7th Trip To Bogota, January 2011 Day 2

I am always amazed at the way God orchestrates every little detail of these trips. He brings the team, each and every one. He causes all of the events to work together to show Himself mighty on behalf of us and the children. At breakfast this morning I visited with a man who decided to go the day before we left and now his life is changed. His sweet spirit has blessed me several times already and then to find out that he got in just under the wire. Amazing.

I gave our devotion this morning and the second P was Passion. Jesus ministry was characterized by passion and compassion. Jesus passion was people. His antagonists, the pharisees, were concerned with popularity, position, prosperity, power, and protocol. Jesus on the other hand is seen over and over again in the Gospels seeing and meeting needs, feeling compassion, speaking kind words, touching and being touched, and speaking truth in love. We determined that we would imitate this in our ministry to the children today with His help and grace.

We had a imaravilloso! day today. We were back at Santa Maria for the second day. We enjoyed hours of games and crafts. Part of the day I had a sweet group of girls gathered around me asking question after question about my life and my family and helping me with my spanish. The cutest thing was when I would use the wrong Spanish word or mispronounce it and they would burst out laughing and then for fun make me say it again wrong and then right so I wouldn’t forget. It was very fun. It was wonderful to see the team enjoying their time with the children. Some of the ladies had brought puppets and they had a cd of children’s Christian songs and they had the puppets sing the songs. It was really cute and the kids loved it. Due to a gift from one of the ladies mother, Shoby was able to take the director of the foundation that oversees Santa Maria shopping and purchased many items needed by the orphanage. It is very exciting what God is doing here. Once again as the day began to draw to a close we gathered all 200 of us together and my girls sang some worship songs, one in English and on in Spanish. It was beautiful and many of the girls said that they sounded like angels. Then Nep and Dona came and did a really neat skit. The first half of the skit was how not to have a relationship with a boy. It was really cute and yet very instructive. The girls saw acted out before them how girls and boys who have no respect for God or themselves behave and the consequences of broken relationships and sin. The second half of the skit was how a Christian husband and wife treat each other and how they have time together in God’s word. As they talked together over God’s word they got closer and closer together and their words were sweeter and more tender until finally they were cheek to cheek and all the girls let out a sigh and a clap as they confessed their eternal love for Jesus Christ and each other. It was fantastic. Then they shared the gospel and invited the girls who wanted to confess Christ to stand. There were many. They came forward and the team prayed with them. Suddenly, Nep said, “Adults too can come and trust Christ. Are there any workers here who want to confess their faith in Jesus Christ.” A young kitchen worker in her uniform and hairnet bolted to the front with tears streaming down her face. Dona motioned for me to join her to pray with this young woman. It was a joyous moment as she wept out her needs before the Lord. As we were praying everyone else was done and so the team began handing out Spanish Bibles to all of the children and the Beach Family had brough Spanish/English dictionaries for them as well. When we finished praying there were no Bibles left and the young worker asked me, “can I have a Bible too… for me?” I went off to see if I could “steal” a Bible somewhere but with no success. Suddenly she came running up to me with a Bible she had gotten from someone and had me sign it. It was wonderful. We said our tearful goodbyes and headed to dinner.

Another amazing providence showed itself as we were attempting to order dinner for 30 people with 1 translator. Some college kids at a nearby table came over and started translating for us. They spoke excellent English. Chris, our Vice President, started up a conversation with one of the young men thanking him for helping us. Chris told him what we were doing in Bogota and it turns out the young man and his friends attend a Christian college nearby and have translated for mission groups before. He said they would love to help us on the next trip and that he and his friends and even their professors at the college are always looking for service opportunities like this. Amazing. We exchanged contact info with them and will be in touch.