October 26, 2015 Update and Prayer Request

Josh, Luis Fernando, Jeffrey and Victor are currently en route to La Mohana for a five day trip. During the trip please pray for Josh and Luis as they will be doing a couple teaching sessions. They will also be bringing materials that the foundation has provided to equip their pastors and leaders to make disciples in their town. Jeffrey and Victor will be setting up and providing Sunday School material for the church in La Mohana. Please be praying that this trip would be an encouragement to the pastors. Pray that they would use the materials to build up the church and be equipped for discipleship.

The booklets and tracts are printed and bound here on the farm. Making them here cuts down on costs, but is a lot of work and also quite time-consuming. Every month we choose a different booklet and tract to print and use them as evangelism tools. Eventually we would like to have it as a volunteer ministry within the church.

We haven't yet started breaking ground on the new orphan house, but we have made some progress. I know it doesn't look like much, but like the book binding it is more time consuming because there's no where to go in Cartagena to just buy stakes. Making the stakes to frame the concrete was an all day task for Josh and Mike. The decision was made to use steel stakes so we can make extra to have for the next building project, if we used wood they wouldn't last long enough for the next building project. We had to purchase steel rods, cut them down, sharpen and paint them with anti-corrosive paint. Please continue praying for the progress on the new orphan house and we'll continue bringing updated pictures as we continue the project.

September 14, 2015 Update

Colombia Grace Foundation has had quite a few new and exciting happenings as of late that we're thrilled to share with you all!

My name is Dana. I'm a new missionary here from Astoria, Oregon. I'll be helping with the communication side of things here at the farm such as the blog, newsletters, and website as well as helping with school and daily tasks at the Antioch house. 

Samantha has also recently joined the team from Minnesota. She has been here about a month and is a teacher at the school building to the kids the Lord has brought to the farm.

Please keep Samantha and I in your prayers as we adjust to our new home and pray that we can navigate what the Lord has planned for us while here. 

The new school year just started and also joining the teaching staff at the school is Darlys (Dar-leese) and Jeffry, both Colombians from Cartagena. Please keep the students and teachers in your prayers, that God may be glorified and the kids will learn, retain, and meet their goals for the year!

Since our last blog update we've gained two new boys, both 10 years old. Please pray that their hearts would be softened to the love of our Savior, Jesus, and for their adjustment time as it's always a difficult transition. 

In some VERY exciting news; yesterday we did baptisms at our church service! We had a total of seven baptisms! Including three kids that live here on the farm and four adults from the church. It was a very exciting day and there wasn't a dry eye to be found! Please pray for those who were baptized to continue in their walk and obedience to God. Please also pray for the church as there has been some push back and attacks from the enemy, but we know who has already won the battle!

In other church news we're starting up four new Sunday School classes based off of curriculum from Children Desiring God: The Old Testament, ABC's of God, Promises of God, and In the Beginning... Jesus. Josh will also be preaching a six week series on parenting. Please pray for a fruitful time in fellowship and the Word while we seek to know Him more as a church body. Please also pray for those who will be teaching during Sunday School. 

Thank you everyone for your continued prayers!

Planetarium

The kids on the farm were blessed with a trip to Cartagena to the planetarium.  It was a great show and the kids had a great time learning about the constellations.  Thank you to our friends for planing this special trip.

                             

Blessing of a new vehicle

This year we were blessed to buy a new vehicle.  Our old vehicle has been dying a slow death these last 4 years and we really couldn't to keep repairing it every month.  Through some generous donations specifically for the purchase of a new vehicle we were able to buy this brand new van.  God is so good!  Not only did we find this new van in our price range but through the blessing of God we were able to get the taxes and extra fees waived.  This van is such a huge blessing.  What a relief to travel without constantly worrying about breaking down.

Project Updates

The last couple months have been busy with various projects on the farm.  We were blessed to have extra money from the purchase of the new van that we were able to reinvest in projects needed around the farm.  We were also blessed to have a mission group come down and help us with the projects.  Many hands sure do make things go faster!

Antioch House received a new coat of paint inside and out.  What an improvement from the pealing,dingy paint before.  

A work in progress but after a second coat so nice and bright! 

The big project on the farm has been to remodel the pastors 2 room house into a 4 room house with a connected bathroom.  It looks great with a new coat of paint on the outside and all the work inside.

Open kitchen area.

What a blessing to have a connected bathroom.  No more going out at night to shower.

The old bedroom has now become a living space.

A hallway now connects the living space to two small bedrooms.

The pastor's daughter now has a room separated from her parents giving both a measure of privacy.

Church Projects Finished Up

Sorry blogging hasn't been done very regularly!  These are some pictures of improvements made on the church.  It is now completely painted inside and out.  We were blessed to have a couple stay a while. While here the painted the inside, build cabinets for both classrooms and stained the wooden things in the church.  What a blessing to wrap up all the church projects.

Small classroom

Larger classroom used as the main classroom right now.

This is what the kitchen looked like during the painting process.  It is now complete and functional.

We were also able to add concrete stairs on the hill down to Antioch house.  This is the view up from the house.  The brown building at the top is the church.

This shows the view from the top of the stairs by the church toward Antioch house. The stairs make coming and going much easier, especially in the rainy season when things get muddy and slick.  We are entering into the rainy season now.  Pray for a good one so the things around here start growing again. Blessings!

New Year's Blessings

The new year started off with the blessing of a new calf on the farm.  We were blessed with a female and look forward to raising her as a future milker. We are blessed to have fresh farm milk once again and the kids love spending time with the calf!

Here is a picture of Esperanza (Hope) at a day old.

Here she is in a recent picture.  She is growing great, healthy and sassy!

Christmas Program

Our new church building has been such a blessing!  We were able to hold a Christmas outreach program this year with the help of the youth of the church.  There was singing of carols, a play depicting Christ's birth and a clearly presented gospel message.  Afterwards we were able to pass out small gifts, thanks to a local business who donated them, and traditional hot chocolate and bunueloes for a snack.  What a great time of fellowship.  We pray next year will be even more fruitful. 

The kids were led in worshiping our Lord in the singing of traditional Christmas carols.

The youth of the church did a drama telling the story of Christ's birth.

Pastor's Conference

We were blessed to hold our second pastoral conference at the end of last year.  What a blessing to be able to teach the body of Christ sound doctrine.  We were especially blessed to have 13 Wayu pastors come all the way from La Guajira for the teaching!

There were blessed times of worshiping our Lord. We also held 6 different teaching sessions. Luis Fernando Gomez, Josh Harpole, Rick Riffle and Mike Riffle all shared in the preaching.

Mike preaching on the Gospel of the Glory of God.

Josh preaching on Election.