Siempre Adelante

Family and friends, I write this exciting update to you from my apartment in Bogotá. Life has been really crazy as of late and things don’t look like they will be slowing down anytime soon. Before I get started I want to ask each of you to take a couple minutes and pray for Catherine Sittser, who was involved in an accident this last weekend and is recovering in the hospital in Quito, Ecuador. I would really appreciate your prayers as would she and her family.

The following news is of great pleasure to share with you guys and my prayer is that this blog will push you to think of new and creative ways you can be involved with our work here. This long blog, so buckle up and read it all. As always I will break this blog up into a multi course meal, with two entrees; the orphanage, and business ideas. I then will end with a tasty Golden Corral styled salad bar of thoughts and insights. So grab your comfort food (steak, cabbage, tofu hotdog…etc) and get reading.

The Orphanage

The past three weeks have been spent by Pastor Libni, Elsa (a child psychologist) and myself working to create a defined plan of how we are going to start this project. After visiting with several foundations that are working with high risk children, our little team of three has put together a plan that has two phases (I know, everyone always has three phases, I will look into making up another phase). The need that we have identified from talking with the foundations is that there are many children growing up in neighborhoods that are known for their violence and prostitution, that do not go to school or have nothing to do after school. More often than not they are children of prostitutes. With very little parental care these kids learn the ways of the streets and are subject to abuse (especially the girls). The hard thing is that the prostitute moms would rather give their kid to a distant relative than let their child be instituinalized. To this we are in agreement, we have no desire to separate families; however these women need serious help with their kids. Thus the first phase will be a drop-off care center located in this community, where the kids will be cared for, helped with homework and taught (how to share, give, tell the truth, responsibility…etc). There are two reasons why we are starting with this phase and not just jumping to the orphanage. One, is that this is a great need and it will better prepare us for our orphanage. Two, is that we still don’t have enough money to the buy the house (despite the $30,000 we received a month ago) and that this project will not take much money to operate.

All this said, the orphanage is still our final phase, which will fill the urgent need for full-time caretakers for abandoned kids. The second phase goes as follows: house, personnel, and then children. We have a good start on buying the house (as you can read about in the previous blog), but we still are lacking a good portion of the cost to buy the house. The personnel we have and Pastor Libni has organized a list of church members who have volunteered their help and expertise with working with the kids. Once we have the house and the personnel ready we can apply to Bienstar (the social care arm of the government) for the children, which there is no shortage by any means. However, the good recent news on this topic is that this past weekend we were blessed to have visitors Pastor David from Chile and Jeff an administrator of a large church in Batavia, New York. Pastor David (I’m leaving last names out intentionally) is the Latin America mission’s director for the Free Methodist Church. Jeff made plans to come to Colombia two weeks ago after praying about it and receiving a unanimous decision by his church board to send him here. Both were a ton of fun and were very supportive in our projects. What was so great was to see Jeff take hold of our vision and take ownership of helping with the orphanage. God willing his church will be able to help the orphanage become a reality.

Oh, and one more important thing to note is how our church will be involved. Something that I enjoy about Latin American culture is that the idea of family is so important and being hospitable comes naturally. We have had several people offer and I suspect many more who want to help mentor or be a support for the women and their children whom we will be working with. Thus the idea of creating “adopted families” has come about. Many of these prostitutes have been rejected, labeled and cast out by those closest to them (despite the strong cultural family ties). The Church (on a broader note) was designed to be a supporting family that should always seek to redeem those who have been hurt or rejected with the grace and love that Christ showed. Clearly, there are many churches that don’t do that, but there are many in the world that have not lost this original idea of Christian community. So the plan is that each woman who comes to drop off her child will have a family, couple or person in the church to connect with, befriend, or go out to eat with once a week. This to me, is love, redemption and exactly what Jesus was talking about when he said “love your neighbor as yourself”.


Business in Church

No, I’m not talking about money changers or selling stuff in church (that was cleared up some 2000 years ago). What I am talking about is the great need for businesses that work alongside the church. The 21st century was one of great prosperity and even in the past three decades, affluence (especially in the US) has grown exponentially. What I am saying is that lots of money is being made out there and there are creative entrepreneurial ideas popping up everywhere. Where is the church’s position in this context? Well many churches have opted for the new building, sound system or something bigger and better. While I am not completely against getting the latest “bells and whistles” I am against it when not everyone has a bell or whistle to blow. There are huge needs around us and an endless supply of social projects (orphanages, food centers, homeless shelters, educational skill centers…etc) that need support. The charge I have for businessmen is where is your money going? Newer church office furniture or teaching a skill to an uneducated single mom that would get her a paying job. We call this holistic development and it has recently become more popular. However, there is still a great need for Christian businessmen to work alongside the church. After all, you can teach an ex-prostitute how to sow and get her good work, but if she continues to keep that self image as a means to some else’s end, you have just improved her economic status. However, if business were to work alongside the church, than this woman could see herself as a cherished child of God who is capable of loving others the way Christ loves her. This is no new idea of mine; just something I am becoming more and more passionate about.

