Hey Guys... ya, it's been a while, but I did write this newsletter a few weeks ago and in case you didn't get it I copied it onto here for you to read. Also check out Facebook for a few pictures my friends added.
Greetings from Colombia! A lot has happened since I last talked to many of you. So everyone is on the same page, I left for Colombia after I had been in Riobamba, Ecuador volunteering at the Ark Children’s Home and teaching English for 5 months. I’ve been in Bogotá for the past 7 weeks doing a Children At Risk school that’s run through Youth With A Mission.
So far we’ve been having classes Monday to Thursday and visiting different ministries that work with at-risk children Fridays and Satur
days. In the classroom setting I’ve learned about dysfunctional families, normal and abnormal child development, Biblical counseling, sexual abuse, formulating projects to help children and financing them.
In a more informal way, I’ve learned about the harsh realities that a lot of children here in Bogotá are exposed to. On Saturday, we helped at a club called “The Jungle.” It’s only in the beginning stages, but they already have a rock-climbing wall, a ball pit, a suspension bridge, a Nintendo Wii and a play house to provide a safe, fun environment for kids to hang out in and learn about Jesus.
Most of the kids that come are exposed to severe poverty and something called the Tolerance Zone: 6 square blocks of clubs and brothels where both male transvestite and female prostitutes work. It impacted me to see prostitute after prostitute waiting in a doorway or an empty garage for their next client. I also saw tons of homeless people sleeping on the sidewalk, begging or scrounging for food in the garbage.
At the beginning of the school, the director gave me a passage from Scripture that she felt was from the Lord. I would know what it meant. The passage was Isaiah 58. I had read Isaiah 58 when I was in Ecuador and it had really impacted me. In verse 6 and 7, it talks about loosing the chains of injustice, setting the oppressed free, sharing your food with the hungry, providing the poor wanderer with shelter and clothing the naked.
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”
Isaiah 58:6-7
I feel like this is God’s call on my life. When I return to Ecuador, I can see kids coming to my house for food, shelter, clothes, prayer, Biblical teaching and liberation. I can also see myself doing something similar in the Dominican Republic. Verse 11 was also very impacting. It says: “The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs.” Amen.
