Entering Holy Week

Last week was one of the longest of my life. I taught evangelism in the mornings, and I loved doing it. But at the same time I came to have a greater appreciation for sleep and rest. God actually has been talking to me about the value of life and taking care of ourselves while valuing caring for others. Like Oswald Chambers says:
“My worth to God publicly is measured by what I really am in my private life. Is my primary goal in life to please Him and to be acceptable to Him, or is it something less, no matter how lofty it may sound?”

This week all of the students and almost all of the staff are going to the intense camp called NIKO. Ana Cristina and I will be staying at the base to work on Esperanzas de Vida. And seeing as it’s also Holy Week, what better time to get fed from God and really dig into his word? I’m really looking forward to it, I’m even excited about reading Numbers :) Sometimes God just really wants to be with us, you know?

And now for the long awaited ministry update: Ana Cristina had her appointment at the embassy for her visa last week, and she was denied. That’s right, rejected. It was a sad couple of days for us. And so this week we will be forming our plan B. It looks like I will be going to the states by myself in April and May to receive training from Living Alternatives and meet with some churches. Second semester we plan to do some intense investigation in Medellín and next year pull away from the base and focus all our energies in the ministry.

We will have to start with the counseling and emotional support aspect (seeing as we’re counselors and not at all medically inclined) and building a team. The vision is to be able to support women depending on their needs and their crisis: financially, emotionally, relationally, and medically. This includes working with their families and the father of the baby, teaching parenting skills, offering a home in circumstances where it would be best for the woman to live with us during her pregnancy, and someday having our own clinic for the medical side.

Please continue praying specifically for the ministry. It’s a bit difficult when our plans have to be changed, but we are still doing everything we can to learn and make the most of the opportunities we do have.

Peace

I was really glad to be a Colombian today (almost, minus the blondish hair). Our president was in a conference with Chavez and Correa, and Chamorro was present as well. I was proud that our president could handle the situation so well, apologizing to Correa and ending with handshakes and peace again in South America. God, thank you for responding to our prayers and letting peace reign where we thought relationships would be impossible to reestablish. Continue to guide our leaders, protect our people, and end the horrible kidnappings and warfare caused by the FARC. Amen.

WAR

Things are not going too well for Colombia at the moment. Chavez is bad news for us. He is communist, distorts the truth with ease, and he thinks that Colombia and Venezuela should be reunited as one country. (It has only been since 1830 that Venezuela and Colombia were separate countries. That’s why our flags are so similar.) He has been taunting President Uribe and sticking his nose into neighboring countries’ affairs for a while now.

For example, Chavez is friends with the Nicaragua president. Nicaragua is turning more communist, again, and right now there is a weekly inflation on their currency. Things are not in favor of the people in general, only the rich. Added to the bad news, the Nicaraguan president’s wife is witch, literally. She sometimes announces things that come from the mouth of the devil and generally participates in very strange religious practices. Imagine the kind of influence she has over the government. Nicaragua has a bank account (I believe it is in Venezuela) where a percentage of all of their petroleum sales go (business with Venezuela). It is an account to help the poverty in Nicaragua. However, the government does not keep record of any of the flow of money in this account, very few have access to any information about it, and interestingly enough nothing much has improved for those living in poverty. Suspicious.

Saturday a major guerrilla leader was killed by the Colombia military. We were happy about this. However, the actually bombing took place in Ecuador, unwise move on Colombia’s part. So now the good news of the death of the FARC leader is countered by worse news: that Chavez has convinced Ecuador to sever all diplomatic ties with Colombia and investigate what took place on their side of the boarder. One of our soldiers was killed as well, apparently by the Ecuador military. But things get worse.

Chavez also announced that we have some outrageous number of troops waiting on the boarder with Venezuela, all lies. Chavez said he wanted to avoid war, but he will not allow anyone to divide or weaken them. First, it appears that he has given millions of dollars to the FARC. He also has united most of the leftist leaders against Colombia. (Ecuador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Argentina, Bolivia, and to a smaller degree Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru). Colombia would have to enlist men if we went to war. Luckily the UN is keeping an eye on the situation, because things in South America are not looking favorable for Colombia.

As I was discussing this with my friend, he said the real reason Chavez has been so hostile towards Colombia is because Colombia (specifically President Uribe) is so friendly with the states and the states are so anti-Communist. Chavez actually blames the US for the attack in Ecuador and calls the US the master of "sub-president Uribe." But as the elections approach in the US, Colombia’s relationship with the states will likely change. The party elected will also decide if we pass a trading agreement between the states and Colombia. I’m not sure if it would help or hurt our economy to have the agreement passed, but one thing is for sure, our economy will change greatly. Colombia right now seems to be between a rock and a hard place. Please pray for wisdom for our leaders, peace for South America, truth to shine though, and that Chavez by some miracle will not be reelected as President of Venezuela.

“Why we love Rachel”

...was the theme of my birthday. I woke up early to start making my cake and throughout the kitchen found little notes saying why people love me from all of my staff friends. Later in my office I found notes from my students and from friends in the states. It was such a beautiful and full day.

