Well, they say that when you transition to another culture you go through cycles of adjustment. The first cycle is the honeymoon phase... If you are married you know about this phase. Everything is new and exciting, and you are much more forgiving about those little idiosyncrasies of your spouse that in the beginning made them "interesting". But after a time, those little things aren't as interesting as they once were..haha. Well, I'm not so sure that the honeymoon is over, but we are definitely feeling more at "home" here. And for the most part, that's a really good thing.
The language still seems to be the biggest challenge here. Now I know that a lot of people might be thinking...why aren't y'all fluent yet? And believe me, I've wondered that too many times. Sometimes it's very easy to forget that fluency really is a life-long process. Just like our spiritual walk, we will never have everything together and there will always be more to learn. But we are thankful for the grace of God and of the mercy and patience of all those poor Colombians that bear with us and our language...haha.
Ministry Opportunities: Right now, If our language was up to speed, we could have opportunities aplenty. But for right now, I try to tag along and hear and understand as much as I can. I'm really praying that I can become very proficient at Spanish, because I think there are some really amazing opportunities here. For example, the school, which has 450 students, needs a Chaplin. Someone that will come in everyday at 6:00 a.m. to give a short devotional to the kids. What a great opportunity!!! To have the chance to start rubbing elbows with the teacher and the students is awesome. I'm going to start attending the teacher's devotional in the mornings as well. This meeting in mandatory for the teachers, but there are still some teachers that don't know Jesus. More opportunities to share the love of Jesus. Our prayer is that we be used by God to develop leaders and disciples. The Church also desires our to help them think/plan/execute a program that will help disciple all the kids of the church. From ages 4 till the you get married...haha. What a challenge, but one that I look forward to seeing how God is going to provide, both in wisdom and strength to see this completed.
We also have opportunities to work in 1 of the 3 church plants that the church has right now. We still don't know which one we will be working with, but that's an exciting opportunity as well. These young churches need lots of encouragement in the beginning, because the enemy desperately wants to discourage these young churches.
I am going on a retreat this weekend with about 25 of the students and some of the leaders of the church. This is going to be my best opportunity so far to get to know the kids and allow them to know me. I will be leading the games and I look forward to laughing a lot about the things that I'm going to make them do.
Amanda is also getting plugged in the with the ladies. Along with helping me, her main focus will be on the ladies and ministry to them. This is a critical ministry because, just like in the States, there are a lot of single parent homes where it's the mom that is bearing the burden of raising and supporting the family. Please pray that Amanda would have many opportunities to support and be apart of discipling the women of the church and the city.
I'll close with a few of the things that we miss from the States, and some of the things that we love about being here.
What we miss:
1. Amanda misses Barnes and Noble and Starbucks
2. We both miss having a car. If you've ever taken a ride in a taxi in South America, you know what I'm talking about.
3. We all miss family and friends
4. The kids miss having parks to go to. There really isn't a place here with grass for the kids to play at. Maybe we just miss grass :)
What we love about being here:
1. We LOVE the people of Colombia. One quick example: We took a taxi to the mall and we left a little plastic cup in the taxi. The driver of the taxi, parked his car, got out, went into the mall to find us to give us the cup back...how amazing is that!!
2. We LOVE our pastor and his family. Julio Caesar and his wife Claudia are some of the most helpful and loving people ever. Their kids have demonstrated so much love to our kids.
3. We LOVE the food here. Big surprise for us, but everything that we have had has been really good.
4. The beach. We can walk two blocks to see the Caribbean. That's pretty nice.
5. We LOVE our church family. They also have demonstrated so much love to us. We are so thankful for them.
6. We are THANKFUL and LOVE all those that are standing behind us and the work that God is doing here.
Prayer:
1. For our family. You sometimes forget how big of a transition it is for the kids until you send them off to a school where they don't know that language, the culture, or the "rules".
2. For clear direction into what ministries we will throw our "weight" behind.
3. For our walks with the Lord. The most important one, pray that we hold fast to the truth of God's word, and we intimately and closely follow him.
Parker loves the beach.
Parker sporting his new hairdo. Amanda doesn't like it, but I think it's pretty sweet. He's a good looking boy, just like his daddy..haha
First day of school. She has done pretty well and the crying has been to a minimum. All the kids wear uniforms to school and each grade has their own style and color.
The typical, "what are you doing look".
Here are Kendall's buddies. Tatiana and Jenny. Jenny just turned 8 and Tatiana just turned 14.
