June is the month of public holidays in Colombia. Most of the celebrations are to remember different saints and are passed to the nearest Monday. Result is 3 long weekends in June. As the school holidays continue people make the most of combining with their work holidays and leave the city. Resulting in not so many traffic jams. The Bogotá YWAM leadership team had a day retreat in hot country, about an hour and a half away. We went to an old place that Carlos had gone to as a boy. It was great to enjoy the countryside and company. The kids enjoyed the swimming pools even though the water was really cold and the day was overcast. Their favorite was a three story water slide. Gabriela loved going on it with her Dad. We did have to have an official meeting while there and write some legal minutes. We laughed as the official business had to be registered in a government office and it states that the meeting occurred at a holiday club. Not the usual YWAM place of business.
Tomorrow we hope to be able to hold a funeral for a youth who was in the ministry for 7 years. He had left the ministry to go into care under the social welfare system here. He had unfortunately become a danger to other children. I remember very clearly the day that I took the then 4 year old boy and his 3 year old sister to the ministry farm to come into residential care. The boy had been in the middle of a fight with his parents and the landlords, he had a broken bottle in his hand and was very angry. Our street team had been working with the family and happened to be on the scene and got the kids out. The parents would visit occasional over the next few years. Their children were initially embarrassed when they were visited. As they would come pushing a dirty, smelling cart for recycling rubbish and they would need to go and take a shower and get clean clothes before they would join the parents meeting.
Why I said hope at the beginning of the last paragraph is that the youth had run away multiple times from the social welfare institutes. He had spent more time on the streets in drugs and with his gang than he had in a house in the last 4 and a half years. He died on the streets from stab wounds one day before his 17th birthday. The criminal investigation has meant his body has not been released yet, 10 days later.
It is a sad situation to walk, it is the first death of someone that I have worked and lived with and known closely. It is especially hard for his sister who continues to live in the ministry. We do know that he did not die immediately and that he knew at least 150 Bible verses by memory. We hope to see him in heaven one day. Please pray for his sister and those close to him.
Family news:
I am bored-- our boys are nearly halfway through their holidays only a month more to go. They have spent a few days each week with their Colombian grandparents- they enjoy this as there are often other cousins there to play with. Gabriela is especially enjoying having her brothers around to play with.
Carlos has been working hard and is in the final revision of the book he is translating, around 78000 words. Thank you for those who have payed for him in this.
This month the office work has mostly been legal things, with lots of frustrations. Please pray that we can see some light at the end of the tunnel. Carlos and I have been getting things ready for three teams that come in the next month and a half. The first team will be doing children's programs in various government and private run institutions and will be teaching in some local churches. The other 2 teams are construction projects which is a bit easier to organise. We also have five teams visiting with us for a day from Puerto Rico , The United States (3) and Canada.
Please pray for safety for each one and that the various team members life's will be changed as they see the poverty and how many children live. Pray that their time here will have lasting impact on their lives as they understand how they can help change a life forever. Also pray that they would be able to communicate easily with those they are sharing with.
That is all for this month. We appreciate your friendship and prayers. Have a great and blessed month
God Bless
Katrina
