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Friday, Feb. 27

Wow! What a full day we had today! We started out our day early. Our first stop was to get breakfast. We were invited to breakfast at a local restaurant by one of the pastors at whose church we will be ministering this Sunday. The restaurant was very nice. It was a typical European-style restaurant and served breakfast like you would find in Spain. The breakfast was excellent and very filling.

Afterwards we all piled into our small passenger van and headed out to a poor district where there is a school that was started by American woman around 20 years ago to help take in children who don’t have parents or are from abusive dysfunctional families. We led four different groups of children of various ages through some Children’s Institute-style sessions teaching character using stories, skits and testimonies. Pastor Salazar translated for us and the children were very responsive.

The children here are very precious and are like the children back in the States, just speaking in a different tongue and living in a different culture. You feel sad after you leave because you know you may not ever see these children again, at least until we get to heaven. We only pray that these children will take these principles and apply them to their lives and make an impact on others in Bogota.

Next we went to what was the equivalent to a halfway house for drug addicts, alcoholics etc… We really didn’t know what to expect. Pastor Salazar preached to them about Jesus and how He had helped him to overcome addictions to drugs after accepting Him as his Savior. When we went into prayer you could hear the sound of many broken hearts as many of them wept in their seats. We had the privilege of singing to them and afterward were able to pray for those who wanted prayer for their multitude of problems. Some were addicted to drugs and alcohol, others with major family problems, and even suicidal men. Daniel and I (Steven) were able to pray for one man who showed us his recently slit wrists. Quite the eye opener!  The men (and a couple of women who prayed with the girls) were so grateful for the message of the hope of Jesus Christ that was proclaimed to them. They wanted to shake everybody’s hands and in Spanish, and sometimes broken English, thanked us for coming.

The head of the halfway house, whose name is Carlos, was also touched by what God did today. He gave us all bead necklaces and said what character quality he saw in each of the individual team members. These necklaces will be a good reminder for us to pray for these struggling men in the future. We arrived there with apprehension not knowing what to expect from these hardened men and left encouraged with what the Lord did there.

After the halfway house we had to drive across the city to a church (iglesia) where Pastor Salazar taught on the character quality of attentiveness to a group of young professionals ages 25 through their early thirties. Four of us gave testimonies on how we are to be ministers of Christ where ever God has placed us in this present time. You don’t have to be a full time minister or missionary to do the Lord’s work but we are to do the Lord’s work wherever we are. We were actually able to fellowship with a number of the people in this group because some knew English well enough and some of us know Spanish well enough to communicate back and forth pretty effectively.

By now we are pretty well whooped. We have been ministering or driving all day from 7:00 to 11:00 and we are finally able to go to dinner. A big “Hurrah!” in my book! There is a restaurant called Crepes and Waffles. It had really good food too. We pretty much all ordered a crepe in one form or another. I am pleased to say that though we were thoroughly bushed we are spiritually refreshed. Pray that God would continue to give us strength as we are running on little sleep (so far 2:00 has been a common bed time) and that we would just let God work through us as we continue to minister to the people of Bogota Colombia.  Que Dios te bendiga!

Steven, for the team

The Hockenstock story strikes again! We used it to teach the children about the importance of truthfulness.

“Margaret” (Amber) takes the special book that no one is allowed to touch.

 

 

“Who stuck gum to my special book?” Elizabeth as Mrs. Hockenstock.

 

Micah sharing a testimony with some of the older kids at the school.

 Listening to Micah’s testimony.

At the halfway house Daniel shared an analogy with a mud-filled melon.

Praying for the guys at the halfway house.

 

 

This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 9:40 pm and is filed under Blog, Colombia 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.