a family. However, this doesn't meet current government requirements. We firmly belief that God created the family model and that is the best way for these children to be healed and also in experiencing a healthy family life they will have a good example to follow when they themselves are parents. We have to present a written proposal as to why the government should consider this method of working. Hence the reading. As a part of this process we have to train our coworkers, on the latest laws. Carlos did the first workshop with them. It was well received and most were very happy to have things explained in easy to understand language.

Prayer requests

• Gabriela- Prayer for her as her back molars are painfully coming through. Continue to pray that she would sleep through the night
• Simon- Thank the Lord that he is happy at school and has some special friends. Both Simon and Alex enjoy going to soccer practice which they started this term.
• Alex- pray for his school work and understanding of it. He needs to start to be more independent in his work and especially remember to hand his homework in. He is working really hard, next week they have a week's holiday which he is looking forward to.
• Katrina -has the usual prayer request for wisdom as she balances family life and ministry responsibilities.
• Carlos -was able to finish the translation of the book he was working on at the beginning of the month. He has also done some translation for the local church that we attend here. This all happen before his computer died. Please pray for God's provision for a new one as this is an essential tool for us.
• Also as we mentioned in the last month's update the main fund raising project that we had been working on will be presented in the next few days to a grant giving agency. Please keep this in your prayers.
• Our project of buying a car is in need of many funds. Thank God for the use of Carlos's mothers car. This has been a real blessing for us.
• Pray for God's protection over us all and safety as we go about our daily activities. We are currently on a high alert for bomb attacks especially in public places and public transport. Some buses have been burned in the city and some businesses blown up as the owners are refusing to pay extortion.
  

Thank you for your prayers and support

Until next month!
with love,
Paez family

Not the real Paradise

Alex and Simon flying a kite

The number of children attending the drop-in center and the school continues to increase. Most of the new children at the school are from a very poor area called [Paraíso] “Paradise”. There is nothing paradisiacal about the place, though it does have a nice view over the city. A small church has been planted in the area by some of our ministries past volunteers and the kids are coming as a result of their work.

At the drop-in centre the majority of the kids are coming from the surrounding neighbourhood. This is a prostitute area and most of the children's parents are involved in this or their earnings come from other illegal activities.

Some kids that go to the drop-in centre

The project of purchasing the drop-in centre house and auditorium had been going slowly. The sellers are a church and they believe, as we do ,that it is in God's plan that we become the owners. They have been very gracious as we were not able to meet a major payment. We are starting to see God's hand in the lateness of the donations coming in. That sounds strange but there is a possibility of a matching grant fund for all that is given from now on. For every $1.00 given, we will receive $2.00. We won't find out the final answer for another month but things look positive. Last week we spent most of our time just working on the proposal for this grant.

The week before a friend who is an architect agreed to help us with the plans for the remodeling of the drop-in center. She is donating a lot of her time and is even willing to do some costing for us. She had just finished working on a Christian camp that sleeps 600, so she has lots of experience in all that we need.

We are going ahead with the planning as it takes a few months for the building license to be given. We hope to have tradesmen join a missions building team to start the renovations in January. It is quite a bit of work getting things organized but it will be worth it to see 30 kids at a time enjoying a safe and healthy environment.

To write projects and apply for grants for the different areas of the ministry is just one of our tasks. Another is to make sure the houses are in a physical condition to meet government regulations. This is often a big challenge as frequently there is not the funds for the necessary maintenance. There are a lot of different regulations. Around 3 hundred pages worth. We have seen God's grace as time after time we have had favor with authorities. We have set a goal to have at least two of the houses meeting all of the regulations before the year ends.

Family wise.

The two biggest happenings have been the return of Simon and Alex to school and Gabriela's second birthday.

The boys are enjoying being back in school. Simon is very happy with his new teacher Ms Rodgers. She only speaks English which means the children have to speak in English to her. The teacher aid is bilingual so that helps some. Ms Rodgers told me the other day that Simon was telling her a story in Spanish and she told him to repeat what he was saying in English. She could see him think for a minute and then he said the whole story again but still in Spanish . At least he is trying.

Alex had a home room teacher who is very understanding of him, but at the same time pushes him to do his best. The amount of homework and the type of work he is doing is a big jump for him. He is enjoying the challenge most of the time and likes his class. He especially enjoys science class.

