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!