We have several business plans in the works right now and I am spending a good bit of my time doing a research on the hotel market in Bogotá. Fortunately I share this passion for business with the Pastor and Aida (an elder in the church and a business savvy lady). Aida and I have been working together to find out what it will take to start a business and get it going in Bogotá. A good portion of the money earned by the business will go towards operating costs of the orphanage. The business will also be a possible outlet for prostitute moms who want to get out of prostitution and be able to support their kids. Another neat aspect is that we want to incorporate this job with a small group styled class that will teach employees about Biblical perspectives of business ethics and money management…etc.

I wish I could be speaking to each of you individually right now, because there is no way to type out my enthusiasm or conviction that I have for this project. Sure there are days that seem monotonous here, but all it takes are times like this to reflect to reenergize my passion for these projects and ideas. If you share in this passion, have ideas, know someone who could help financially or would just like to touch bases with me, email me at grady.jacob@gmail.com . Thank you for taking the time to read this email, it means a lot to get emails from people who took the time to read it all.

The Low Down

Alright, since my last blog a few things have developed that I thought were worth mentioning. Oh, and thanks to those of you who responded to my last blog, way to set a good example for the rest of the readers. For those who didn’t here’s your chance to redeem yourself. Ok, let’s get going! The first part talks about the orphanage developments, and the second part about the church project.

The Orphanage

Last week I had several intense meetings with Pastor Libni about the next step. We have broken down our game plan into two categories. The first is the financial and building side, which has been sobering and encouraging at the same time. The second category is developing our game plan for how we will structure our project with the children, what children, and how we will address their needs.

In regards to the first category, we had a meeting with the owners of the house we want to buy, and they asked for a $150,000 and we finally settled on a $140,000, which leaves us with a hundred thousand to raise (including the 40 thousand we have recently received). There is no way we can take out a loan for a $100 thousand because with the interest we would end up paying a little over $300 thousand in 15 years. I am currently working to put together a presentation which will serve as a promotional tool for those who are interested in helping our project financially.

As for the second category, Pastor Libni, another psychologist, and I have begun to interview and investigate the problems of at risk children in Bogota. Last Friday we went to AJC (asociación jóvenes cristianas) which is a branch of the YMCA, that works in the Santa Fe barrio. The Santa Fe barrio is known for its prostitution and dangerous streets. We met with three of the head administrators and though it was interesting and informative, it was a really heavy and depressing conversation. Learning of the atrocities of child abuse, especially sexual, and the enormity of the prostitution business was an eye-opening and sobering reality to hear. While it was sort of a downer to hear, it boosted my conviction on what we are doing even more.

Church Project

The Bogotano Church decided last fall (2006) that they would start construction for the third and fourth floor of the church building. The original plans called for these additions and now with an overflowing children’s ministry and a growing youth ministry, we have out grown the small back room that doubles as the kitchen and classroom. The third floor will be used for classroom space including a larger room that the youth could use. Not only will this extra space be useful for the classes during the week (seminary, small groups, and music lessons), but we have plans to open a small English school, which is in high demand due to the government’s recent emphasis on learning English. The money from the English classes will go towards supporting the orphanage’s operational costs (utilities, food, etc).
The fourth floor construction will mostly be just outside walls and pillars unless we are able get more funds to finish it. The fourth floor will be used as office space for FINDES, which the foundation Pastor Libni started years ago that acts as the social works wing of the church. FINDES is technically who I work for, but other than being a legal entity on paper, it is just the Pastor and a handful of church leaders that run it. The fourth floor would also provide more room for the growing seminary that Pastor Daniel (Libni’s brother) runs.

The problem, or rather the need that has been created by both (orphanage, and Church expansion) projects is that we simply do not have the funds to make both possible. We have collected about $2,000 for the church project and Libni and Daniel are thinking of selling their cars to invest in the church project (projected to be $50,000 for 3rd and 4th floor basic structure). The church can take out a loan, but for which project and for how much? We are in prayer over these needs and it brings us hope to know that if a church (like one in my city) raised 17 million to build a new facility we could raise $150,000 to build a third and forth floor and start an orphanage. We are asking you, the reader, to pray alongside us in solidarity and if you feel like you can give, financially, a service of some sort or refer us to someone who can we would be very grateful for your help. Thad Roller had emailed me earlier about a man who raised $2 million to go to Antarctica this last year. This assured me to know that if people are willing to invest that much money to see penguins there is definitely hope for projects like ours that are investing in people’s lives and bringing God’s love tangible to others. I pray that you would read this and make a point to act, in anyway possible, or at least spend your money at the San Diego Zoo, it’s a lot closer. As always I enjoy hearing from you so write me at grady.jacob@gmail.com .

Dios les Bendiga,

Jacob