::COLOMBIA MISSION::

La Gracia Baptist Church

2008-07-26T20:59:00.000-07:00

Videos taken by Craig Hastings

We're back!

2008-07-16T14:59:00.001-07:00

Well, it was a great time. Sorry for the delay in posts. The last few days were very busy. The camp finished well. We were able to help Jon and Holly on Saturday with a youth rally type event where 23 kids from the camp came. We had a great time with them and several trusted in Christ. We're looking forward to what God is going to continue to do from our ministry. We'll try to post some more pictures soon.

Playing the Game

2008-07-02T19:11:00.000-07:00

Things we have learned in Colombia::

C does not stand for cold on the shower handles
Amazing ice cream and coffee lives here
Its not uncommon to see two or three people riding on one bicycle
Buenas noche does not have anything to do with nachos (thank you guys)

Our main transportation. (cozy & dependable)

It is beautiful here

Today marks day two of the Chia basketball camp. We are excited for the opportunity to share Christ with kids and teens who have grown up with the unquestionable Catholic religion. We´ve also become aware that if they go home and tell their parents what they have learned about Jesús Cristo they may be forbidden to come back. We´ve lost a couple from yesterday but I think we have gained about the same. In this way we are also playing a different game than basketball. This one is spiritual and takes time, prayer, and a strategy to win. Jon Boyd, Kerry O´Neill, and Pastor Alonso have been speaking in ten minute segments throughout the day. From what I´ve understood in Spanish they have covered God, sin and death. Please pray for open hearts as Jesus will be the main topic tomorrow.

The Mayor of Chia and his wife came to our first day

For those of you who haven´t heard we are working with a guy from FCA named James Oilar and a headliner named Kerry O´Neill. Kerry is 6´9 and if you´ve ever watched the movie "Rocket Man" you will know what I mean when I say he is another Fred Randle. (that was for you, mom and dad) The Colombians seem to love humor and tall people so I am confident God provided the right guy. We have also been blessed with help from some basketball players that live in Chia. Please pray for energy because by the end of the day we are exhausted. We are still adjusting to later meals, earlier sunsets, and a very high altitude. We are eating lunch around one so supper isn´t until 7 o´clock or later. I am getting pretty used to the late afternoon desserts.

We take up most this tiny resturant every day for lunch. The soup has been known to be a big surprise. But if you know what meat is on the menu you can pretty much guess that the rest of the animal is in the soup. They will probably brag on themselves, but I must say we have a brave team.

Dave and Evan at the end of the dayDiego (one of the entrenadors) and Evan

Nathan trying out the sal on the walls in the Salt cathedral

Quote of yesterday:

Scene: in the Mall trying to figure out how to ask if the jacket Nathan is eyeing is made of leather. Luckily Justin had his pocket dictionary on him and helped out.

"¿está la piel de vaca?" (literly translated "Is this skin of a cow?")

We discoverd two things that day: the jacket wasn´t made from the skin of a cow and the word for leather in Spanish.

Kerry O´neill and a very cute vaca

Starting the camp

2008-07-01T19:49:00.000-07:00

Dave and the Van Der Weide´s stand outside the church in Chia
Eliana & Lucas play with Odessa, Dani & Cami
We play a little soccer at the camp in Tenjo
Prepping for the basketball camp with James Oilar and Jose Ayuda
Talking to Kerry O´Neill and Juan Carlos

We had a good first day with about 70 kids. We´re all pretty tired. We also went to the Salt Cathedral in the afternoon. Pray for tomorrow as James Oilar will be gone and for Jon, Kerry, and Jose Alonso as they plant seeds of the gospel.

A good day

2008-06-29T19:36:00.000-07:00

We had a great day going to church at La Gracia Iglesia. Jon preached and we also had a good Sunday school lesson. The key phrase was "you can believe your own truth but you can only be satisfied with Christ´s truth". We had lunch and then headed to the camp in Tenjo. We helped a little and then played soccer and basketball. Tomorrow we´re meeting with James and Kerry to plan the basketball camp. Pray for us as we plan the camp so that we can wisely run the camp and share the gospel. Pictures coming...