He has started soccer practice which he is enjoying. The first day he asked Katrina what an auto or self goal was. She explained but decided not to tell him that a Colombian player who did that in a national game a few years ago was shot for doing so.

Gabriela turned 2 on the 18th of the month. She had a nice party with all of her cousins . She was spoiled with presents of a tricycle, a doll and a pram. Thanks to Simon's perseverance in bugging his parents, she also had a piñata to enjoy.

Gaby and one of her cousins

We would like to update you on previous months prayer requests.

• Gabrielas gum from where her tooth was removed has healed and she has not had any more health problems.
• The owners of the apartment we rent have decided not to sell it at this time.
• Carlos translation of the book “Things You Don't Know About Heaven”, by Judson Cornwall has taken longer than expected. He hopefully will have time to finish it in the next few days.
• The exchange rate from New Zealand dollars to Colombian pesos continues to fall. This obviously affects our budget. We are greatful for our faithful supporters, we still need a few more to be able to meet our living costs.
  

Our prayer requests for this month are

• That the proposal for the grant for the purchase and remoldeling of the drop-in-centre would be approved.
• That more people would partner with us and support us financailly.
• That we would continue to have good health and God's protection over us.

Thank you for your friendship.

With love,

Carlos and Katrina

Yeah...

Yeah, says, Simon, Yeah says Alex, school holidays are nearly over! Amen says Mum and Dad.

More than two months holiday while Mum and Dad continue to work has not been much fun for the boys. School starts in just over a week. And they are looking forward to getting back to their friends. We attempted to go away for a few days but so far it hasn't happened.

Last week the boys were invited to an amusement park but only Alex was able to go. Simon had received a vaccination the day before and reacted to it. 48 hours later he still wasn't moving his arm much and soon after that the fever, the rash and the swelling went down. He is very happy that he has finished the required vaccinations and can attend school. By Colombian law kids who are not up to date are not allowed to attend school.

There have not been many majors in the last month. Family wise the biggest and saddest thing was Gabriela needing to have one of her front teeth removed. This was a result from the impact of a swing that broke her two front teeth back in February. Reoccurring infections that were threating to damage the permanent tooth resulted in all dentists consulted saying there was no other option but to remove the tooth. She is healing slowly and only time will tell if she has a lasting phobia for dentists. Her parents have to wait for a year until she gets her second back molars in before they are not constantly reminded of the pain and trauma she suffered—every time she smiles you see the big hole. Hopefully she will let a false front tooth be made and be attached to the molars.

Ministry wise:

There were no teams visiting us in the month of July but we did welcome a family from Holland and a girl from the USA who joined our team. Carlos spent quite a few hours getting the family settled, they have young children so we were able to share some of our experiences here to back their transition smoother.

Our non-24 hour programs shut down for a couple of weeks of holiday. Since they have started back up, they have more children attending from the local area. A few children that had attended the drop in center before their slum was bulldozed traveled 60 blocks ( I believe on foot) to visit the center. This was encouraging as it showed the impact the center's staff had had on the children's lives.

The ministry has been going through a very lean time financially. Carlos has been doing studies to attempt to minimize expenses, and some recommendations have been put into practice. God has been answering prayers as we saw the telephone company lower their charges for us just by a phone call and not the mountain of paperwork they usually require. The lady Carlos was speaking to on the phone was very helpful and even wanted to become a volunteer.

We have started an English speaking home group with coworkers. It is been good to be able to share more in depth with others about Christianity in general and not just work conversations. We are reading a book on Authentic Christianity by B Hybels.

The 20th of July is Colombia's independence day. This year the date was used to ask for liberty of all of the hostages that are in captivity in Colombia. There were a couple of million people who marched all around the country . In Bogota about 85% of the people wore white shirts as a symbol of peace. It was amazing to see so much unity in the cry of the people for peace.

Prayer Points:

• Thank God for his faithfulness
• For complete healing of Gabriela's gum and that her permanent tooth would not have any damage to it.
• Thank God for the paid translation work that Carlos has and that he would be able to finish the book next week.
• That the boys would have a good relationship with their teachers for this school year and would settle back into the school routine easily.
• Please pray for Carlos as he will continue to be teaching Alex maths in the house, especially for creativity and patience.

