Giving Thanks and Praise to God!

We are excited to announce that the Jerusalem house remodeling is completed.  The house now meets the Colombian social service standard for housing kids. The house now has both bathrooms completed, new paint inside and a ceiling.  As we were in the finishing stages of this project the Lord brought a new boy of 10 years old to live here on the farm.  He is a happy energetic guy who is doing very well here. It has been a long year of watching God move in peoples hearts to give for this project. How awesome a sight seeing God's people give to help orphans and further His church here in Colombia. 

In this picture you can see the older part of the house with newly painted walls and the completed ceiling. The rest of the picture shows a small section of the added on living area with new tile.

In a recent blog we showed the completed boys bathroom.  This picture shows the remodel of the second bathroom.

We were also able to clear and level part of the farm around Jerusalem house, Sameria house and the church. Part of this land will house our multi-purpose building.  By God's grace and provision we received a grant to build this building which will house the church, school classrooms and possibly online seminary classes for pastors in our area. God is so big!

This is a before shot of behind the Jerusalem house.

This is after.

This shows the view up to Jerusalem house before leveling.

This is after.

The church area prior to leveling.

After leveling. Future sight of the multi-purpose building.

A Successful Pastors Conference

We were blessed beyond belief by the work God did and continues to do here.  The 2 day conference was a lot of work but richly worth the effort as we saw pastors weep, hearing biblical truths for the first time.  The pastors here have such a heart to spread the gospel to those in their communities but lack desperately for educational resources. In addition to the sermon material we were able to sell materials to these pastors at a discounted price.  With this new knowledge and materials in hand the pastors were excited to go home and continue learning in order that they can impact their congregations. Josh, Mike and Luis have been asked by 2 other communities to repeat the conference for the pastors who were unable to come.

The guys are shown here with some of the pastors.

First Pastor's Conference

The first pastors conference is underway.  We have a great turn out with pastors and other ministry workers from various parts of our state in Colombia. Please pray as we help deepen these men and women's understanding of God so they can in turn impact others.

We were able to add a new rock path to the church in time for the conference.  It helps a lot right now with all the rain and mud.

       

What a great turn out!  God faithfully brings those who need to hear and learn from His word.

El Nido de Gracia's First Wedding

We were blessed to celebrate our first wedding September 28th.  It was truly a blessing to see these two step out and legally marry.  We have others interested as well with the next one coming in December.  Many of the people in this culture have never been legally married but just live as man and wife.  This union often ends when normal hardships and struggles arise as there has been no formal commitment.

Mike, Victor, Viviana, Luis Fernando and Josh

It rained all day, not very common here but it happened just the same.  The plan was to be married outside in the front yard.  The kiosko ended up being a very lovely place to hold the ceremony.

Presentation of the newly married couple.

As is the Colombian way there was much hugging and congratulating of the new couple.

Upgrades at Jerusalem House

The farm has been busy these last couple months.  With the help of a team we were able to complete the painting of the new bathroom, the boy's bedroom and main living area.  It is looking so nice!  We are also working on the ceiling and it too is close to being complete.  The pictures show the new bathroom and painted livingroom.  Hopefully soon we will have a picture with the new ceiling.

                        

                       

Baptism

We were blessed to baptize 7 members of our church on June 30th. What an awesome time of fellowship! It was such a blessing to hear the testimonies of those brothers and sisters in Christ as they shared with the congregation the changes Jesus has made in their lives.

2 Year Church Anniversary

Today we celebrated our 2 year anniversary in the church. El Nido de Gracia (church name) has come a long way since we first started 2 years ago in the living room of the Jerusalem house. We have grown not only in numbers but in biblical knowledge and it is fun to see the members of the church getting baptized and going out to share the gospel with others. Today we passed the day in fellowship, preparing food and lunching as a church family. Thank you for the last 2 years, the friendships developed and here's praying for many more years of dynamic ministry to come!

