Finally Updated!

I've finally had a few minutes to sit down and upload everything that's been racking up on my computer. They're scattered throughout begining on August 11th up to today. Happy reading!
~Tona

On My Own

After two and a half weeks here in Bogotá I am facing three weeks on my own. Well, that’s not entirely true because we have an amazing fellowship here that is ready to help out any time we call. However, at 2:30AM this morning Corey left for a very long van ride – I believe 17 hours – to the coast to help build an LACC school. He’ll be gone for three weeks. We had to spend time apart while we were itinerating, but I was staying in my hometown with my mom – a little less intimidating! For nearly the past year we have been together pretty much all day every day. Amazingly we’ve found that we work really well being together all the time. For that I know I am blessed with the perfect partner because we don’t drive each other insane!! Anyway, the kids and I will be fine, but to be completely honest it is a little bit of a gloomy day.

For the week ahead I’ll be visiting schools and next week we’ll move into the house. I’ll finally be able to catch up with you all who are emailing and leaving voicemails. Believe me, especially now I am seriously missing being able to call you and chat. I realize even more now how much the support of all of you back home who take the time to keep in touch keeps me level-headed and sane in the midst of all the changes! Love you!!
~Tona

I Drove!!

I feel like I’m 15 again :-). Today I drove a car for the first time in nearly nine months. It was also my first time driving in Latin America. It was a short drive from Mike and Naomi’s house to ours, but I did it all by myself! I suppose this is another one of those weird things we get excited about that is really no big deal, but I am glad to have finally rebroken the ice on the whole driving business, especially here where road rules just kind of fly out the window. I made it home without hitting a single street vendor, bicyclist or motorcycle. Another good day!
~Tona

Interested in Sponsoring?

You may have been reading my entries wondering what it means exactly to sponsor a child. Let me give you a little bit more detail. When you decide to sponsor a child you are committing to send in $32 a month for that child to go to school. You and your child will be able to write back and forth through letters that are translated for you so you understand each other. You’ll have the opportunity to send gifts either directly through mail or by sending in extra money that the school will use to go buy the child a gift. There are some kids who have only ever received a birthday or Christmas gift from their sponsor and nobody else. (I should clarify that gifts are not required to be sent, it’s just another way to bless a child.) You are able to choose which child you will sponsor either by going to the LACC website – www.lacc4hope.org or by contacting us to help you choose a child. There are about 140 children currently in schools that need a sponsor and more that are waiting to be able to enter a school. If you’d like more information, please send me an email at tona@kautzfamily.org or leave a voicemail at 770.901.9077 (local to Atlanta). Please help us give an education to the needy children of Colombia.
~Tona

Getting To Know LACC

This week has been such a week of learning and discovering why we’re here. I, Tona, spent this week visiting LACC schools. There are so many kids who still need sponsors. Monday and Tuesday I visited schools here in Bogotá. One of them is where we’ve been attending church the past couple of weeks. It’s a new school that currently just has kindergarten, but will add first grade next year and a probably a grade every year after that. Right now they have a classroom full of kindergartners in need of sponsors! There are so many sad stories that go along with these children. We met two young boys and their mother whose husband had passed away within the last week. He had found out he had cancer and died a month later. She’s now on her own with these two boys and no job. One of the wonderful ministries of this particular location is that the church also has a ministry to train women for work. They teach them how to make jewelry and sew clothes so that they can either make and sell the things they create or have the skills to find work somewhere.

On Thursday I took my first ever business trip. J Naomi and I flew to a place called Monterîa and then rode in a car two hours from there to go to a town called Corozal. We spent time with the pastors of the church and the director of the school. Every LACC school has to be connected with an Assemblies of God church, that way not only kids are getting support, the church can help the parents know Jesus, too. We spent all morning at the school on Friday taking pictures of the kids. They were all so sweet. They showered Naomi with gifts and were so excited to see her come. It was amazing to see them all so happy and excited.

One girl I met there was born premature with brain damage. She’s now seven and through a fund called the “Extreme Poverty Fund” Naomi has been able to get her physical and speech therapy. She has gained a significant amount of control over her body. They told me she used to not even be able to walk in a straight line because she just couldn’t control her movements, but she was doing so much better! She goes to physical therapy six days a week and even has a class with other girls that helps motivate her to move more!