We want to thank you all so much for all your love, friendship and support. You are all partners with us and we couldn't do it without you.

Love,

Carlos and Katrina

Half Way

Dear family and friends,

Halfway through many things: the year, school holidays, the ministry big foot project, our apartment's rent contract, our savings. All of these things have some implications, but nothing that our faith can't stretch to.

Stretching our faith the most at this moment is the ministry's Big Foot project. We only need about US$41,000 to meet the next payment (due now) in the purchase of the auditorium and house used by the drop in center. Between 20 to 30 kids attend the drop in center and the auditorium is used by them and other kids for recreation. The ministry has seen God provide for many daily things like food and big things like other houses. This is the first time that we have had so little funds come in. You can read about the project on our ministry website.

Other ministry happenings have been the visit of the outreach team from the YWAM base in Oxford NZ. There were no kiwis on the team but we still enjoyed their visit. Carlos was able to take them to some children's programs that were run by either the government, private or by Catholic's. The contacts made from these visits have opened up the possibility for some of these children to attend our ministry school. This has come at a crucial time as we are seeking God as to which slum is the next one to reach. You may ask what happen to Colombianita, the slum where we have been ministering to for the last few years. The answer would simply be bulldozers and the mayor's plan of cleaning up the city. The families who lived in this shanty town have dispersed to areas all over the city. There was about 10 children whose parents asked us to receive them in 24 hour care at the transition house.

Unfortunately, we still don't have the Colombian staff that we need to run this house and had to say no. It was very hard for the staff that worked with these kids on a daily basis, unfortunately not always having room is a part of the ministry life. There is a lot of new kids at the drop in centre that come from the area around it. Mostly prostitutes kids. The majority of the children are under 5 years old.

In the long term care houses there has been various young children come in, mostly for short periods (a few weeks to 2 months), while others on the team work with the families. As they are so young they don't have to go through the transition house. The youngest is only a few weeks old and spent some nights sleeping on the streets with his parents.

When we have our next staff meetings instead of Gabriela being the only preschooler there, we will have 10. As well as more kids, we also have more staff. There are 36 on staff now. There are a few Colombians applying to work with us, which is an answer to prayer.

In our work we both were involved in the orgainising of a seminar by an English social worker. The theme was foster care. This was very helpful for us as we look at having children go into foster care rather than into the ministry houses. There is a lot involved from recruiting and training families to placing children in the right home. At the moment we are in the praying and writing the project stage and then we have to get permission from the Colombian family welfare to implement the program. This could well take a year or so.

Family wise:
Alex has finished a month of summer school. He had to make up his Maths and Reading grades. He seemed to enjoy the cooking, PE classes and other fun things they did; however it is now back to real school work. Carlos is his official Maths teacher for the next school year. This means that Carlos has to teach him daily at home and grade his work. When school starts again in August, Alex will be in 5th grade and when his class has maths he will get one-on-one help in another subject. This is the plan that the school came up with so that Alex could pass the year and stay with his peer group. It will be a lot of hard work for Alex as well as his Dad, we hope it will work out well.

Simon asks everyday if the the holidays can finish. He has had some fun days visiting with his cousins but mostly he has to hang out with his parents at the office. This has made Gabriela very happy as she is Simon's shadow. His mum started to teach him to read but has not been very consistent in order for him to learn. He likes to do school work, so once his mum gets organised we should see some improvement in his reading ability. He enjoyed the swimming lessons and we hope to be able to enroll both boys in a new course soon. Nearly daily he asks if we can live in a house as he wants to have more room and especially a garden for a dog. His kiwi blood for the outdoors is coming through. Health wise he is doing better, he no longer has stomach pains and is eating a bit more.

Gabriela as expected has grown the most. She is showing her stubborn streak more and more but then most nearly two year olds do. Her favourite occupation is to dance, walk around, talking on a phone with a pen in her hand to take notes of the conversation. Her art work has caused her mum some problems with scribbles that are so thick on the page that mum can no longer read her original note. When it comes time for her to learn to write her fine motor skills look like they will be well developed.

Katrina has been very tired and finding it hard at times to keep up with the family and her ministry responsibilities. Please continue to pray that Gabriela would sleep through the night.