Many Thanks

We were blessed a few weeks ago to have friends down helping us out around the farm. What a blessing it was having them here, working side by side and enjoying some much cherished fellowship. While they were here they got to join us street evangelizing in Turbana and shared the gospel out on the island, Tierra Bomba. They were a lot of help around the farm as well. The Jerusalem House is working on adding a covered laundry porch to their house and it was nice having the help getting started on it. Josh and Mike are working on getting the roof up this week. We also were able to slaughter 3 pigs with the teams help and are now enjoying a freezer full of home grown meat.

New Kitchen

The Jerusalem house kitchen has been finished for a couple weeks now and what a difference it makes. Not only is it beautiful but it is so much more functional! We were blessed to be able to buy a new bigger stove that cooks hotter and faster, really saving everyone a lot of time in the kitchen. We couldn't be more pleased in how it all turned out. We are now working on the bathroom. Thanks be to God for a recently received donation that will allow us to put in the new ceiling, fix the bathroom and some other small but needed projects.

Like New

We are so grateful to have our van back from having some much needed repair work done. The van gets much abuse here going back an forth down a poorly maintained dirt road twice a day. We were able to have the inside and outside painted to keep the rust controlled as well as many other things fixed. It was a long 3 weeks scheduling without a vehicle but what a beautiful finished project. Thank you God that we have a reliable vehicle!

Evangelism

Sunday was a good busy day! Mike has a Bible study after church for lunch. This week we had the privilege of having a family from Tierra Bomba come out to fellowship. This family has been meeting with Mike and Victor on Saturdays when they go to the island to preach the gospel. They traveled 4-5 hours round trip with their 4 kids to get here for church. That was after working extra just so they could afford the bus fair. God is really working in this family's life and others on the island.

Later in the evening Josh, Mike and Luis went around in part of Turbaco evangelizing. They were able to meet up with some people we met when we first arrived here. They were really interested in everything that was discussed and want to come to church on Sundays. Praise God for His gospel.

Fun Times

Sunday afternoons are full of fun and rest up at the main house. Here the kids are enjoying a game of stop which is a mix of baseball and dodgeball.

Praying and Planting

Hot and humid this time of year as we ready for the rainy season. Here we are weeding, hoeing and planting corn. Please pray with us for much needed rain. Colombia has been experiencing a drought and many of our neighbors have been without water for 6 or more months. Pray for rain!

Bountiful Blessings

We are blessed to have a space for growing food. We are also blessed to have it irrigated during this present drought. Here I have a bunch of radish I just pulled up. Sweet and spicy!

All Creatures Great and Small

We were blessed with the birth of a calf February 15th. He is very sweet and growing fast! The kids just love hanging out with him!

A New Year Abiding in Our Lord

    We ushered the New Year in here with a shared dinner and fellowship.  What a blessing it is to be able to serve in this ministry alongside others seeking to Glorify God in their daily lives.  The year started out with a bang as we sought out advice from other like-minded organizations on the best way to proceed in bringing children in need to live at the farm.  We know from Scripture that man’s best thought out plans are not always the direction of the Lord. And we are finding this to be true right now.  Our plans were to begin constructing a new orphan house at the beginning of the new year.  Prior to construction, we wanted to make sure our building plan met all the requirements of Bienestar Familiar, (the governmental agency overseeing child and family services in Colombia).  We recently realized that we were getting the cart before the horse in some ways.  By talking with the government and with other organizations God has shown us that in order to utilize the facilities we already have, we need to make some changes.  Mostly in regard to health and sanitation.  We are focusing our efforts right now on remodeling the existing main house to meet the governmental codes.  Currently the guys are working on revamping the kitchen with sanitary cabinets, tile and countertops. Next the plan is to fix the existing bathroom that is not functioning properly, the pipes are over 40 years old, and need to be replaced, along with the tile.  After these two projects we need a ceiling and to fix the windows.  There is a lot to be done but we are excited to see how God has been providing for these projects and giving the guys the time and health to work on them.  We look forward to what God has in store for us this year and we look forward to sharing our progress with you.  May God glorify His Excellent Name as He brings these children to a saving knowledge and faith in Jesus Christ that they in turn will help impact the society around them to the praise of the glory of His grace!