Psalm 32:8

La Mesa, Cundinamarca, Colombia, is a town filled with so many lovely people. I often have asked myself ¨What am i doing living so close to the equator where the temperature is in the 90´s with high humidity most of the time?¨ The relationships that i am forming make everything worthwhile and i quickly forget about my ¨not liking hot weather.¨ I have had a wonderful time so far and have done so many cool things. I´m going to attempt to explain what i have been doing so far.
I arrived in La Mesa on Friday, November 2nd. We were welcomed by a meal prepared by our host families. The pastor´s wife gave each of us a different Bible verse. The verse i received has been an incredible comfort so far. ¨The Lord says I will guide you along the best pathways for your life, I will watch over you.¨-Psalm 32:8- My family is made up of 5 people, Martin(dad), Elsy(mom), Andres(18), Ana Maria(9), and Stephanie(8). The first night home was a bit overwhelming and sort of an awkward evening. By the time we left the meal at the church and arrived at home, it was fairly late. Hardly any socializing/getting to know you, happened that evening. My first 2 days consisted of walking through the town getting to know where things were located. We also went to the youth group for the 1st time, and attended 2 our of 3 church services. We introduced ourselves to the church by talking and by sharing a song that we had prepared. We sang ¨Great is Thy Faithfulness.¨ My first work week i spent going to the school and meeting the teachers and some of the students. The school is called Colegio Americano Menno, and there are 500 students from Kindergarten to 11th grade.That week was their last week of school and the school was having their time of festivities. Each class prepared something special like a performance, and all the classrooms were decorated in different themes. We definately got to see the creative side of the school. In that week i also got to go to Anapoima. Anapoima is the next town down the mountain where my host parents, Martin & Elsy, are ministering and working at planting a church with some communities of families. Anapoima is a resort town and many people from Bogota have their vacation homes there. It is also a town where there is a lot of money, but there is also the exact opposite which is poverty. There are two communities which are located at the edges of the town. Falling of the cliff is a very real danger. There are many families that live all together and in some cases there are eight people living in one room. Each community is one big family so if something majot happens to one person, it affects everyone. Martin and Elsy have been working with these families and teaching them the gospel. There are two women who were baptized and this Sunday another lady will be baptized. There are many children so we are hoping to begin some english classes for the kids and adults too.
The first week we did many things for the first time but we also worked on our relationships with our families and getting to know them on a personal level. I got to know my family better at times when we are all around the dinner table, as well as when we are playing games together. It has been great interacting with my family and learning their stories.
I had only been in La Mesa a week and i had the chance to go on an eight hour trip to Garzon which is in the department of Huila. There were about 25 people who went, and we stayed at a church in the town. The church had planned revival meetings that weekend, so we helped and participated in those services. The team that went also prepared skits in the parks, and we did some evangelism throughout the town. It was pretty cool at how open people were to talking, and the interest to study the Bible was very high. The hour of skits in the parks brought in many people, both old and young. At one of the parks there were some soldiers that stopped and watched the presentation. Most of the people that watched the skits stayed for the whole time. The response of the people saying how much they liked the skits, and thought it was cool that people did those things was very encouraging to the team.
I am also taking Spanish classes twice a week, and am writting a lot of Spanish. Our group is also teaching some English at the comedor( a soup kitchen for kids) which is a project of the church. We have also gone on some school trips with different clubs at the school. I also spend some of my time translating for some of my fellow group members.
My time over all has been a blessing, and i am continually learning new things every day.