Frday morning at coffee shop

Great Opportunities

On Thursday a number of the team members were invited to have lunch with some of the business owners in the Commercial Center. We were able to share briefly from the Scripture and then pray for them. To all appearances we were warmly received.

Both in the morning and in the evening the students were asked at the end of the teaching session to fill in a response card, indicating whether they would like to participate in P an Alpha Bible study or other activities to further their English. We were told that around 80 people have indicated a desire to participate in the Alpha study. Such a response encourages us and stirs in us the anticipation of what God will do here in Sabaneta.

At the end of the teaching session today Jason will have the opportunity to share his testimony. Then around the tables we all will have opportunity to talk with our students about God’s forgiveness.

Posted by Rick

What an amazing week so far

We began teaching English on Monday morning. Between the morning and evening classes there were 234 people registered. Many of the students are young - teenagers and early twenties. But there is also a wide range of ages. We have had to adapt our lessons significantly. But as the team had prepared to come we had reminded ourselves over and over that we were coming as servants and we would do whatever needed to be done.
 Instead of teaching one class of beginners and another of intermediates, we are teaching both at the same time and doing different or harder exercises for the intermediate learners.

There is a team of 20 Colombians who are working alongside of us. It has been an incredible blessing to us to work with our Colombians friends. They love God and give so much of themselves to the students and to us. It has been an amazing experience to see two teams of people, who speak different languages colloborate together and work together as one. Meaningful friendships have developed between the Colombian team members, students and the Canadians. It is a wonderful thing to watch the dialogue and interaction taking place around the tables.

The feedback from the students has been extremely positive. Many of them ask each day when are you coming back. The team has done extremely well.

To fast to keep up

We are deeply sorry that we have not been able to keep up with our post as we haven't had very much time to access the internet.  Our days have been kept so busy with all the prep for the lessons.                             

Sunday
With the end of the kids camps this day turned out to be a bitter sweet day.  We were not going to be working with our teen helpers again and this was a little hard as we had built such a good relationship with them.  It was a very good day with the morninig worship service being in Spanish and being able to worship with our Colombian friends.  Rick preached the message on salvation and it was very good talk.  The afternoon was spent trying to get ready for the first English service that they ha dever had.  The service went really good as there were quite a few people that loved being able to practice there English.  There were also some who had not been able to worship in English for some time and were happy for the chance.




Monday
With the start of our ESL classes we were all a little on edge as we wern't sure as to what we would be getting.  Up till this point we had changed all our lessons and knew that we would have to change them again once we did the first one.  We quickly discovered that they weren't very intrested in our culutural presentation so we shortened them down to 5 minutes.  The lesson on the first day went really good.  Rick and Jason did a great jod and the students all had fun.  There are about 250 people registered and that day most of them showed up so it was very crowded in the evening lesson.

We apologize for not keeping you updated. Our last few days have been full of meaningful adventures with little time for rest and updating of the blog.

Friday

Day four of powerlab came and went. It was a very important lesson for the kids as we learned that Jesus gives us the power to live forever. This idea of Jesus giving eternal life was very new to many of the kids, as the Catholic faith gives more importance to Mary interceding for their sins than Jesus. After day camp was over we started planning for the finale when the children got to invite their parents.

The group then went to the conference center to see the facility that will be used for ESL next week. At this time, Rick and Gerald went over some of the lessons with a few of the Colombians. They were informed that what we had was excellent but far too difficult for the people who were going to be attending. They modified the first two lessons, combining the beginners and intermediates together. This may sound like more work but it will actually make our lives a lot easier.

During the evening we got to spend some much needed time with our host families. Some treated their families to dinner while others joined together with other host families for a party. There was much laugher and good natured teasing about different cultures among other things

Saturday

Not just Fred but all of us have enjoyed the first few moments of Powerlab when the children come rushing in looking for a big hug from the Canadians.

Day five has come, this was the day we have been praying for, the day the will come and see what their children have learned. We shortened up all the stations as to give time for the presentation to the parents. In the audience there was 15 to 20 non-believing parents. They got to see their children performing their songs and skits, they did an amazing job! At the end of the service one of the Pastor from El Redil had the opportunity to give a clear gospel message to the parents who were non-believers. It was a great privilege to be apart of this service. This opportunity to speak to the non-believing parents was one of the major reasons we put on the Day Camp and by the sounds of it, it was a success. Our prayers were answered!

