A New Year Starts

Wow, January 2010 has already come to an end.

We started the year with a week's holiday in a rented house in a nice hot climate. The hot got a bit too hot as most of the day time we had to be in the swimming pool or in an air conditioned room. It was still really nice to be away from phones and Internet. Our kids loved being with their cousins and it gave their parents a chance to relax.

We came back to Bogotá to organise a 4 day training seminar for all of the ministry's volunteers. The Seminar went really well, staff feedback said that it was really good to start the year being focused on a time with God as well some practical training. All of our leadership team were involved in sharing or teaching and most of the volunteers also had an opportunity to share. It was a good mix but most importantly we really felt God' presence with us.

Carlos has been busy with a visiting team from a YWAM base in Hawaii, they are with us for another few days. They have been to various children's ministries as well as helped clean and get the school ready for the start of the year.

I have been in the office, working on this year's budget, organising projects, recruiting more volunteers, (we need at least 6 more key workers) and other odds and ends.

Some numbers: This year the ministry is responsible for the school fees of 27 kids who are attending schools outside of the ministry. There are 400 children involved in the Bible clubs. We have 32 volunteers between full and part timers.

Carlos has had some documents to translate and with church involvement is very busy. Alex and Simon have started back to school. Alex started keyboard lessons last year, he spent a lot of his holiday time teaching himself new songs. It is real nice hearing him play. Simon wanted his two front teeth for Christmas, now he wants all four of them. He has grown a lot but Alex is well ahead of him. He likes playing the drums and is not too keen on school right now. He says it is too much work and he wants to stay home and play. Gabriela is happy now that Simon has missing teeth too. We took her to a dentist to see about getting a false front tooth, she was not too happy about the idea and made everyone in hearing distance aware of that. She is getting ready for school, more independent, we are still needing the money to send her so meanwhile she keeps us company. Spanish becomes her more dominant language daily.

Next month we have another team coming, this time from Venezuela (that is if they can get out of the country). One of our long term team members is having difficulty in returning from lack of transport and riots.

Prayer points:

Give thanks for good health.
Praise that so many children are hearing about God's love for them
Wisdom in the decisions we make.
Wisdom as we pray and seek ways to raise more money so that we can pay our families bills.

With love,

The Paez family