Pray

The following isn't the most fun or cheerful bit of info I've had to share with you all but without a doubt just as important as any news of progress.  As I have mentioned many times before the orphanage takes in girls from abusive impoverished backgrounds, which many times includes the worst of human behavior.  The past week has been a troubling one as we have had several examples of this behavior that have hit several of the girls hard.

Last week an older woman (in her late 50's, but looked much older) walked into the orphanage house with a younger woman and two little girls.  The older woman introduced herself as the grandmother of the two little girls and the other lady as a close friend.  Ruth H. (the director of the orphanage) talked casually with the women about how they had heard about the orphanage, and then the two little girls were dismissed to go play around the house with the rest of the girls.  The grandmother went on to tell us that the previous week the two little girls had lost their mother.  It turned out that their dad had come home to their small shack and in a fit of rage shot their mother in front of the older daughter (7 years old) and that now he is in prison for 18 years.  The girls were living with their uncles and grandmother but she has very little to support them with and their uncles are just as unstable as their incarcerated brother.  So with no one to turn to, the girls have come to us until they are 18 years old.

This Friday evening, Catherine and I went over to hang out with the girls and play with them.  Friday night is one of the most hyper times for the girls because not only is school out for the week but many of their parents/caretakers come and pick them up to take them for the weekend.  In the middle of playing ninja with them (which involves me defending myself again 6 or more attacking ninjas) the doorbell rang.  "Its my mom" one girl shouts.  "No, its my grandma, she said she'd come this week" says another girl.  I ran down to open the door and saw that it was William, Juliet's father.  William is a single dad who is a carpenter who does odd jobs where he can get them.  He raises Juliet's older brother (12 years old) alone and has no idea where his promiscuous ex-wife is.  He has been consistent in coming and picking up Juliet for the weekends.  When she came running down and saw him, her face lit up and ran over to give him a hug.  He asked me briefly if she was behaving well and then took her by the hand and walked off.  This morning as I was walking into church, Ruth Ramirez (the caretaker that lives in the orphanage) took me aside.  She had tears in her eyes when she told me that Juliet's dad had been killed last night and right in front of her.  It was sort of hard to believe at first and then Ruth went on to tell me that Juliet was always praying for her dad because he was always getting into fights.  Well, it turns out that a neighbor heard the commotion and called the cops and took Juliet in for the night.  That was late last night 

and when Ruth H. received the call this morning, she left immediately with her husband, Isaac to go get Juliet.  The danger now is that the government will take Juliet away and stick her in one of their huge state run orphanages (which resemble a more run down version of the projects).  

Juliet is the girl in the green dress, second from the left.

As I said, this isn't the most uplifting news I've had to share with you, but it is equally if not more important.  I am reminded time and time again that this orphanage is not built with bricks, new clothes, food, donations or even volunteers, but with prayer.  I am absolutely convinced that without prayer, I am simply filling time, at best.  Life change is not brought about by food, shelter, new clothes or things, not even loving attention.  Real change is made through diligent and constant prayer.  So I ask you, the reader, to please not let this pass by as just another bit of news.  Please stop, take 5 minutes to pray for these girls.  Pray that God would protect them and provide for them.  Pray that those of us working with the orphanage would give them Christ's love.  Please continue to take time everyday to pray for these girls, and please pray for the Thomas family as they deal with losing Mitch to cancer.  Prayer is much more important than any donation we could receive from you so please take time, make time to pray for the girls here.

September Salad Bar

Hello everyone!!! I must say sorry to start off with because this blog is long overdue and I have been doing a poor job updating you all on what is happening here. Today's salad bar includes two new personalities from the Beehive (what we call the orphanage) and some interesting bacon-tid-bits on some changes in my life. Grab a fork and dig in....

The Beehive

As I had mentioned in my previous blog, the girls in the orphanage have been going through a process of transformation in which many of them have/and are leaving bad habits behind. There is still much work to do (parenting is never a seasonal job) and each girl has her own problems to overcome. With that in mind lets meet Karen.

