Midway Monday

Today is the start of our second work week here in Medellin. Gerald, Dries and Luc had to get up early to be at Poblado at 6AM for a meeting with a group of business persons. This group had their first meeting of the year after the December holidays. It is a group of Christian or Seeker persons who have a regular weekly meeting talking about God and the things of God. We were asked to witness to them as there is a large number of people who live their "Christian" life on Sunday, going to church, but then are "free" to do what they want during the week. Also, they wanted to hear how we integrate our faith with our daily work and ordinary lives. There were 19 people there and we had a good opportunity to witness and talk to them about our lives, our work and how our faith in Christ influences our work, our relationships at work and our ethics. Gerald shared about us as Christians being the "salt" in this world. How we need to be the preservative, the flavour in this world.

The rest of the morning was spent doing some shopping for gifts to take back home to our families. Some of us went to downtown Medellin to a gift market, the others walked in downtown Sabaneta in the old part of the city. The women went to see the food market.  It was interesting to see bags and crates full of all the different fruits and vegetables. Then they headed to the mall for something to eat.

After lunch, we all met together to debrief last week's lessons and look for ways that we can improve our performance.  We are presently preparing for our ESL lessons.  This entails setting up and getting organized in a new location.  There will be, to date, 170 people at ESL this week which includes both students and teachers.  Please pray for us, that we may be able to reach each and everyone.

Dianne is now feeling under the weather.  Please continue to pray for continued health and strength of all the teams.

Prayer requests:
1. Pray that we may reach each and everyone at the lessons. 
2. We are praying for God to provide just the right number of students, as 170 is more than we had expected. Pray that all goes well.
3. Pray that God will open the hearts of the students that attend this week, that the seeds of the gospel will be planted.
4. Please pray for continued health for the team members, especially Dianne, as she is not well.

pitaya

o

uchuva (gooseberries)

guajaba (guava)

plantains

coconuts

grinadillas

taxi ride to the market

Diego and Tania having ice cream for lunch

Service Sunday

This has been a very busy Sunday with Dries and Dianne taking the service at La Mota, Gerald was at Thirty Three church and Rick preached at Envigata.  Each of the rest of us divided between the three locations.  All the chuches were filled to capacity.  The messages were well recieved by the various congregations and we all felt very welcomed in the services. 

We were transported back to El Poblado and headed off to lunch.  After lunch we returned and prepared for the english service at 5:00.  With little preperation, we relied on the Spirit to lead the service, and it turned out great!  Thanks for your prayers!

Rick and Nicole are back with the team in good health, however, Gerald is now under the weather, and Jen has been hanging on, doing well off and on.

Dries and Luc, and maybe Gerald if he's ok, will be meeting with some buisness men tomorrow morning.  They have questions about faith in the workplace.  Please pray for them. 

Prayer requests

1. Evaluation of our time up until now with a view of improvements for this week.  Meeting at noon Monday.
2. Health for the team.
3. 1st lesson of ESL Monday night at Centro Sabaneta,
4. Prepartation of 1st church service this week on Sunday.  A lot of preparation needed on the part of the Colombians and the Canadians.
5.  Pray for time to do the blog :)
Praise:

The team all still love each other through all the ups and downs including the many hills going home at night :)

Pictures below:

Gerald preaching at Treinta y Tres

At Treinta y Tres

The Church at Treinta y Tres

Preparing for this week's ESL

Dries preaching at El Redil La Mota, with Natalia Alzate translating

Dianne preaching at La Mota

Christine, Efren, Martha, Natalia and Cesar relaxing after the service at La Mota

Super Saturday

Today we worked ourselves to a standstill! We did the double session of ESL this morning, at Poblado, starting at 8AM until Noon. By now we have developed very good relationships with our students and participation in the lessons and games were really good. Even Santiago, one of Dries' students, which we thought would not last the week because of his shyness, his lack of English, lasted the whole week, and he was there today. We had a great time!
Joe gave his testimony today, talking about relationships, including in marriage. He talked about how especially men should make more of an effort to please their wife's. He related our relationships to Jesus' love for us and His commitment to us. This provided good opportunity for discussion at the tables.

After the "graduation ceremony" we had a beautiful lunch at Poblado prepared by the ladies of the church. They served a delicious Ajiaco soup with avocado.

In the afternoon the team was divided into two groups. One half went to El Pacifico to visit the daycare center there, in the poor neighborhood there. The other half went to Brazos Abiertos (Open Arms), a house for young unwed mothers and their babies. I reported it yesterday as an orphanage. Forgive me, as it was late at night. Both groups had a wonderful time to spend with some of the children and teenagers. At Brazos Abiertos the visited with some of the young mothers and had good discussions. At Pacifico we had opportunity to see the children sing and dance, we taught them a couple of new English songs and they watched a puppet show about God's Creation. Each child also received a blanket.

