The Jungle of Bogota

“The Jungle” is a safe place for youth to go to in a very deprived neighborhood. This neighborhood could be considered the slums of Bogotá, with multiple families living in one house in a neighborhood ravaged by drugs, prostitution, poverty, and satanic activity. During time of the year… the end of October (Halloween), The Jungle , provides longer hours, while proactively reaching out to the community, keeping  their doors open to the youth of the neighborhood.  Due to the intentional outreach and inviting more kids to The Jungle for Halloween weekend, more help and hands were needed for the day.

While serving at The Jungle, we spent the first hour praying for the neighborhood, the kids, safety for this Halloween season, and a spiritual breakthrough in the neighborhood. Then we interacted with the kids, playing with them for the couple hours of free time.  The jungle is well equipped with activities: coloring, playing in the playhouse, swinging them in hammocks, foosball, put-put golf, jump rope, basketball, a climbing wall, table tennis, board games, tub rides, sliding into a pit, and a roped bridge with a fireman’s pole.

After free time was a time of songs and worship, a skit of Daniel and the lion’s den, followed by a craft in small groups.  This was a fabulous time to share about the awesome, faithful, loving God we serve with the children.   The small groups allowed the children to start talking and opening up about the truth of the Bible.

The Jungle is a place of retreat for many of the children, a place to get away from the struggles and abuse of their daily life. It allows them to forget about the pain they endure outside the walls of The Jungle and build positive relationships with those who work as full time staff and the regular volunteers at The Jungle. Please be in prayer for this neighborhood, the only way this neighborhood will change will be through God’s intervention. You can find some pictures of the Jungle under our Ministry Page.

A week off.

Yes, it has been a couple weeks since the last post.  The delay has been for good reason, we hosted our first visitor from the States… Marlayna’s mom! She was here for a little over a week and spent some quality time with her grand- daughter!

During the month of October, the Colombian government made a law that required schools to take a one week recess.  Though the students have the week off, the teachers have professional development days the front half of the week.  While Marlayna’s mom was in town, she was able to get a good taste of life here in Bogota and some of the routines we are in: going to church, grocery shopping at local vender, taking public transportation to school, and house hold routines. It was wonderful to have an extra set of hands to play with our daughter.  During the back half of the week, we were able to take an overnight trip just out of the city to a small town with cobble stone streets, artisans selling their product, and local activities and foods to try. It was a wonderful week together and at the end of the time it was hard to say good-bye. Wonderful memories.

October Outreach

This morning, we went with some of the 11th graders to their outreach ministry. The hour and a half car ride gave us a chance to get to know the students better and to start the day off with a devotional from the Gospel of John. We read about Jesus healing the man that was sick for many years, he tried get into the pool once it had been stirred but was never able to reach the pool in time.  So, why did Jesus heal the this man of all the lame, blind, and sick that were the pool?  Jesus wanted to demonstrate that healing, salvation/ redemption is only through Him. The man at the pool was helpless and could give nothing back, just as so many of the children we saw today at the orphanage were so physically helpless or unresponsive.  Yet Jesus showed love and compassion to these type of people, just like at the pool with this man.  With that mindset, we went into the orphanage to love on the children.  We would touch them, rub their arms/ legs, talk to them, hold them (if we could), and read them the Elleazah's children books. The kids loved the attention of the student as they read the books and loved to hear new voices and see a baby (Elleazah).  Though Steve and I are limited in our Spanish communication, we too were able to show love without speaking much Spanish. This experience gave me a flashback to 10 years ago while serving in an orphanage in Ukraine for a month with Little Lambs Ministry. Again, though I did not speak any Russian/ Ukrainian, I was still able to build relationships with the kids and show them God love. I hope we will be able to do the same with these forgotten and abandoned children, that they may experience God's love through our time with them. Please continue to pray for our students as they struggle with the heartache of seeing such low functioning kids and to have a compassionate heart to reach out and love these children.

Sharing the Gospel at a Spanish speech tournament

ECA had the opportunity to send a couple students from each grade to a Spanish speech tournament held at a local k-12 school. Marlayna (and Elleazah) had the opportunity to go with the students to the school to compete. Many of the students had a sermon or devotional prepared to share with the other students in the room which they were competing against, as well as the judges who were ranking the presentations.  It was very encouraging to see the boldness in which the students presented, not only with public speaking, asking the group to pray prior to presenting, and then speaking God’s word without wavering.  These students used a speech completion as a platform in which to share God’s truth to their community. Praise God for such an opportunity to scatter the seeds of truth in this city.

Staff Retreat

This past weekend, we went on the all staff retreat to a ‘resort’ about an hour outside the city.  It was a wonderful time of fellowship, encouragement from the different speakers, and relaxation. Plus it was nice to just get out of the city, the noise, pollution, and daily grind of Bogota for just a couple days. We thank God for the opportunity to go on the retreat.