Karen came to us in the second wave of girls that came to the orphanage. She is one of the lucky two or three who has both a mom and dad. When talking with her father he told me that they lived in the barrio Soacha (where many of the girls come from) and that everyday he goes to work as a security guard in the north side of Bogota (an almost 2 hour commute). He told me that his wife works sporadically in cleaning people's homes and that his daughter stays home all day. They struggled financially to care for Karen, yet it was apparent that they loved her, which was refreshing to me after seeing so many parents indifferently hand over their kids like they were an unwanted dog. Karen's biggest problem, which was quite obvious from the beginning, was that she had never gone to school in her life and was absolutely terrified of social situations. At 10 years old this was no longer just a little problem with being shy. She didn't know how to read or write and the idea of being in a room with more than three people made her go running for her room. When all the girls had arrived and were living in the orphanage, she would spend the activity times in her room.


Almost five months later you cant find Karen in the house when all the girls have left for school because she too is in class. Despite still being behind academically, she is reading and enjoying school a lot. In the mornings she works with Liliana on reading and mathematics and in the afternoon she goes to school with everyone else. She also has blossomed into quite the socialite and partakes in the fun with the rest of the girls.


Speaking of socialites, the next character to meet is Daniela. One must not be misled by the stature of this little girl, she is a giant in terms of personality. Daniela is a little sparkplug who always has something witty to say and is never lacking in expressive gestures that emphasize her clever comments. When she arrived she was much more reserved and was very argumentative. Although she has always been a loveable little girl, it hasn't been until recently that she has learned how to forgive.

Several weeks ago during the nightly prayers Daniela began to open up. That night's talk was about forgiving others and how Jesus has forgiven us. Without prompting, Daniela began to share about how her mother had beat her and how different people had hurt her. She then began to talk about how she was mean to other girls and to Ruth (the lady who lives there). Daniela told those she had hurt that she was sorry and asked for their forgiveness.


Although she is one of the youngest girls in the house, she was one of the first to speak up and her confession sparked a wave of more stories and forgivness. Many of the girls came out with stories of family members abusing them and they asked God to help them forgive those who had hurt them.

Life Changes

As many of you know I had quite the exciting July. Catherine and I flew back to Spokane June 30th and had a nice week at home relaxing before we left for Portland, OR to see my sister Erin, Andy (bro in law), and new nephew Wes, who is chubby and awesome (maybe the only time in your life when those two words go together). Afterwards we went to San Fran to see some friends get married and toured multiple chocolate boutiques as well as an interesting new chocolate company on pier 17. We then spent some great time camping with our good friends Justin and Heather Tillery in Cannon Beach, OR. 

We got back in time to finish our last minute wedding planning and had a wonderful time hanging out with our close friends and family. The rehearsal dinner in my parent's backyard was one of the most fun and meaningful times of my life and it was so great to share it with such great friends and family. All the wedding activities went great and especially the ceremony, which Catherine and I really appreciated. We had our pastor from Bogota (Libni Gasca) do the homily and a good friend led the ceremony and vows.

We went off to BC, Canada for our honeymoon and it was awesome how God provided for us. I was a little worried going into July about having enough money to go out to eat and do activities on our honeymoon, however, God took care of it little by little. Friends of ours paid for our rental car that got us from Seattle to north of Vancouver. When we arrived at our luxury camping suite (www.rockwatersecretcoveresort.com) we learned that for some reason we got 50% off, so Catherine was treated to a massage and we were able to eat out which was a lot of fun. However, the honeymoon was really only 4 days long as we had to rush back for my little sister's wedding. Again, it was great to be with such fun and loving people and my sisters wedding went off w/o a hitch and I was able to catch up with a lot of people I missed at my wedding. Ahhh, how relaxing you might think (maybe)....no, the following morning after the wedding, Catherine and I were up at 5am to catch our flight back to Bogota. Its safe to say we were a bit in shock (especially Catherine) as she went to work the following day.


The shock has worn off though, and life is great here in Bogota. I have quite a few balls up in the air and am in the process of deciding which ones to catch and which ones let fall. I was recently reading my old pastor's blog and was really convicted on the need to be in prayer. I am a doer and getting busy is what I do best, but I constantly need to remind myself that the most important thing in my life is to be spending time with God. How can I make good decisions apart from knowing Jesus? In order to know him more, I realized I need to be taking more time out of my day to tell him my thoughts, ask for wisdom, give thanks for answering previous prayers...etc. It was a good wake up call for me.

Alright, enough for now. Take care all of you and please write to tell me how you are doing.