Saturday in the City

2008-06-28T20:53:00.000-07:00

We started out this morning by meeting with Jon to go over some things about the trip. After making copies of our passports and trading in our dollars for pesos we headed into Bogota for a day in the city.

Here are some things we learned about Colombia:

Chia is 8500 feet above see level

It is a great offense to spit in front of someone

Throw your TP in the trash or you may have to look for a plunger

If you are fair skined you can get a sun burn in about 30 min or less

Bogota has a population of about 5 million

Notice the clouds touching the mountains
The team (and some pigeons that decided to join us)

Wall to wall of one of many tiny shops here.
The Colombian "White House"

I am almost as tall as the two guards

Dave and Daniela Alonso

She sprained her ankle so she got lots of piggy back rides.

We looked at Galations 2 this morning to remind us that our focus should be on the gospel. Please pray with us for God's work during these 12 days. Our purpose is to see teens get saved and help jump start a youth ministry at the Church here. We start the camp on Tuesday!

Quote of the day: "Hey look, its an afro!" -Craig Hastings

Getting there

2008-06-28T19:25:00.000-07:00

Hello friends!
We have internet access so we are excited to be able to show you some of what we have expirenced.

::Here are some pictures from Friday::

Unloading at the minneapolis airport

Justin looking ready for his first flight

Odessa and PJ

Line of cab drivers to pick people up from the airport in Bogota, Colombia. We were picked by Jon Boyd and Mr. car for what seemed like 45 minutes to Chia were our host familes live.

The Van Der Weides and I (Bekah) were warmly welcomed friday night by our host family.
We are staying with the Alonso's which is the pastors family at the Church in Chia.

We made it!

2008-06-28T06:01:00.000-07:00

Hey everbody,

We had great flights and safe travel. All our stuff made it ok. We´re getting ready to head for breakfast. We´ll post some pictures later on today.

Thanks for praying!
Pastor Will

Packing List

2008-06-18T13:55:00.000-07:00

Pack light! We don't want our vans to look like this on the trip to the airport. ;)

_Passport
_Money or credit card
_Sun protection: sunscreen/hat/sunglasses/Aloe if you burn bad
_Sweatshirt for cool weather
_Basketball or tennis shoes
_Workout clothes (shorts are fine for workout but bring sweatpants to wear over them)
_About 5 days worth of clothes- jeans are fine (we should have washing capabilities)
_Sunday clothes for two Sundays & shoes (nice pants for girls is acceptable)
_Toiletries (TP too because restrooms may not have it)
_Stuff to do on the plane
_Snacks-granola bars, etc.
_Swimsuit and swim cap if you own one (swim caps are required)
_Camera (The disposable ones are good if you are worried about it getting stolen. Put disposable cameras or any film in your carry on bag)
_Meds needed: Tylenol, Ibuprofen, anti-diarrhea, Epi pens etc.
_Twin sheets to leave for the camp
_Pillow (if you can't live without it;))
_Towel
_Items for the Boyds (let us know if you have or would like to get some of these things at the next meeting)
_Skippy peanut butter (mostly Chunky)
_Cheerios (Honey nut and regular)
_Bisquick, Cake, Cookie, or Brownie mixes
_Cupcake liners
_A Gift for your host family (lotions and hand soaps like from bath and body works are an idea but don't get bubble bath because most of the families don't have tubs. Also put any liquid items in a Ziploc in your checked bag)
_Things to do on the plane
_Written testimony to share
_Any Spanish material helpful for you: dictionaries, books, sheet of bball terms
_Bible
_Journal and pens
_Music, guitar chords, guitar for church and personal use
_(Most importantly) A prepared heart to serve and grow

Note that the checked bags need to be less than 50 lbs not 60.
We are allowed only one carry on, two bags to check and one small purse/laptop bag. Check the airline if you have questions about what you can put on your carry on; definitely no sharp objects and possibly no drinks. We fly Delta airline.