Carlos has gotten some translation work of a book for a Christian publishing house. Which is an wonderful answer to prayer. Our finances are eating away at the savings account. The purchase of a car is not getting any closer. We are very thankful to our faithful supporters and are praying for more to partner with us. The translation work has come at a really good time. Thank you to those who prayed for this. Please keep him in prayer as he has just a month to finish the translation and at the same time, keep working in the ministry and teach Alex maths along with the normal father duties.

Prayer requests:
- Thank God for the translation work for Carlos
- For Gods provision with the Big Foot Project and the ministries finances.
- That new staff would settle into their functions and the culture quickly.
- For continued good health and safety for us all
- For God's will in regard to our housing, it looks like the apartment we are in will be sold and our rent contract most likely will not be renewed.

With love,

Carlos, Katrina, Alex, Simon and Gabriela

It's never boring

Dear family and friends,

Life in Colombia is never boring, well not if you listen to the news anyway. There is always latest headlines of shipments of cocaine or arms been found, guerrilla’s turning themselves in or some one going to jail for corruption. Thankfully here in the ministry things aren't quite so “hot” or “dangerous” but listening to the stories of the kids or their parents’ lives here are such a far cry from the norm in New Zealand or most places in the world.

One such story is of a lady who as a young teenager was forced into a relationship with a much older man. With 5 kids and in her earlier twenties she started to rebel and got into drugs. Now a few years later, she has left the man who supported her and instead of protecting her kids from repeating the story, she has gone into prostitution and put her young daughters in great risk.

In this particular case all we could do was pray as the family left the city soon after we made contact with them. At the end of last year an eight year old girl came to live in the ministry. Katrina remembers meeting her in a slum when she was recently born and praying for her, that she would come to know God as her personal savior. That prayer, and that of many others, has brought this girl into the ministry to live. That is the power of God and it is an encouragement to see the fruit of prayers.

Another testimony to God is the story of Nick Viujic from Australia. Nick was born without arms and legs and has one foot. He came to Bogotá recently and we had the privilege of his visit to the ministry’s drop in centre. He then shared his testimony with various prostitutes and others who live in the neighbourhood. Nick also gave his testimony at the school of Alex and Simon. Simon came home excited to announce that he had been chosen to represent his class and give Nick a hug.

We continue to use the skills God has given us in the administration and leadership of the ministry. Carlos had spent a lot of time in getting our ministry’s website updated and redesigned. It still has some work to be done but with its limit structure it has come along way. So check it out at http://www.colombiastreetkids.org/. We would welcome any comments or suggestions that you may have.

Alex and Simon have started swimming lessons. They go once a week for a session of nearly 2 hours. They come home very tired and hungry and cold. It is good to see them advance in their swimming skills. Recently 8 children from one of the residential houses spent the weekend at the farm of Carlos’ parents. They had a great time there. Our family and the kids and staff from the other 2 residential houses joined them for a barbecue lunch and then a swim in the lake. Actually only a few went swimming as the water was very deep and it was cold. Alex badly wanted to get in to show his swimming skills but as he was dressed in jeans his parents won't let him in.

Simon is adjusting well to school and recently got a good report card. Alex hasn't received one yet but has shown improvement in Math and enjoys his music class.

Gabriela continues to learn new words in both Spanish and English. She is not very comfortable (that’s a polite way of saying she cries and yells a lot) far from her parents so goes everywhere we do. She is however very friendly and says hello and blows kisses to anyone she meets. She loves to do things first and to make sure the boys obey; she grabs them and takes them to the door to put their shoes on or takes them to their school bag to get their homework. It is amusing to watch and the boys are generally really patient with her.

Prayer requests:

- Keep praying for Alex and his ability to remember concepts in his school work.
- For Simon’s health. He had lost a lot of weight and recently has been given medicine for his appetite and to get rid of any stomach bugs
- Gabriela that she would sleep well and for her physical protection as she explores more.
- For the ministry as we start an emphasis on strengthen the child sponsorship project and other fund raising efforts.
- For Carlos that he would have the opportunity and time to do some paid translations of books.
- For Katrina for wisdom in her role as administrator of the ministry.
- Please keep praying for a car for us.

We appreciate your friendships and prayers and love to hear from you.

With love,

Paez family

Blessings!!

