The Team will be out serving the Lord from July 15, through July 25. Please pray for Safe Travels (air and "in-country"), health, cohesion, relationships with the locals, opportunities to be Christ to the Colombians they will be serving.
Check here for updates as they become available.
Saturday, 7/16, 9:30 a.m.
Greetings from Colombia! We had a tremendous day of travel with no problems. Thank you all for your prayers! All of our luggage arrived in one piece including the new keyboard for the church! We had a great welcoming party at the airport before heading out in two cars for the hour ride down to the valley of Medellin to meet our host families. Today we will prepare for the evening banquet for the teenagers. Pray that their hearts will be open to receive the gospel message. Severely Blessed, Russ
Sunday, 7/17, 1:24 a.m. Greetings, My favorite quote of the day came from Kelly who said, “I wish you could take pictures of …smells” when thinking about all the great food we have smelled from street vendors and the food we have eaten so far!Great day of ministry with a lot of preparation by the ladies for the Youth Banquet tonight and for the Children’s ministry scheduled for Tuesday in Bello and Wednesday in Copacabana. The team is awesome! Laughter is a very frequent event. For the record… if Kelly wants to show you a video of me “free style dancing” at the youth event tonight… save yourselves from the experience, and save me from some embarrassment, just say NO! I became a teenager for the evening and even had the opportunity to give an evangelistic message and testimony. God is so good!As we say in New England, “I am wicked tired” so I will sign off now. Keep praying. We rely on it every minute. Blessings, Russ
I Love Good Food!
Sunday, July 17 Events Update
Greetings on a rainy night from Colombia,
It has only been 2 days, but it feels like 2 weeks. Beautiful relationships are being developed between the team and the host families.
Tonight I have included some pictures from our first ministry opportunities.
Saturday night, we served at the youth banquet where Kelly played the piano during dinner while Maria and Cheryl helped serve the meals. I was the designated photographer and spoke to the group about our value in Gods eyes, no matter how bad we have messed up. At the end of the night we passed out new testaments to everyone who attended as we continue to sow the seeds of grace to “pre-Christians”. Many of those attending have decided to attend the youth group to find out more about this “grace” and “free gift” offered by God. Pray for the seeds to fall on fertile soil as they get watered by the youth leaders of the church in Copacabana.
Today, we participated in worship and Maria and Cheryl assisted Ana Maria with the Sunday school for children. We then took our host families to Rancherito’s for lunch which is always a fun, relationship building adventure. Maria is terrific about trying anything that is offered so she said yes to the “Grande” typical Colombian food sampler and almost finished it all! She even sampled cows tongue! She is by far, more brave about trying new foods than I am. In the evening, we served and attended the banquet for couples called “I Promise You” put on by the Copa church couples ministry leaders. They invited many pre-Christian couples for an evening of romance and music along with a perfectly delivered message about how to keep the marriage strong throughout the years. Many couples shared testimonies as people felt led to share their love for their spouse and what they mean to them. A few couples even broke out into song to show their love. Oh ya… I was caught on the dance floor again by Kelly who “happened” to have her camera already in video mode. She gets a kick out of catching me doing something silly. (Not too hard to do, I’m afraid)
Tomorrow we will be planning the ministry in the poor village of Bello and get some rest. Tuesday and Wednesday will be packed with activity.
Blessings to all,
Russ
(for the Colombia 2011 Mission Team)
Maria and Cheryl Serving Dinner
The Sunday School Craft!
More Sunday Photos
A Couple Being Restored
Free Range Cows!
Half of a Bello Home
Monday 7/18 Events Greetings,
Today we had a day of preparation for our next 3 days of ministry. The highlight was a trip to Bello to see an opportunity to minister to a woman who lost half her meager home due to a land slide. They want to build a retaining wall to protect her from further damage, but the “Architectural Engineer” in me wants to build her a new home in a safer place. Pray for guidance and wisdom in this area.
Cheryl was fantastic as she exhibited the love of Christ to an old woman nearing the end of her days. The entire team prayed and gave her hugs and kisses. Something she probably has not experienced for a long time. It was a terrific opportunity to go to Bello today for this important ministry as tomorrow will be very hectic. If our team was larger, we would probably not have been able to go. God IS good, and His plans are always best.
If the Lord brings us to your mind in the next couple days, please pray for wisdom, endurance, health, and for the light of Christ to always shine through each of us as we bear witness to the grace of God.
I may not get the chance to communicate in the next few days… until then, Dios te bendiga (God bless you).