While on the retreat, we had taken a personality test and then discussed with some the people we work with about our tendencies (strengths, weaknesses) in hopes to improve unity and communication among the staff. Often times in a close, multi- cultural community such as ours (a Christian, American school culture within another culture) feelings are often hurt unintentionally. This was the first time the school board decided that everyone who worked at the school needed to go on this retreat together. With everyone present, the speakers spoke about Biblical methods of reconciliation to prevent disunity amongst the staff and for reconciliation to take place between staff members whose relationships have been fractured.  We also heard about the importance of encouragement rather than having a critical attitude, which was a great reminder for us. We often find it easier to point out what WE think is wrong rather than finding the good in others.

During the couple hours of free time we had, we walked the campus, played a little volleyball with some of the ECA staff and went swimming in the pool.  At first, Elleazah didn’t like the cold pool water, but once we sat still and let the shallow water around us heat up (due to our body heat), she enjoyed the water, which is a praise! Elleazah doesn’t have many opportunities to sit in water, we have a small shower at our apartment and her “tub” is the equivalent of a shallow sink.

The weekend was wonderful and relaxing.

Ministry Outreach

As we work with the Junior class, we have been able to talk with some of the students about the outreach ministry they had chosen to minister to throughout their high school years.  We have found that some of the students are excited about the ministry, and other are less than excited.  The ministry involves serving and loving on children in an orphanage with significant special health needs (as in some are unable to move, eat, or care for themselves without assistance.)

Two weeks ago, we were scheduled to serve at the orphanage but due to a miscommunication regarding transportation, we were unable to make it out to the orphanage.  So, we rescheduled for two weeks later (this weekend), only for the time to be canceled again.  I find it a little disappointing that we have yet to have a service project day and we are 6 weeks into the school year but realize God already knew the scheduling, it is not a surprise to Him, and His plan is perfect. Maybe God knew that we have had some rather busy weeks and now that we are not going to the orphanage this weekend, we may have a more relaxing weekend to be refreshed. Or, maybe He is giving us leaders an opportunity to have intentional conversations with those that are less enthusiastic about serving “those kids.” Sadly, some of the students are not wanting to go to the orphanage because it is too sad to see “those kids” who are not only unwanted but are outcasts due to their medical needs.  Some students say that they never have to interact with such needy and unresponsive kids during regular day because they are not out in society.  Such reasons to not go to the orphanage break my heart.  After all, Jesus spent significant time with those who were considered outcasts.

Please be praying for us as we continue to prepare to go to the orphanage and talk with the students, so that they will have ears to hear and hearts sensitive to the Holy Spirit and God’s love for “those kids.”

Progressive Dinner

As mentioned in a previous post, we have had some busy weekends.  The next two weekends are no exception.  But first,  I will go back share a little about last weekend.

The progressive dinner went well, praise God!  For appetizers, I had three girls help me prepare a starter food.  We took green platanos (plantines), shredded them, packed the shredded fruit into a golf ball sized sphere (flattened some of them) and then fried them.  We added a little salt and they were ready to eat, either dipping it into ketchup, mayo, or sprinkle with cheese.  They taste similar to hash browns. It was a simple but yummy treat.  Another great aspect of preparing this appetizer is that it gave us time to talk. As we shredded, packed and fried the fruit, I was able to talk with each of the girls, Laura, Natalie, and Camie. I learned a bit about their home life, school life, things they are excited about with the school year, and some of the struggles of being a junior.  From past experience, I have found some of the sweetest times of fellowship and discipleship have come in the kitchen.  I thank God for those times of encouragement and growth in my life and I pray that I may be used in a similar way (as Titus 2 explains).

After the rest of the Junior girls came over and inhaled our starter, we headed off to the main meal (pasta) with some amazing local fruit made into juice.  I love all the fruit here and variety of juice that can be made.  While talking with one of the girls about all the fruit for juice, she seemed rather impartial about the variety. I suppose it is something she has grown up with and doesn’t know much different compared to the idea of ‘seasonal fruit’ I am used to from the States.

Then we were off to dessert, we had a layered cake with pudding, ‘cool whip’,  ‘gram crackers’, and chocolate… very tasty.  I learned that Colombians have a sweet  tooth, but it is not for sweet, sweet things, only a soft, or mild sweet treat (sweet intensity of jell-o, or pudding). Plus, they always eat their dessert with a spoon.  We also started to discuss our end of the year service project, which is a long weekend we will take in May to “high- need” community to work in a school or orphanage.

Over all, the evening was a sweet time of fellowship as we kicked off the new school year!  Please continue to pray for us as we interact with this class and that discipleship will be fruitful.