Maggie's Riding

What a blessing! Many of you who keep up with what’s going on know that Maggie has not had the easiest time adapting to life in Colombia. Mood swings, days of crying and the occasional outburst had us searching for something to help calm her and help her through this transition. While on a field trip with Alex’s class a few months ago one of the girls was telling me how she rides horses. My ears perked up as she talked about how much she loved it, knowing how horse-obsessed Maggie is. After talking to her parents I found out she, too, had trouble from time to time dealing with living in Colombia, but this had really made a difference. They said she was most relaxed when she was riding.

So we thought we’d give it a try. Even in the little things I think the enemy tries to deter us from the things that can give us the most help. After tons of scheduling issues we thought we were on track. One benefit of living in Colombia is that some things are significantly cheaper than in the states and, Praise God, so is riding! However, just as we were finally getting the schedule cleared to put her in lessons we got hit with a few large bills we weren’t expecting…things like annual payments on bills we didn’t know about and car taxes. We thought it may be shot down once again. However, we had an unexpected blessing of income that allowed us to pay the unexpected bills, get Maggie started in riding and have extra (Praise Jesus!!!).

Needless to say, her anticipation and excitement was overwhelming by the time it came to her first class. It works out well that I pick her up from school and we have about an hour to hang out at the local mall and have some “girl time” before heading to the stables. She’s the only one in her class, which is excellent not only for the one-on-one attention, but it gives her and the instructor time to work out their communication differences. Maggie is suddenly thrilled to be speaking Spanish!

Her class went great. They had her turning around in the saddle, standing on it, laying backwards, getting halfway off and then back on…all kinds of things to get her really comfortable with the saddle so that no matter what may come she will have a sense of how to recover from it. She worked hard, got down the timing of the trot and at the end of class had the biggest smile on her face. I was exhausted just watching her, but she was full of energy.

On the way home I noticed that the “giddiness” of riding was wearing off, but the peace and contentment that shone in her face was a release of stress I cannot explain. She’s since had her second class, and I can just say, there is something stabilizing about her riding. She looks forward to the next week and her attitude has improved immensely in such a short time. I’ve seen confidence in her that has been hidden for a long time.

It truly is a blessing that everything worked out for her to begin riding classes. To see some video, please visit the kid’s blog at www.kautzkids.blogspot.com.
~Tona

Free As A Bird

The final day of Pastor Brad and Pastor Joe’s trip here to Bogotá we went out for an adventure. Just a turn off the highway a short paved road stops and the fun begins. The road becomes dirt and starts a climb up the mountain. The view just gets better and better as we look below over small towns just outside of Bogotá. At the top we find a small restaurant and a small space of open lawn. Looking up we see two paragliders sailing through the sky. A few days before we had tried to go up ourselves, but rain and clouds moved in and after waiting a long while we gave up and left. This day would be different!

We waited just a moment for the guide to show up and within minutes Pastor Brad was suited up and ready to go. The wind was strong enough that he didn’t even have to jump off the side of the cliff, it just lifted them straight off of the ground. He took off and after just a few moments they landed – a slight malfunction and a funny story that is not mine to share! Taking off again they began to fly. We watched as they soared around and before long they were flying between the mountains, rather low. We figured the pilot was just doing some tricks, but we didn’t see them come back up. The air had stopped and they had to make an emergency landing on the side of the mountain. Poor Pastor Brad – still adjusting to the altitude – had to hike halfway up the mountain with his pack on his back! We told him it was the two for one special!

Pastor Joe went next and had an excellent ride. I think he had the most perfect ride of all of us. Next went Pastor Aldo, the pastor of the church in Tocancipá. He and I were up flying at the same time. I went up with no problems. The experience itself was awesome. We were just floating above the terrain, over lakes and mountains. It was gorgeous and much more peaceful than I ever expected. However, when it was time to land the air had picked up. Pastor Aldo landed a little bit before me. Fabio, my guide, was trying to get us to land several times, but every time we came close the air would pick us up and take us up higher again. The ride up to that point had been smooth and awesome, but I could feel him working really hard trying to get us down. He kept asking me if I was okay and I told him if he was okay, then I was okay and he would reassure me that we were fine. We eventually landed, but as soon as we did they said the wind was too strong for anyone else to launch, so we’d have to wait a while. We watched as some solo gliders tried to get back to land – more danger for them because they had less weight to help bring them down.

Corey was the only one left to go. We waited for about thirty minutes and we knew we were almost out of time and we’d have to get back to get the kids from school. The instructor came in and said they could launch. I heard my guide say the wind was still too strong, but the guide who was taking up Corey said it would be okay. They launched easily and we watched as they gained altitude. They kept going, and going and going. We saw them doing a few spins and thought they were probably having a blast. It seemed like they weren’t up extremely long and they landed with no problems. Expecting Corey to be excited about how incredible his trip was we ran over to help him get out of the chute. His face said otherwise! He said he felt like he was blacking out when they got really high and when they were doing the spins. His ride was not the tranquil ride I had, but rather a pushing match of air currents. I don’t think he can say he truly enjoyed it! At the end of the day the pastors and I had an excellent time, and although Corey had fun he said he would only go again under better wind conditions. It was an experience I will never forget!

~Tona