Feliz Navidad

Happy Holidays Family and Friends,

Its hard to imagine that Christmas is almost here. Christmas as you might imagine is pretty big here (being a predominantly catholic country). As always this blog is a choose your own adventure so choose away, after all its Christmas. The first part will talk about my English classes; the second part will talk about the orphanage; and the third will be a seasonal salad bar.

Fun With English

For the past four weeks I have been teaching English from 4 in the afternoon to 7 at night. Classes finally ended this past Friday, which frees up a lot of time for me. My Basic English class was predominantly children, 8 years and older. They were really cute and fun to teach but were incredibly exhausting. The Intermediate class was probably my favorite because they really wanted to learn and the majority of the class was between 15-25 years old. Conversational class was my last class of the night and was my time to rest my brain and speak in English. However, the students were sporadic, at best, in their attendance.

When living in another country it can be discouraging at times to not know the inside jokes or the slang words, let alone the mother tongue. I have misunderstood many jokes and often found myself to be the punch line of my friend’s jokes. For this reason, the highlight of English class was that we played on my turf for once. I often would right examples on the board for people to repeat, to practice punctuation. One time I wrote “Jacob is my favorite teacher and quite good looking as well”. I would say it first and then have everyone repeat it, and then say “gracias” and have them practice again. I would fight back the laughter as my friends, who would tease me in Spanish, unknowingly showered me with compliments in English. Oooh, what fun.

The Orphanage

Pastor Libni and I have been talking recently about the next step in the orphanage. We have agreed that its best not to wait until we have funds to buy a house for the orphanage, but instead do what we can in the mean time. When Libni started the church they started with a children’s ministry that reached out to kids who were living next to a sewer and they didn’t need much money. So we have decided to start working with an organization here in Bogota that works with child prostitutes. Libni and I are excited to start our work with children and we are praying that God would use us and that people who learn of our work would be led to give to help purchase a building for the orphanage. This is refreshing because I was getting antsy (sp?) to start working with the kids. We will take the next few weeks during the holidays to learn of organizations that we can work with. Pray that we would connect with the right group and that God would use us.

Seasonal Salad Bar

On a whole I am very content here and don’t really miss home (sorry mommy, I love you). No seriously I have been blessed with great community here. However, there are things that I miss about this time of year that I can’t find in Bogota. I have, however, found some suitable replacements.
Skiing: I miss the feel of bounding through the fresh powder and standing on top of the mountain. I miss the adrenaline rush of throwing a back flip into a deep powder landing. However, riding a motorcycle in Bogota has been a suitable replacement. And while there are no jumps to ski off of, almost getting side swiped by a bus seems to suffice for an adrenaline rush.
Mom’s cooking: The absence of my mom’s cookies at Christmas time is like a manger scene without the baby Jesus. Ok, that was a bit blasphemous but, I really do miss her chocolate chip cookies. Instead I am eating buñuelos, a cheese bread shaped like a donut hole, which is tradition for this time of year.
Christmas morning: Instead of rolling out of bed and opening stockings I will be rolling out of bed and opening Tamalés, which is a banana leaf, wrapped typical breakfast food here.

An Uncomfortable Faith

I wanted to include a quick section in the end here to talk about faith and what I am learning here. In several recent emails and conversations with friends I have talked a lot about faith and was encouraged by Justin to share. So here it goes.

In the fall of my senior year I really struggled with my faith and questioned God´s existence. I was a theology major with a good intellectual understanding. However, when several friends began to challenge my beliefs, my intellectual answers were just fronts to my inner doubts. After talking and receiving some invaluable advice from Roger Mohrlang, I began to look at my faith differently. Since I have been here I have been continually convicted of my lack of faith. I didn’t really need faith in the US, after all I worked hard, made good money, and everything else was intellectual. My faith was simply a matter of going to the right compartment in my brain and pulling out the right answer. On the contrary, when one doesn’t have a dime to spare, only a high school education and is faced with true hardships, faith is all they have. And in turn God does amazing things. Unfortunately, for me and I would say much of US Christianity, we have compromised the vulnerability that faith requires for comfort and convenience. Faith is a humble and confident decision of recognizing that we don’t know everything and cant do everything, but God can. Therefore faith then becomes apart of everyday life. Here, my intellectual shell has been exposed by the needs around me and the vibrant faith of those who put everything on the line for their love of Christ.

My prayer for myself and for you all is that this holiday season would be a time to reassess our faith and what it asks of us. I also pray that we would have a spirit of gratefulness, but a gratefulness that demands a response that leads us to give. I love you all and cherish your support and friendships.

Dios les Bendiga,

Jacob

Un Paso de Fe

Friends and Family, the following sections are a blend of fun adventures, hard times and reflections. If you are busy now, please come back and take the time to read this, however, if you have five minutes, please read and respond if you would like to add something, give advice or just let me know that you are alive and well. The first section is more of a light hearted account of my motorcycle adventures. In the second section you will learn about the progress of the orphanage and the reflections that come with it. The third part talks about the needs in the church and provides a few optional responses for you, the reader. Without further delay let us begin.

