Moon Over Bogota

The moon over Bogota looks the same as it does in Indiana. It rises in the east and sets in the west, just like back home. It can be difficult to be so far from home and not be able to have open contact with the ones you love. So, we try to find familiar points that we can connect. Something familiar, something everyone can see. The moon has been one of Linda, the girls and my check points. We ask, "did you see the moon?" Somehow it's comforting while being so far away that we can see the same point of reference. Our God is that way. His love, grace, and mercy never, ever change. His word consistently reveals to us who He is, and His incredibly passionate love for His creation (especially you and me). I wonder sometimes if he didn't spin the earth around the sun, and the moon around the earth, so we could see His steadfastness. His neverending mercy, His longsuffering?

God has been so good to us! We've had a great week, now today we get to relax. This post is dedicated to all of you back home that have prayed, supported financially and emotionally this experience in Columbia. God has showed Himself strong! We love you and miss you, but will see you soon! I thought I would post quite a few pictures. I apologize if I missed your guy. I wasn't able to capture everyone in action yesterday, but I grabbed a number of shots and thought you'd enjoy them.



Here's Mike helping to lay tile in what will soon be the cafeteria for the Bible School. You can see some of the other work behind him. They've only been in this building since February, it was a miracle the way it all came about. The Bible School was formerly located in the Bogota North Wesleyan Church, but when their building project started they no longer had a place to meet. Rick West is the Director for all Wesleyan churches in Spanish speaking countries. I spoke with him yesterday, and He was telling me that the way the district acquired this building had God's hand all over it. Form the funding, to the location, to us being able to bring this team down to do this work. It's great to join God in what He's already doing!


One of the more tideous jobs was taken on by several of the guys. The windows on the north side of the building in the cafeteria were painted over with black paint. I think it had sort of been baked on there by the intense sun. They cleaned cleaned them with razor blades, scouring pads, a putty knife, (that didn't show up until they were almost done) and paint thinner.

Man, those windows look great now, don't they? I think we all agree, the first day was the most difficult. It was a combination of altitude, fatigue, and the work was heavy. But, we were able to accomplish a lot in spite of the difficulties.
The weather has been beautiful, usually 70's in the day and 50's at night. In this shot I'm looking south , even though it looks like the downtown area, it's not the main area that's considered downtown Bogota, that is to our north. But I thought the mountains were a nice backdrop.

Friday was crunch time. Here you see Randy helping to cut the ceramic tile. We were able to tile the entire break room/cafeteria area and it turned out beautiful! In the other shot is Scott and one of our new friends Felix, a local pastor that came to help translate and just roll up his sleeves and work. Clay gave him a t-shirt and he put it on over his sweater because he was cold. Many of the people here were talking about the coolness of the air. To us boys from Indiana it felt really good in the end of July.

We'll have many, many more photos, and stories to share. So, stay tuned as there will hopefully be more to come