update on the last three weeks...

Hey everyone!

Here's an update on the last three weeks (since I haven't been able to update you guys):

Week #2: Bocachica (island)

Here we stayed at the YWAM Cartagena ministry base, which is right on the beach. The island is mainly Afro-Colombians (as they're called here in Colombia). The island is covered in trash and almost all the houses are poorly made. Wild pigs and dogs roam the streets everywhere. While we were here, we got work at schools, serve at the base's feeding center, build a latrine (an outdoor toilet thing), hang out with the local kids and do programs for them, and have church meetings at the base. The kids were awesome here. On the island, kids are almost equaled to dogs. Parents just let them roam the streets all day til whenever they want. But because of this, all the kids would come to the base and hang out with us. I loved them all and miss them terribly. I hope to go back someday.

Also, the base didn't have running water. We took showers with a bucket and had to pour salt water down the toilets for them to flush. It was kinda hard to adjust at first, but after a while I got the hang of it.

At the end of the week on our free day, we got a tour of the city by one of the locals. Bocachica used to be used a long time ago for pirates or the British or something cool like that. I can't remember. But anyways, the island is full of tunnels that connect all over. We got to go in one and it was pitch black with bats flying around. It was awesome and very claustrophobic. Haha. We also got to see two of the islands fortresses. One of them reminded me alot of the one in Pirates of the Caribbean. It was so cool! : )

Week #3: Santa Ana (island)

Here, we got to stay at a church. It was one of three churches on the island and it was only built 3 years ago. We slept in tents inside the church (which was an open concrete building), and I got a TON of misquito bites. Hopefully, I don't have malaria.

The church was located in the middle of two villages (it was about a 20 minute walk in either direction on the main road). We worked on building a roof for part of the church, doing school programs, open air outeaches, and services at the church. It was hard being so far away from the villages because we couldn't create relationships. But our main goal was to bring people into the church, since the church is where Christ's body gathers. We did a church service Sunday morning too. The service was supposed to start at 9, but people didn't even show up til 10:30. Haha, just another example of how being on time and schedule totally doesn't apply here in Colombia. : )

Week #4: Cartagena

We went back to the YWAM Cartagena base. It was awesome to see all the DTS students again. This week, we went to a few churches and did programs for the local Compassion sponser kids. It was alot of fun. The kids here in Colombia always love seeing us because we are white and crazy people. : )

Thursday night (of last week), it POURED rain!!! The streets were flooding like crazy and it was coming down hard. Me and a few other girls went dancing and singing in the rain. It was awesome and we got DRENCHED! Hehe.

Friday morning we left for Barranquilla (which is where I am now; we leave this morning). The drive there was gorgeous! We were able to stay in host homes here. The house we're staying in is basically like an American house- running water, showers, toilets, internet, phones, TV, washing machine, dryers, even a maid. To say the least, Barranquilla is a very nice, clean, and rich part of Colombia. God has blessed us SO much by being here. It's been a nice little piece of home in a way.

Here in Barranquilla, we've worked with a local church. The first night here we invited people to the open-air we were putting on. We ending up doing it at a HUGE park and a lot of people showed up. And thirty people came to know Christ! It was AWESOME! : D

The next two days we planned to do more open-airs, but the rain here is CRAZY! Barranquilla doesn't have any drainage systems on the streets so mostly all the streets were flooded (I got on awesome video on my camera!).

We had the option of coming back to Barranquilla (we were originally going to stay here a month, but then it got changed to 4 days, but then we were going to see if we could come back next week), but we asked God about it and felt He wanted us to be back in Cartagena. I personally felt like if we were to stay here in Barranquilla we would grow so used to living the comfortable life, when God has so much more planned for us and for this outreach. So in an a hour or so we will be going back to Cartagena. It will be nice to see our translater, Yeison (we all love him- he's awesome!), and the rest of our team.

Well, that's all for now! Time for breakfast. : )

Love you all and thanks for reading! : *