The Next Three Months

What I didn’t say in my last post from Colombia in June of 2009 was the last thing that Heidy whispered in my ear before I was dragged into the van to leave. We were both teary eyed and when I hugged her the last time she whispered, “En mi mente usted siempre será mi papá.” (In my mind, you will always be my daddy.) I climbed into the van and sat next to my dear brother David Richardson and as he cradled me in his big arms I wept like a little child. I don’t ever remember crying so uncontrollably before in my life. And I kept saying to David, “I’m going to help that little girl if I have to swim the Gulf of Mexico to do it.” I’ve never felt so passionately about anything in my life. It was a terrible earnestness that gripped me as we drove to the hotel that night. I was as if I was leaving one of my blood daughters in a foreign country all alone. I have since come to realize that God is not bashful about setting the hook very deep when He wants you to do something for him. He knows how to get you where you live. It reminds me of the places in the Old Testament like 2 Kings, Isaiah, and Ezekiel where the Lord says he will put hooks in their nose or in their jaws and make them turn and do what He wants them to do. Well I felt like God had put hooks in my heart and the barbs were very deep indeed. I knew that I would be back to love on and minister to the orphans of Bogota, Colombia if it was the last thing I ever did. Of course, I couldn’t have known at the time that I would be back five more times in the next twelve months… but I am getting ahead of myself 🙂

When Beverly and I returned home, all we could think about and talk about was orphans. I was nearly worthless for the next three months. My family eventually told me that if I didn’t quit looking at orphan pictures and crying that they were going to do an intervention on me… ha ha. I talked to everyone and anyone who would listen. I couldn’t think of anything but Heidy, Heidy, Heidy. Very soon after we returned I received an email from Sandra through David giving me the information to become Heidy’s Padrino (legal Godfather). This would give me a chance to help her financially, communicate with her through email and an occasional phone call, and be able to visit her when I could in Bogota. I immediately completed the paperwork and shortly thereafter Lisa and I became her Godparents. Shortly after becoming her Padrino and less than a month after returning from Bogota, I received this email from Heidy. “I want you to know that for me this 25 days since you left have been very hard not to have you close to me and I love you very much. A thousand thanks for thinking about me and God bless you. I am never going to forget you. Remember the last thing I told you when you were here.” We had many such exchanges that were very sweet. God was setting His hook deeper and deeper into my heart.

Soon, my partners in crime Allen Pate who also had Goddaughters there now and David Richardson who had his Goddaughter Lida there began to conspire with me to go back and see the girls and minister to the orphans. We eventually set the date for the trip as September 23-27, 2009 and then began to pray for the finances to go. Beverly crafted an email about the orphans and sent it out to twelve hundred people asking them to pray and to support our efforts in Bogota. Over ten thousand dollars came in from that one email that we used over the next several months to provide for the orphans. Things were moving rapidly. September 23rd came and Allen, David, my daughter Rebekah, and I flew to Bogota.

The next several posts will be my daily journal entries from that second trip.