The 7th of August is a big celebration in Colombian. It is remembering the winning of a big Battle that was fought against the Spanish, as part of the war of independence. Colombia was part of New Granada at the time, which consisted of modern Venezuela, Panama, Ecuador and Colombia.
We spent this day at our sons school with the first event of the school calendar. Yes, school is finely back in session after a two month break. It was a bit hard getting back into the 6 am starts, and even harder the two hours of homework each day. Hardest of all was the traffic jams. One day it took me an hour and half to get the kids to school and then get to the office. However, the routine is now back in place, the traffic jams are not so frequent and the boys are happy at school.
They are even happier to come home because Uncle Bruce is here visiting. He has been living in Sydney for the last 10 years, he did return to New Zealand while we were there on furlough a year and half ago. Bruce, the 3rd one of my brothers to visit is with us until November, he is planning on doing some traveling to other South American countries but we have the pleasure of being his base. It has been great having him here for the last week, we have done a lot of traveling to the different areas of the ministry so that he can see some of what we are a part of.
Uncle Bruce
This included a flying visit to the school, a bit more time was spent at the drop in centre. The auditorium there is looking really good, after the last team that was here a few weeks ago made a whole lot of new play equipment, there is a texture wall, a swing bridge, a hammock set and markings on the floor for basketball and soccer.
Scott from the Texas team building the hanging bridge in the auditorium
We then went on a hour trip to visit Mary in the south of the city, with the “ Friends club”. She was getting ready for a craft afternoon and was expecting 50 kids to turn up. We had taken in the ministry bus 12 big boxes full of shoe boxes collected through Samaritan Purse to be given to the kids that Mary and her team work with. The visit was quick as we had to get the bus back for the afternoon school run, but it was long enough for Bruce to see the magnitude of poverty in that area of the city.
Mary, our Aussie grandmother
A view of Altos de Cazuca where Mary lives
We did a lot of driving on Saturday as well. We went to a town that is just on the other side of the Andes mountains. It is amazing to see the mountains come to a sudden end, followed by plains as far as the eye can see. We went to a zoo of animals from that region, monkeys, anteaters, a bear, big cats, birds. Then we had a swim and headed back home. The return journey of 87km took 3 hours with lots of tankers from the oil fields and a half an hour traffic jam to the first set of lights in the city. Then we traveled across the city in record time of 50 minutes to our apartment.
Apart from visiting Bros and birthdays we have done a few other things this month. The visiting team that worked in the auditorium with the play equipment was on their 4th return trip. One of the team leaders Robyn, is our ministry accountant in the USA. It was good to be able to work face to face with her rather than via emails. Another good thing, is another team member Joseph is going to be working on designing a new Website for the ministry. We are looking forward to be announcing the new site in a couple of months.
In September, we plan to be doing a lot more traveling with my Bro Bruce. We would appreciate prayers for safety and also that God's will would be done during this time. Our directors leave in a few weeks for the USA. They will be gone for 4 months, please pray for a smooth running of things while they are gone.
I have just finished filling in the annual YWAM ministry survey. One of the questions it asks is how many first time decisiones for Christ in the last year. In gathering the information from the various areas of the ministry. It was encouraging to see the grand total of 90.
Many blessings,
Katrina