After the wild ride in the bus down from Pacifico (this barrio is high in the hills and the road is very steep, at times reaching a 30 degree incline - the buses are specially equipped with extra-low range gearboxes and large braking systems. Even then they have to change break pads about every two weeks), and meeting the other half of the team from Open Arms, some of us had worship practice for our church service at Poblado tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon, which will be held in English only.

But first, in the morning Rick, Dries and Dianne, and Gerald will be preaching/giving testimonies at morning services at three different churches.

Prayer Requests:
1. Please pray for Rick, Gerald, Dries and Dianne for clarity, for leading by the Spirit, for when they speak at the different churches in the morning.
2. Pray for our afternoon service in English
3. Pray for the teenage moms at Brazos Abierta and the children at Pacifico, that God will touch there lives and hearts, The He will bring a permanent change and that Jesus will become the King of there hearts.
4. Pray for the start of our ESL at Sabaneta starting on Monday. Pray that God will provide the right number of students, and that He will prepare their hearts for His Word.
5. Also pray for Gerald, Luc and Dries as they have to witness to a group of business men that meet on Monday morning at 6 AM.

Graduation! End of ESL in Poblado

At El Pacifico. Claudia talking to the kids

Teaching new song and moves

These kids are so great! They just want to touch you...

And they immediately creep into your heart!

The start of foundations of the first house of Menos Basura

Martha, which will be the first recipient of a recycled house. She is going to take care of six of the orphaned children that attend the Pacifico daycare center.

Fantastic Friday!

Today started with a bang for the Gang of Four (Rick, Gerald, Eleanor and Jen). They had to be up early for an early start to their last day at the Four Squares Church in Sabaneta. Here they were teaching a group of about 20 young missionaries some English (ESL). They had a wonderful time with this enthusiastic group and was treated with a big lunch at the end of the morning. Fruitful relationships were built here and we pray that this will grow into the future.
The Four Squares Church is an existing Evangelical church here in Sabaneta. El Redil is now planting a new church here as well, and this week long ESL session was sort of a gift from El Redil to Four Squares, in the hope of maintaining good relationships and cooperation.

The rest of the team spent most of the morning in prayer at the Commercial Center in Sabaneta. Some of us continued to help with drywall sanding and mudding in the new office for El Redil Sur (south).

This afternoon most of us went out into the streets of Sabaneta to meet people, hand out flyers and talk to them, inviting them to Vive el Ingles (Live the English), which is the ESL that we are presenting here at the Commercial Center starting next week Monday. It is amazing to notice the difference between Canadians and Colombians when it come to accepting flyers. Here almost 90% of people accept the flyer gladly and would even say thank you! I guess we got so used to be bombarded with flyers and junk-mail in Canada that we just don't want to see any more. We even had one person sign on for the ESL right on the street. He wanted to pay right there and then and we took his name and money and he is now registered!

We had some more feedback from last nights ESL today. The session went very well and the students are building great relationships with the teachers at the tables as well as with each other.

There was also more detailed feedback from the Conference about The Five Love Languages from last night. The confirmed number of attendees was 85. Of these, Diego tells us, about half were unbelievers. Like we mentioned i1n yesterday's report, almost 90% of the total number stood up to pray when we did a prayer of salvation! Many also came forward afterwards for further counseling and prayer.

Rick was feeling better today, thanks to everybody's prayers and is almost back to full energy (Hughh! Now we have to give him something again to make him sick again... just kidding!)
Nicole was feeling a bit better today, but she spent the day at her home to continue to recover.

Tonight Rick is preaching at the Poblado church. They have a regular Friday service. Tonight's service will be translated. Some of the team member are there with him, the rest are trying to have an early night, as we are all up again and out to ESL at about 6AM tomorrow. We have a double session tomorrow. In the afternoon the group will split in two, with one half visiting El Pacifico, a center for poor children in one of the poor barrios in the hills around the city. This is also the first area where El Redil is starting to build houses using plastic bottles. The first house is going to a house mother who will be taking care of a number of orphan children. Visit: http://menosbasura.org/ to find out more. Tania Cardona (Diego's daughter), and Claudia Cardona (Diego's wife) has been taking the lead on this for some time. The other half will go to Brazos Abierto (Open Arms), an orphanage.

Prayer Requests:
1. Continue to pray for Nicole, for healing and full energy. Continue to pray for the health of the whole team.
2. For our double session of ESL on Saturday.
3. For our visits to the orphanage and Pacifico, pray that we can in some way touch the hearts of the children with God's Message for them.
4. Continue to pray for Sunday, when the team will divide into three groups to visit different churches of El Redil (Envigado, La Mota and Treinta y Tres) to preach and worship with the locals.