After cleaning up the house we had the opportunity to drive into the country to a small fish farm were we caught our dinners. Sonya caught the biggest fish out of all the Canadians (don’t believe a word Rick says, I think his was a minnow) All in all a great day.

We will update you about what has happened on Sunday tomorrow as it is late and has been a long day.

Please pray for us tomorrow as we start the ESL lessons. Pray specifically that the people coming to the lessons (nearly 200) will see Christ love in us and the group of Colombians we are working with.

Fred and Jason

pacifico again-not snowing here

Hello from warm Colombia where it is not snowing or even cool. 

Our third Powerlab was successful and the teens (rangers) are awesome.  It was a story about Peter walking on the water and a lot of us felt we could be sprayed with some cold water like the kids were in the "moonlight cruise".
We have chosen to go back up to Pacifico to tell the story of Peter again and how Jesus gives us the power to be brave.  Rick will give an animated version of the story while the rest of us are in the boat and acting out the story.  We do have a game and we plan to teach them a song in English.  Brenda and Dries made some slime and we are going to use that for a game, during which we will ask them who is the bravest to try and touch it.  A colouring page and snacks should round out the afternoon.  They are such well behaved children considering their background. 

Last night we invited our bus driver(Luis) to our group supper. He recieved one of the Canadian hats and he seemed very pleased.  He has driven us aroud every morning  (7 AM) and drops us off at our host families every night.  We are praying that this whole experiene will be one more link to drawing him to an acceptance of Jesus.

Eleanor

Tuesday follow-up.
After we finished the day camp we went to see the Metro, the city`s rapid rail system. We rode out to what appeared to be the northern side of the city to see their amazing Metro-Cable. Here the rail system ends and then people from that area can travel closer to their homes in the hills using a cable-car/gondola system. The hills are so steep and the houses the poor people are living in are so closely packed that no roads are possible. The city helped these people to get to work by building this cable-car system. We also saw some of the poorest parts of town, people living in shanty-towns.

Wednesday.
Today was a big day. We spent the morning doing our second day of Day Camp. I think everybody felt that it went really well, better than the first day. We are starting to work well together with the team of Colombians. The language barrier is significant, even with our translators, but we are adjusting. The children really enjoyed the day. Today we taught about the Power to Help Others.
Today we were also saddened by the news of the sudden passing away of Brenda`s father, Sonya`s grandfather. Our hearts are aching for them. The whole team including the Colombians were there for support. They are doing fairly well. They will now face a decision about what to do next, and we will continue to pray for them, as we ask you do too. Please keep them in you hearts.
After lunch we went out to the area called Pacifico. This is in a very poor area of the city, again up in the hills. We had to take a taxi-bus to get there. These busses are equiped to climb these steep hills. It is so steep that they tell us the busses need to change their breakpads every two weeks. The drive takes you through narrow and winding streets, through random self-built homes and businesses. Close to the top of the hill is an area where at least 5000 children live in the poorest of conditions. lots of them have no parents at all, some only one parent. Some of the single mothers work as prostitutes and therefor the children stay at home alone at night.
The church with whom we are working here in Medellin has started a project there to help these children socially. They have a family working permanently there, and has recently funded the building of a facility where they can house their activities. This building can later be expanded to house a church as well, and they are partnering with another church-group to plant a church here.
Today we went there to share with the children. We had about 70 kids there. It was wonderful the be there and see their faces. They are so grateful for everything. We were treated to their amazing singing and dancing. We will try to put up a short video of this with a link to the blog. We shared stories with them, we helped them understand the love of God by doing a couple of crafts with them. We spent a wonderful few hours with them, right there on the floor. Then they also received the stationary that was donated by our own youth... you should have seen their faces! There were more than one not so dry eye when we were finally done, and these children came up to us to say "gracias" and goodbye.
The drive back down from the hills was better than any rollercoaster you can imagine, and much cheaper too.
We will likely be going there again tomorrow (Thursday).

Dries Mostert
(PS. We will get more photos on on Thursday)