Russ
(a.k.a. Mr. Russ) in Colombia
Kitchen of Damaged Home
Miistry to Dying Woman
ANOTHER MONDAY PHOTO
Russ and New Friend in Bello
Bello - Children Grow Up, the last time we saw her, she was this size
Wednesday, 7/20 Events Greetings again, Wednesday was a jam-packed day of ministry in Bello. We spent the entire day there working along side the Justice Department who had 2 psychologists and 1 family advocate (lawyer) to work with the more troubled children. They also sent a team of gifted people to play games with the children which will teach them how to work together in community (a trait that they do not now exhibit). They also have exercises to teach the children to respect each other and not to through things and abuse each other. This year was a huge leap from working with the Justice Department last year when they wanted to come see how we did ministry in this community. Many of their workers are Christians and were in total support of our approach to helping the community through physical and spiritual health. The team led two separate bible schools with crafts and puppets and we fed approximately 260 children! After the children’s ministry was completed, we stayed for a special worship service at this church and presented some bibles to new members of the kingdom who needed them. They will be baptized in a few weeks. This time of worship in Bello was ground breaking in many ways. It was the first time any of our mission teams has been able to stay after dark because it used to be too dangerous for Americans to be present then. Also, Pastor Luis and the worship team from the Copacabana church were invited to preach and lead worship at this service in Bello which is the first time this has ever happened! These two communities have very different ministries, but we all serve and worship the same God! Amen? Amen!Today, Independence Day in Colombia, we had a similar children’s ministry in Copacabana which had approximately 60 children in attendance. Cheryl, Kelly, and Maria were awesome, leading gospel stories, puppets, and crafts. Again they worked along side the children’s ministry leaders from the Copa church and we all enjoyed some ice cream at the end. The afternoon was spent way up the mountain side as we visited a family who invited us to come and relax for a while. They fed us some fruit from their own trees and some coffee and assorted “treats”. We really needed the break.This evening, we had another worship service at the church in Copa and then back to our host homes for the evening. Everyone is healthy, happy, and a really “good” tired! Last night the youth taught us a new phrase, “mi amor parce” which is their way of saying, “I love you man”. (They get a big kick out of hearing us say it.)Tomorrow, we have been invited to the home of one of the church leaders for lunch, and then we will be at a catholic boarding school for troubled girls for ministry in the afternoon. Please continue to pray for us as we are on the front lines attacking the enemy where he thinks he has a strong hold! LET THE LIGHT SHINE into the enemy’s territory! Gloria a Dios!Blessings, Mista Russ (for the ColombiaMission Team)
Bello - Puppets
Brown Eyes in Bello
More Wednesday Pictures
Cheryl and Future Missionay, Laura
Copa boys love Cars too!
Fresh Air!
Kelly with Heart Craft in Copa
Let's Play . . . Where is Maria?
Medellin Vista!
7/21 & 22 Events Greetings friends and family, We finished out the ministry on Thursday with a program for youth at a catholic boarding school that I mistakenly thought was for girls (actually boys only). They welcomed us in since we all serve the One God and we had a tremendous opportunity to share the gospel through the “wordless book”, puppet drama, and songs. One highlight was when Cheryl and I divided the room in half (approx. 120 boys) and sang the song “alleluia … Gloria a Dios!” with a bit of a competition for how loud our team could get. The place was “rockin”! We fed them all and did a couple evangelistic crafts. These boys were so well behaved and each one of them thanked us over and over. I think they are hungry for the love of Christ and enjoyed the attention and smiles. Mary, a woman from the Copa church who set up this ministry said, “this was the first time these boys have ever seen anyone from another country so they were very curios about everything… a great opportunity to share Christ with them!” On Friday, we took the local bus to the metro and then took 2 different cable cars up the side of the mountain to view the city. We then went shopping for a couple gifts for supporters of the ministry in a Christian owned shop in downtown Medellin. After some great food, we visited the church in Medellin called El Hermano to hear about the ministry they are involved in. They shared some great pictures of a home for men and women with special (mental and physical) needs where they care for them. The pictures of their worship were precious… they really know how to worship. Also, we saw pictures and videos of the Finca Lewis, a rehabilitation center for men who are in recovery from drug and alcohol addictions. At this farm they have made 2 ponds so they can grow their own fish to eat and it works! The fish are big and beautiful, and I’ll bet they taste great too.Last night we had a party with everyone involved in operation Mateo which was a blast. We played silly games and laughed for hours. We then had a time for anyone to share their reflections on the week which was heartwarming and emotional at times. No one wanted to leave. The adversary tried to dampen the spirit of the evening when we got back to the home of Pastor Luis to find out someone had broken in and stole 3 computers, cash, and jewelry. Needless to say, it was a long night.Today we will all go on a retreat with the church leaders for prayer and relaxation and fly home on Monday. There is always too much to say, but I have enclosed a few pictures once again.