At night for my party. Well, it was something else (thanks to Desteni). It started out with a continuation of people telling me why they loved me but then some of the boys starting confessing their love for me. It made me a little nervous until I figured out it was a skit, planned, fuew, I’m not getting engaged today. It was hilarious, they ended up having a dance off. (I highly recommend looking at the photos and make sure you read the comments for your maximum entertainment). Then people really told me why they appreciated me, and say happy birthday along with a movie of Abby and roommates singing me Happy Birthday. Then there was cake and more dancing (Christian style).

But I have to say the best part of my day was a pastoral time I had with my co-leader Katherine and three students in the evening. They are a bit behind on their devotional journals where they have to read and write about a chapter of the Bible daily. So we talked about responsibility and getting all they can out of the school.

Then we curled up on cushions in my office, drank tea, and read the Bible together. It was amazing. We all had new revelation into the passage (John 10) and our ideas would build on one another and I saw some of them get deeply passionate about the Bible for the first time. It was one of those moments that I will cherish forever, one of those “yeah, this is what I live for” moments. It was a beautiful day!

BIRTHDAY

It’s almost my birthday. Just a couple hours to go! How exciting! I’ve invited about 50 people to my party, but seeing as my friends at the base have to plan it I have no idea what I’ve gotten myself or them into. It will be a day full of surprises. The only two things I can really be sure of is that I know that I will be making my own chocolate cake and I will be wearing a peach colored shirt.

I have many hopes for this year.
°I hope to get our ministry, Esperanzas de Vida, projected, financed, and everything ready for us to leave the base next January and start serious classes and counseling with young pregnant women.
°I hope to get better at piano and singing.
°I hope to understand more in the book of John.
°But really I hope I learn to be a consistent type of person where I have loving relationships all of the time, in the stressful moments and happy moments and downright heartbreaking moments. (that goes for God and people)

Coming soon.... I can promise more details about our ministry after our meeting with the leaders and I can promise some great photoage after my birthday party. And this week is missions week at my church in the states, so I will look forward to talking with you all on Saturday! Think of your crazy little America having an even crazier day down in Colombia tomorrow!

Life Theme

“You are my strength when I am weak. You are the treasure that I seek. You are my all in all.”

I don’t know what it would take to be able to say that every moment of ever day, but there are those times when you really know God and don’t want anything else aren’t there? I hope those times start to last and the distraction become less and less prevalent.

My life has a theme. A theme in all of my teaching, it’s the lens through which I read the Bible, it’s my approach to life. To me, everything pretty much comes down to relationships and helping people have healthy relationships with people and God. And it’s heartbreaking to see so many broken relationships. People don’t understand who God really is and therefore don’t trust him. People are hurtful. People have enemies, manipulating friends, tension in their marriages. And I don’t think anyone expected the bumps they find in their road. That’s also the reason I love to teach about God, the reason why I’m a missionary living in Colombia. I really believe knowing God and living like he taught could change everything. Those are just my musing recently.

Now for the Esperanzas de Vida update: Today Ana Cristina and I leave for Bogota for a week. We are attending a conference about creating new projects for ministry. I think it will be kind of intense, we have to presenting our project the last day. But it is a God send that this is available right now, because even though we know about counseling and loving people, we have no idea when it comes to all the logistics of starting a new ministry. Cristina is also still in the process of applying for her visa so we can visit the states for more training. Please pray that her interview at the embassy will go well.

Besides that, life is always an adventure. My best friend just got a motorcycle. And keeping to his promise, he let me be the first to drive it. It was fun, maybe a little stressful for him. Today I have my second less: where the break is and how to use it. Have a wonderful weekend... I’m signing out to go spend some quality time with Jenkins.

Jenkins

Now we are two weeks into a new school! This class is amazing. The kids are pretty young, but they have really open hearts, they want to be apart, they want to grow. One moment that really blessed me happened the first week of classes. There is a student named Deimer. He’s a good guy, low voice, fun to be with but he’s not the outgoing, attract attention to himself type. In one of the classes the students had to go by themselves to write down a conversation with God about some stuff from their past. Deimer came back and asked the teacher, kind of nervous like, if he really had to read it out loud to the class. You could tell he would if he had to, he wouldn’t avoid it, but it would be tough for him. Well, the assignment was personal, not to be shared with the class. But the spirit their of being willing to do whatever it takes to grow and be closer to God is what I love about this school.

I’m still learning the ropes at accounting. A good friend and I are co-pastoring three girls. They have lots to grow on, but again are willing to try. We’ve had a great time so far, I’ve also been surprised at how open they are within our group. I also have had the opportunity to help with some of the teaching these two weeks. It makes me really excited when I understand something well enough to help others get it too.

But now I must make mention of the newest addition to the base... my piano named Jenkins. Jenkins is a Yamah, weighted key, beauty. I am in charge of worship this semester, which was really a trial for my patience with a little keyboard that is really just for beginners. Because of a wonderfully generous gift, we now have Jenkins at the base. I can’t tell you how much it has blessed me to be able to worship through playing something that actually responds and makes pretty noises. But it changes worship too to have an instrument that can handle dynamics. To sum it up, the biggest blessing so far this year has by far been the gift of a piano. I am such a lucky girl!