Brenda enjoying a traditional Colombian meal

Diego Cardona

Christine having a House Salad

Ensalada de la Casa

One of the missionary-in-training ESL students drew this

Jennifer Alsina, Jairo's wife handing out flyers

Walking the streets of Sabaneta handing out flyers

Thankful Thursday

Today we had a really busy day! We started again with a short devotion for the team this morning. We were all very tired last night, and were therfor allowed to sleep in for about 30min to an hour, depending how far we live from the Aves Maria Center, where we meet every morning.

Rick, Gerald, Eleanor and Jen continued today to give English lessons at the Four Squares Church in Sabaneta. This is in the morning from 10AM to Noon. During this time Dries and Dianne continued to prepare for the conference on relationships that happened tonight at 7PM. The rest of the team spent some time in prayer and then helped with drywalling, mudding and painting and other office work in the new church office here in the center, with Luc and Joe leading the charge.

At about 4PM the group left for Poblado to do the ESL there, starting at 7PM. Dries and Dianne stayed behind to present the Four Languages of Love conference in the Conference Center, at the Aves Maria mall here in Sabaneta. This went really well, with about 60-70 attendees. The speaking touched on the Five Languages of Love, but really focused more on a personal relationship with Jesus, and how that is essential for helping us to have good relationships with people. At the end of the conference about two thirds of the people stood up for prayer. Several individuals were counseled afterwards and prayed for. Praise God for answered prayers, He really was working through His Spirit.

Rick and Nicole did not join us tonight for any of the events as they were not feeling well, therefor our ESL team in Poblado was stretched thin.

1. Please pray for Rick and Nicole for healing and for them to feel better tomorrow. Pray that God will keep illness away from the rest of the team.
2. Pray that the whole team will get good sleep and enough rest.
3. Pray for the people who gave their hearts to Jesus at the conference tonight. Pray for those that are on the verge, or who are still searching.
4. Pray for the four person team who will teach a double session of ESL tomorrow at the Four Square Church in the morning. We will also do a double session on Saturday at Poblado.
5. Pray for Rick, Gerald and Dries. All three have been asked to preach at three different church locations on Sunday. With little time to prepare they will really need God's Spirit to work through and speak through them.

Below are some pictures of last night's ESL session at Poblado. It really went well and we are starting to build good relationships.

Wednesday's Workday

Today started much like yesterday. We met at Adrianna's coffee shop for devotions, led by Joe, and prayed.  The group of four headed off to the Four Square Church to work with the missionaries.  The lessons went very well.  The missionaries appeared more at home with the four, and participation was excellent.  Dries and Dianne continued on preparing for their conference, and have made some significant progress.  On to the refining stage. The rest of the team members prayed, splitting into two groups: Spanish and English.

We had lunch at the Botanical Gardens, and enjoyed a slower afternoon gazing at the beautiful plants and creatures. The weather was perfect: warm sunshine with a slight breeze.  A relaxing well deserved break before we're back to work this evening.

After enjoying the gardens, we all headed back to the church for dinner and are presently preparing for tonight's ESL lesson.  Please pray for the teams as we strive to reach the goals Diego set out for us during our time here are:

1. To build relationships and to love and interact with people in the community.
2. To pray for the new church, El Redil Sur.
3. To teach English and reach new people.
4. To Encourage Jairo and Jennifer, Diego and Claudia.

Carlos, Janeth, Sofia, Juanita. The pastor family at El Redil Poblado where we are doing ESL this week.

Dianne van der Putten from Ottawa with a traditional meal

Tamal

Iguana at botanical garden

Unique flower at botanical garden

The whole group

Tuesday's Teaching

Today was a full day filled with new opportunities and experiences.  The Canadian teams met this morning for devotions and prayer early at Adrianas casa monarca coffee shop.  Rick, Eleanor, Gerald, and Jen then headed off to the Four Squares Church to present the first ESL lesson to the young missionaries in training.  Diane and Dreas prepared for the Five Love Languages conference for Thursday while the rest of us prayed with the Colombian team.  It was exciting to see some new Colombian's join us for the prayer time! 

After lunch there was some down time.  Most of us used this time to take in the culture of the city with a member of the Colombian team.  By 4:00, we were heading back to the Redil Chuch in Poblado to have dinner and prepare for ESL.  Between 65 and 70 Colombians attended.  With the help of may Colombian translators, it was incredibly successful.  Rick and Gerald led the evening, with David translating.  Luke shared his testimony, which brought much discussion within the small groups.

Prayer requests
Please pray for:
1. Rick, Eleanor, Gerald, and Jen as they continue to work with the Four Squares church.  They plan to meet each morning between 10:00 and 12:00.
2. Dreas and Dianne as they prepare for their conference.
3. Ina as she shares her testimony on Wednesday.
4. A continual increase in registration, as word spreads.
5. Building of relationships.
6. Encouragement for Diego and Claudia.