Dear family and friends,

Hello!!! We’ve been running around doing so many things that we are getting a little bit behind in updating our blogspot and keeping you informed of what's going on in our lives. But we have finally got around to it.

We have settled into the apartment and now that we have a telephone line and Internet we are able to spend more time working from here rather than in the office which is a lot more comfortable for Gabriela and us. It was quite a drama getting the telephone and Internet, we ended up canceling a contract with one company and finally after about 4 weeks of phone calls and letters we are up and running with another company. Things that we take for granted like access to communication certainly can be more complicated here.

Ministry wise we were very blessed by the visit of 23 people from a church in Texas, USA. Most of the team had been here before, so it was good to see friends. This team is unique in that it is mostly made up of families with teenage kids. Carlos was responsible for organizing and supervising the activities of the 19 who made up the evangelism team, he also had quite a bit of involvement with the rest of the team who did construction projects in various parts of the ministry.

The construction team built a climbing wall, a Wendy house and some swings for our drop-in centre “The Other Way”. Alex was the first one up the climbing wall, followed closely by Katrina,... the wall past the test. For those of you who don’t know or don’t remember, The Other Way is our inner-city rescue centre. It actually consists of both a house and a nearby auditorium in downtown Bogotá, in a neighborhood surrounded by very needy children, some living on the streets, some in shantytowns and some in the house of prostitutes. The Other Way is a safe place where 30 of these children can play, have breakfast and lunch, enjoy learning their letters, and most importantly, experience God. This construction team also did some maintenance on the playground at our long-term 24 hour care farm.

The evangelism team did their part in the streets where most of our children come from and in a sister organization that works with children (ages 7 to 12) addicted to hard drugs. They also had the opportunity to witness to 50 unevangelised kids that in two groups were at our farm using the playground.

Right after the Texas team left, our ministry bus needed well deserved maintenance. The bus is used daily to take kids from the farm into the city for school, then picks up kids to go to the drop in center as well as the ministry school and does the return in the late afternoon. Carlos spent many days taking the bus from one garage to another to be repaired without paralyzing the functions of the ministry. Over a two week period he got the brakes, the axle, the steering, the speedometer fixed, and some minor things like the steps, handles and tire alignments, and thanks to God the bus passed the warrant of fitness on the second attempt.

Katrina, as a treasurer of our ministry, spent many hours filling out US tax return forms since our organization is now recognized as a public charity by the American Internal Revenue Service and April was the end of the fiscal year. It was hard work, especially since Gabriela demands a lot of attention all the time.

We also started the Children At Risk (CAR) Training School with students from New Zealand, Australia, England, Canada, USA and Colombia, and Carlos has done some translations for them and Katrina is a mentor for 2 students. One of which is another Kiwi. Another Kiwi visitor was James Jordan from Taupo. He spoke at various conferences in YWAM meetings on the Fartherheart of God. For our ministry this was a good teaching as most of the children we work with have a really bad image of fathers.

On the family side, the highlight was Simon’s fifth birthday celebration with his cousins on the 12th of March. He is bonding really well with them especially since three of them are the same age. School wise now that the teacher doesn't make him have an afternoon nap (which is for babies in Simon's opinion) he is enjoying school. He has made friends and plays a lot with Sam, the only boy of triplets.

We are very proud of Alex. School work is very hard for him but he is spending many hours every day completing his assignments and doing his best. He struggles with his long-term memory and finds it difficult to remember concepts so important to perform well in a school setting. He has enjoyed hanging out with some of his old friends.

Gabriela has started to feel secure around anybody. She is very friendly and has a sweet personality. She still doesn’t sleep all through the night so it has been a bit hard to maintain a happy face when we are tired during the day. She has learnt new words in both English and Spanish and seems to understand both languages equally.

We would appreciate your prayers in the following points.

• For Alex, that he finds emotional and physical healing, that both his teachers and us find strategies to help him remember different concepts.


• For Gabriela, that she (and her parents) can rest well at night.


• There are more than 3,000 people that are currently held in captivity (kidnapped) in Colombia. Some of them for more than 6 years. Pray for health, strength, and hope for them and their families and friends.


• For the preparations for a team that comes from YWAM Oxford NZ at the end of May.
  Please continue to pray for financial provision so that we can buy a car soon.

With love,

Carlos and Katrina