Luggage Info

2008-06-07T14:47:00.000-07:00

The Colombia team met again today. It felt like basketball practice all over again as we went through the drills that we will be teaching at the camp. :)

Here's the number and dimensions for our bags:

Carry on bags
1 purse, handbag, or laptop
1 under 40 lbs 45 inches (l,w,h) to put in the glove compartment

2 bags to check
Both under 50 lbs, 62 inches (l,w,h)

Extra items to bring:
A sheet to leave for the camp
Jar of SKIPPY peanut butter for the Boyds
Spending money for food and items (Contact the Boyds if you would like to send the money up ahead of time)

We have to check in by ten and our flight will leave at 12:10

Plabras de espanol

2008-02-19T10:22:00.000-08:00

basketball terms
Quieres jugar? - Do you want to play?
pasa -pass
bola- ball
ganas! - you win
ganamos! -we win
quidado!-watch out
rules- reglas
defensia- defense
equipo- team
bueno- good

Common words
buenos dias- good moring (or good day)
buenos tardes- good afternoon
buenos noche- good night
Inglesia- Church
amigo- friend
comida- food
cena-dinner
almuerzo- lunch
desayuno-breakfast
frio-cold
calor-hot
bano-bathroom
tienes- you have
hermana-sister
hermano-brother
Padre-Father
Madre-Mother
abula-grandmother
abulo-grandfather
primo-cousin
tia/0-aunt/uncle
Estados Unidos-United States
avion- airplane
maleta-suitcase
dinero-money
bolsa- bag
casa-house

common phrases
Tengo hambre- I am hungry
Tengo sed- I am thirsty
No me gusta- I don't like
quiero- I want
Donde esta el bano? Where is the bathroom?
necesito- I need
la sopa es delicioso!- the soup is delicious!
No mas sopa por favor. Me estamago es gordo y quiero ser delgado. -no more soup please. my stomach is fat and I want to be skinny. {compliments of Beth}
Tu hermano es como un pollo gordo sin cabeza- your brother resembles a fat chicken without a head:) - that's just an added bonus. Don't use it. :)
Also never use a "your mom joke" in spanish- it is very insulting to even use the phrase "your mom" or "tu madre" in spanish, it is comperable to our worst swear words in english:)

Letter from the Boyds

2008-02-19T10:05:00.000-08:00

Here is an e-mail from Jon Boyd with more information concerning the trip:

I´ll give you as much as I know at this point. We are going to be hosting a basketball camp here in Chía, which is a bed-room community of Bogotá. Bogotá has about 7 million people, while Chía has about 100,000. We´ve been working at La Iglesia Cristiana Bautista la Gracia here in Chía for two years. It´s had a lot of up-and-downs, and evangelism has been sparse because of a number of church problems in the past. Fortunately the ship has turned around and we´re starting to see love, unity, growth, etc.

The plan is that the team will work together with James Oilar, a missionary with Fellowship of Christian Athletes, on the basketball side, and our church will be in charge of the spiritual aspect and the follow-up of the kids that come to camp. You´ll be involved in a 9-12 session in the morning with one group of kids, and another from 1-4 p.m. The camp will be held in the middle of Chía. Pastor José Alonso will also be helping us throughout the week (he speaks English perfectly).

Other than that, I´m thinking that we might do one youth activity of some kind (of you guys have great ideas let me know). We´re also planning to visit two interesting sites here in Colombia (Monserrate from which you can see all of Bogotá, and the salt cathedral).

The Alonsos can host some of you, we can host others, and a Colombian family will host the rest (at least that´s the plan at this point).

Keep in touch,

Jon

Jon and Holly's website

A plan to reach them

2008-02-11T22:22:00.001-08:00

You may have heard bits and pieces of a plan to go on a short term missions trip to Colombia...

While there is still much uncertain on the details of the trip the structures are starting to come together. The plan is to reach South American teens by running a week long basketball camp. We will be working with the Boyds who are missionaries in Chaí, Colombia. (CBC is their sending church) They recently moved to Chaí area where they also have a Church. As you can see dates for trip run into the following Sunday after the camp. This is in hopes that Basketball camp will spark an intrest in these teens lives and that they will also attend the Church with us. :)

Please pray with us as we are still comming up with the team and details for this mission.