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Bogotá, Colombia Blog

Mary Lou Hess | Jan 31, 2012

Filed Under: Bogotá, Colombia – January 21-28, 2012

January 26

We had a great day today. After being at a standstill on the playground because of lack of directions and parts we went full steam ahead on it today. Hopefully we will get close to finishing it up tomorrow or God willing be completely finished. The multipurpose room project is finishing up also. The group fixing things at the teacher’s apartments are about finished also. The teacher’s are so thankful for all they have done. Gordy Gault taught an advanced math class today. Gordon Lindner was asked to use his talents to paint a verse on a mural wall in the music room. He did a great job! 

Thank you all for your prayers. We have seen God at work both in and through us. Please pray that we can finish our week strong.

Carole Bacon
 

Wednesday, January 25

Hello brothers & sisters at the Orchard E Free,

Today, Wednesday, we started our day at 7:15 am for a time of worship singing praises with El Camino Academy staff. At about 8:00am we went to work on varying projects. Tom Clark, Steve Horeman, Ronnie Cornell, Jessica Heck, and Eric Olsen worked in the new multipurpose room doing electrical, framing & drywall work. Norm Peterson, Gordie Gault, & Ken Reidfeld worked on some of the ECA staffs’ homes fixing various electrical & plumbing items. Carol Bacon worked with everyone helping wherever needed. Gordon Lindner & Tino Ayala went to a Fundacion Maranta Mission house to help with construction and cabinet fabrication. The mission house serves under privilege children with additional education outside their normal public education. The school helps keep the kids off the street.

After our workday we all had dinner at ECA families homes. We all come away with a sense of the Bogota culture and brotherly love. It is amazing to see how devoted other people are living for Jesus. This is a real treat.  Please pray that we would be productive and a blessing to the McCollums and the ECA staff.

Tom B.
 

Tuesday, January 24

Another day of sun and rain in Columbia. Work continued on each of the projects and progress was made. I was working on the apartment repair team. One of the projects we had was to repair a light switch in an apartment staircase.  I am very familiar with how the switches would be connected back at home but here they were wired completely differently. What I learned today was to “Think Colombian”. They do many things different than us but in ways that also works. God is showing me that my way may not always be the best way, but His way always works.

This evening we went out to dinner with the McCulloms and another family to the Sante Fe mall. There were many great food choices. The group then walked over to the McCullom’s home for dessert which included some very unusual fruits and desserts. Last year I tried most of them, this year I just had a few basic ones. Jessica got a little headache trying to break a fruit open on her forehead. The McCullom have been very gracious hosts and the translators we have had have been very helpful and fun to get to know.

Please pray with us for strength and protection as we continue working this week.
 

Monday, January 23

Today was our first official workday at the ECA. We split our team into 4 groups to work on the various tasks we are here to complete. The day started off slow, but it still turned out to be very productive, despite facing a few minor setbacks.

The first group of Gordy, Ken and Norm were sent out to the apartments to fix some household issues. They completed 4 apartments from the list, fixing leaking faucets, defrosting refrigerators, caulking sinks, etc.

The second group of Jessica and Tino were assigned to construct a built-in workstation and organizer in the office of the Elementary Principle. They completed the design, and started fabricating and varnishing the pieces.

The next group of Carole, Gordon, and Tom B. started working on the play ground set. After taking inventory of the building material they realized that a few key components were missing, i.e. the hardware and some of the wood. Once the playground architect arrived at 10:30, via his bicycle, he brought the hardware and helped organize the layout. The team completed digging 8 post holes and drilling several holes for the support beams before a heavy rain halted any further construction.

The last group of Eric, Ronnie, Steve and Tom C. began demo on the Multipurpose room. Steve and Tom tended to determining and ordering the materials needed to frame-out the roof for the drywall. They also handled the entire electrical demo. The team managed to complete the demo and moved on to framing the ceiling.

For lunch, we enjoyed our meal with the Administration of ECA in the auditorium. They spoke to us about how the school has changed over the years and the need for teachers due to short-term turnover. If you feel God is calling you to Bogotá, or you are interested in more information about ECA, visit their website: http://eca.edu.co/ .

Another highlight of the day was that we finally received our missing luggage! Despite being missing for a full day, it seemed to be a blessing from God that the luggage was lost because it was delivered directly to the school. This saved us having to haul over 700 lbs of luggage from the airport to the guesthouse, and then to the school. Thank you for all your prayers! Please pray that God will continue to build on the relationships we are forming here inBogotá.
 

Sunday, January 22

Our team of 10 arrived at Bogota, Colombia at 6 am without luggage. That did not stop our day, we attended church with the Mc Collum family followed by a delicious lunch on top of a mountain. After lunch we drove to El Camino Academy (ECA) to start planning projects with the project manager Hernan. He gave us a tour of the school and explained what was completed from the last visit in 2011.  We finished the afternoon with more planning and a great dinner. We ask that you continue praying for continued strength for the team and that our luggage arrives safely in Bogota. Additionally, please pray that the ECA will be able to raise funds and receive a building permits to continue building construction. 
 

Saturday, January 21

Houston we have a problem; why are we in Houston?

At 8:30am 10 out of our team of 12 (two guys left on an earlier flight) met at the church to begin our trip to Bogotá, Columbia. We packed up the turtle bus and headed off to the airport for a 12:00 flight. We arrived at the airport, checked in, and made it through security with time to spare. The only thing that wasn’t on time was our flight. The plane to Atlanta was scheduled to leave at 12:00pm but due to some tornadoes in Georgia, we didn’t leave O’Hare until 2:00pm. Now we are very patient people so waiting wouldn’t be a big problem but our connecting flight in Atlanta was scheduled at 4:00pm and had no delays. We missed our flight. Well the 2 guys who left before us made the flight but the rest of us were stuck. Delta airlines was kind enough to book us on flights to get to Bogotá but that meant we were off to Houston Texas for 4 hours. Finally at 1:00am we left Texas for Bogotá, Columbia. Even with the major lack of sleep, we are excited to be here and thankful that God got us here safely. Please continue to pray with us that God will use us for His will to people of Bogotá, Columbia.

Ronnie
 

Saturday, January 21

Last night we packed up 14 suitcases of books and 2 bags of tools.  We’re ready to get to Bogotá.  We’ll be building a playground, installing a ceiling in the multi-purpose room and working on a long list of repairs in missionary homes.  I’d like to thank you for your support in making this trip possible, financially and especially through your prayers.  We covet your continued prayer for us as we enter a different culture and language.  Please also pray that we complete our work, encourage the McCollums and make many new friends as we go about God’s work in Bogotá.

Front row from left: Ronnie Cornell, Jessica Heck, Ken Rietveld, Tom Bott, Tom Clark, Tino Ayala
Back row from left: Steve Hoerman, Gordon Lindner, Gordy Gault, Norm Peterson, Eric Olsen, Carole Bacon

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