Motorcycle Diaries

After many weeks of questioning and receiving very little answers to what I would need to have to drive in Colombia, I finally learned I could drive for the first 90 days in the country with my US license. After the 90 days I could use an international license for a year. With my application underway in the Spokane AAA, I jumped on a bus to find a place where I could learn how to drive a motorcycle (moto from now on). After some questioning I learned of a place where I could take lessons by the hour is a neighboring barrio. When I arrived at the address given to me I walked up the narrow staircase to the upstairs office. The receptionist asked me a few questions and then led me to a dingy room and put on a moto safety video for me to watch as I waited for my instructor to show up. The video gave examples of what not to do and apparently driving drunk on the sidewalk and talking on your cell phone is a no no here....huh...it must be another cultural thing. Anyways the instructor showed up a half hour late (on time here) and we hit the road. We pulled off on a local road and he showed me how the gears worked and then said “you try”. After an hour of driving solo we called it quits; I paid him and left. Last Thursday I headed over to the Honda dealership and after some time of talking about different models and prices I decided on one and signed the papers. Due to some procrastination on the dealer's part I picked up my moto 4 hours late on Saturday in the middle of the afternoon downpour. I thought to myself "sweet I get to ride my moto for the first time in an area I don’t know with 4 inches of standing water and driving rain". Well I shrugged my shoulders, threw on my plastic rain gear and hit the road. It actually went well and thanks to years of driving on the East Coast and having Kyah for a sister I was able to maneuver around the aggressive drivers. However, I could have done without the occasional wave from a passing semi. Here's an understatement for you. Driving a 50 cc scooter in Spokane is just a bit different than driving a moto in Bogota. When I am not dodging buses and taxis I am trying to learn the street system. Since last Saturday I have put a 180 kms on my moto and work has been easier to manage as well as commuting has become more enjoyable.

Go Big or Go Home

In the short two months that I have been here I have begun to learn one of the most challenging aspects of development. Whether you are building something or just starting a project there are two paths one can take. The first is a conservative approach with a high likelihood of completion. However, it lacks long term vision and appeal. The second path is go big or go home (“which reminds me of the boy who wants to sell his dog”-SW quote). It has long term vision and is very appealing; however, it’s thin on practicality. What does this have to do with me and the orphanage? Well, when I look at the plans for the orphanage I am filled with passion and excitement until I get to the budget part, where I usually start to get depressed and begin to pray. I start to cut costs and downsize the plans and in the end the likelihood of completion is high, but at the price of passion and vision. When this happens I talk to Pastor Libni, who naturally is optimistic and encourages me to think big. He says,
“We could buy a little run down house, fill it with orphans and make sure they have enough rice to eat, and call it an orphanage. And then say ‘job well done’. However, in the end we haven’t changed much and we’ve sacrificed the greater plan for the quickest plan”.
In this two-path analogy there is a variable that can change everything: Faith. Faith makes the second path doable and the first path better than we could have imagined. Pastor Libni acts on faith and is confident in God’s plans for the church and the community. If I have begun to learn anything from my work here, it is that faith combined with hard work is the greatest combination to do the impossible.

I have faith that God will provide for the orphanage and in the meantime I am doing all that I can to let people know about the project and help out around the church.

Hard Times

I have written to several of you about the financial difficulties of many of the people in the church here. It has been very humbling to learn about the difficult stories of my friend’s families. In an email to my former co-workers I wrote about my friend Johanna, who at 25 years old has been the sole provider for her single mom and herself for more than eight years. She has class from 8 am to 11am and then takes the hour long bus home to have a two hour lunch break and then goes to work at the airport as a receptionist/host for a hotel until 11:30 pm. Between school and work she only has Saturdays off and that’s when she practices with the church worship team.

I could tell you about my friend Carlos who has a wife, a son and an epileptic daughter. He works 9 pm to 8 am every night in a town two hours away, loading milk into delivery trucks. He receives the minimum wage ($191 a month) and is the sole provider for his family. There house foreclosed four months ago and they live with Carlos’ uncle. However, he is the first to offer help at the church even if in means coming straight from work to shovel cement for 5 hours (like this past week).

The need for jobs and especially good paying jobs is overwhelming here. Coming from a culture where getting a job is as easy as turning in a resume to Starbucks or the local grocery store, I feel helpless when I hear these stories. For this reason I have begun to talk with friends and family back home about ideas of starting up a business here. The idea is that the business could create jobs (maybe just a few) as well as help fund the orphanage. I strongly believe the orphanage’s longevity depends on creating some sort of micro enterprise.

Your Response

One option is that you offer your advice or the names of people (and emails) who have created micro-enterprises/orphanages

The second option is take sometime to brainstorm and see if you know anyone who has a heart for Latin America, Development, and Orphans and let them know about this project. There are many people who have great hearts and desire to help, but don’t know where or how.

The third option, is if you are one of those people and would like to give of your resources (money, materials for the orphanage, or hard work down here), please contact me at grady.jacob@gmail.com.

The fourth and most important is prayer. We could use prayer for wisdom and guidance for what God is going to bring as well as prayer for people to give generously.


As always thank you for taking the time to read this. My prayer is that you would be encouraged by what is happening down here as well as encouraged to act. I love you all and I hope life is going well for you.

Dios le bendiga,

Jacob Grady