I can see I have lots of work ahead, but meeting all of the teachers, directors, pastors and especially the children I am motivated to work hard to keep this ministry flowing well while Mike and Naomi are away!
~Tona

Our First Week

It has been a whirlwind week! We are blessed with an awesome fellowship of missionaries who are so incredibly helpful. For those of you who like to read the details, here’s the breakdown of how our week went:

Friday: We arrived in Bogotá around 2:30. Miss Naomi, John Michael and Miss Lisa (all missionaries) met us at the airport. We went to our new apartment and unloaded. Then we to Miss Naomi’s house to call the moms and sister. After that we went to a local mall and ate dinner. When we got back to the apartment it was somewhere around 9pm. We dug out pajamas and crashed.

Saturday: We woke up bright and early and headed over to Miss Naomi’s. She took Corey and I to a clinic to get blood tests for our I.D. card applications. Then we braved a Super Wal-Mart style store to stock up on groceries and household items. We returned to her house and started preparing food and cleaning up for the Bogotá missionaries to come over for dinner. We had a great dinner and Corey and I were initiated into the group by playing Guesstures! The men were quite happy to have Corey around as it was the first time they had won. Again we got home around 9pm and I think we were all dealing with quite a bit of sinus issues and little altitude sickness, so we crashed again.

Sunday: We got up and headed to church. We went to Patio Bonito, a church in a poor area of town. We sat in on the Children’s Church. It was amazing! There are five services every day and Naomi says they run between 800 and 1000 throughout the day. The service we were in started pretty normal, but as the minutes clicked by the kids kept pouring in until they were pretty much out of space to fit any more. Alex braved going into Sunday School after children’s church and enjoyed it. We grabbed lunch and went to visit another missionary family to pick up some paperwork for the government and the school. Then we headed home. Finally we had time to unpack!

Monday: We got Alex and Maggie up and ready to go to school. The registration process took three hours! They sat in their classes while Corey and I did all the paperwork and then came home with us. My training began on LACC. Naomi is teaching me how to do all the processes so that I can take over the LACC administration when she goes on furlough. We had our first dinner in our apartment – spaghetti.

Tuesday: A bit of a fiasco, the bus didn’t show up for Alex and Maggie, so we had to take them to school. We spent an hour or so ordering uniforms for them. Miss Naomi took Corey and I to the immigration office to apply for our I.D. cards. That also took a long time waiting our turn. We went to the bank trying to take out money, waited, couldn’t do it. Returned to Miss Naomi’s and back to training. Another fiasco with the bus, the kids got home really late.

Wednesday: The bus came on time, all was fixed. Back to the bank, still no luck. Another run around town trying to get a cell phone working and other errands run. I should explain here that much like Atlanta, there’s no quick run into town. Traffic is in abundance and it’s a good size city, so every trip takes at least 20 minutes. Most days we’ve left at 8 or 9 with a couple of things to do and by the time we finish it’s 4pm. We had a little time for LACC training. In the evening Corey and I decided to take the kids shopping for school supplies. We thought we had figured out pretty much how to get to the store. Wrong! We drove pretty far out of our way. Bogotá doesn’t believe in left-hand turns, so we had to drive a very long way to find a way to turn around. We made our way back to Miss Naomi’s house to get new directions. We found the store and stocked up on backpacks, lunchboxes and other necessities for school. When we finished it was after 8pm. Came home, crashed.

Thursday: Corey got a day of rest. I, Tona, went to a women’s Bible study with the other missionary wives. It’s an English Bible study. There were a lot of women there, some embassy wives, some oil executive’s wives, other missionaries and some Colombian women. It was a diverse and incredibly nice group of women. Afterwards Naomi and I went back to work on LACC projects, our first long time of focus on it.

Friday: It’s been a week! Back to the bank – this time successfully!! Back to the cell phone place – the battery they sold us was bad. Then we spent the day working on LACC things. We’re starting to find a routine and I think most of our running around is coming to an end.

Saturday: As I write this it’s Saturday. The kids are up getting ready for the day. One of the other missionaries, Miss Lisa, is taking the kids and I to a park this morning. It will be good for Alex and Maggie to have some fun time after a couple weeks of chaos. We haven’t seen Mike, Naomi’s husband, yet because he was in the jungle teaching Indians, but he’s back and I’m sure Corey’s schedule will fill up quickly. But today we will rest, play and have a day to unwind! Next week Naomi and I will be very busy traveling to quite a few LACC schools. So there it is in a nutshell – our first week in Bogotá, Colombia.
~Tona