Tea Time

I've been attending the Bogotá Bible Fellowship, an English-speaking Bible study, since I arrived here in Colombia. It has been such a blessing, every week having just one morning where I can gather with other women - American, Colombian, Canadian, from Trinidad (not sure how you call them!) - and have a few hours really digging into the word. Many weeks this feels like my church service. By that I mean that there are some Sundays where we're with the children's church or some that my Spanish just is not clicking and the message passes me by without a lot of understanding. This mid-week Bible study has helped me get that weekly dose of a message that I can clearly understand! We've been studying Beth Moore's "The Patriarchs." This series comes with DVDs, so every other week we were sitting in on a study led by Beth Moore herself. It was incredibly rich!

Each term of the Bible study goes from August to May and this week we had our "end of the year tea," which was actually brunch - I don't think there was any tea!! Anyway, it was a bit sad. Many of the women work or have a spouse that works for the embassy and are only here for a few years before they are moved. A few of our missionaries are leaving and some of the other ladies are preparing to move back to the States, so not only does it end this term of Bible study, but it is also a goodbye to a lot of amazing women.

The slideshow above is a glimpse at some of those ladies. I wish I had time and space to tell you many of their stories. They're incredible! Please keep this group in your prayers. I have been chosen to be the leader next fall when the group starts again. This will be a ministry I never imagined myself getting into when I came to Colombia, but I have fully felt the Lord leading me to take on this role and I do it with a great sense of honor that they would choose me to do it.
~Tona

Happy Mother’s Day!

This was a special Mother’s Day for very non-traditional reasons. I taught my first children’s church service completely in Spanish. I had the help of the regular team to do dramas and visual lessons, but I did the actual “preaching” part. I was very nervous walking into this because I was worried my Spanish would falter and I would tell them something completely wrong! In complete Colombian style, the team was supposed to give me their plans at the beginning of the week, and Saturday night I finally got their plans that I was supposed to incorporate into my lesson, so I walked in feeling very unprepared.

Children’s church has two groups per service. The first hour the children ages 5 – 8 are in the chapel and for the second hour the 9 – 12 year olds are in. The first group went as best as it could have possibly gone! The words flowed out easily and the kids were great with interaction. I’m glad it went well because there were some adults and pastors sitting in to watch my presentation. I felt great after this first group! The second group, however, was a little bit tougher. They are much more stone-faced and still. They always open the services with praise and worship and these are the kids who just stand there, most don’t sing and clapping hands is just about out of the question. So coming off of a group of kids who like to jump around and get involved, I was caught off guard a little bit with the difference. It still went well, but I felt like my presentation didn’t come off quite as smoothly as the previous hour. At the end, however, one of the boys came and kissed me on the cheek and thanked me for preaching. He said it was really special. That made my mother’s day!!

As for my own family, poor Corey was in bed with a terrible stomach virus, but he was able to pull himself together to take me to a nice dinner in the evening. Alex and Maggie each made me really cool necklaces! We spent the afternoon playing games together and just having some good old family time. What a wonderful day!
~Tona

Mother's Day Serenade

We live a few doors down from a Seventh Day Adventist church. A very sweet group of young people rang our bell today to serenade me with a song for Mother’s Day and bless me with a pretty bouquet of roses. It was a complete surprise and so touching!
~Tona

Don’t let the rocks out praise you!

As I had just returned from a two week construction trip to the Northern coast, I was able to eat dinner with my family. I was talking about how God was working and how much was accomplished, both with construction and spiritual. We discussed a number of topics with our ministry when Maggie chimes in, “We can’t let the rocks out praise us”. Doesn’t that about sum it up? Too often are we caught up with things in our lives to just stop and praise the one that made it all and gave it all so that we could know him and be with him. We may talk to God and pray but are we spending enough in worship and drinking in the glory of the Almighty? No, we can’t praise God as much as he deserves; not with every moment of every day for the rest of our lives. God has not asked us to do that, but do we bring him joy with the praise that we do bring him.

We have been blessed to be able to be here. The Christians of Colombia are so willing to pour everything into their praise and worship. They shout to the Lord and dance through the isles as God reveals his presence. The lost start meeting God far before the altar call and even before the message. We have learned from the people we came to serve.

How great is our God? We cry out in despair when we are hurting. Do we praise him when we are well? …Or better yet, do we praise him when the enemy is attacking and all is stripped away?

I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. Psalm 86:12

I urge you, don’t let the rocks out praise you!

»Corey

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Ciénaga Apr-May Team

What do you expect from a group of gringos from California? Well, being someone that was born in Michigan and moved to the South, I had no idea what to expect. This was my second team with my boss being stateside but a blessing to be able to work with Missionary Legends Steve and Judy Graner. If you don’t know them you’re really missing out! The project on hand was to complete all of the interior walls of the second floor of the LACC School in Ciénaga, Colombia. I would have been pleased to get most of the way done, but we were able to finish all of the walls with a day to spare. Inside of the walls are pieces of paper with prayers, blessings, and words of God for the school, much stronger than brick and mortar alone. What were we able to with the extra time? Well, the next day a simple discussion with a local young man turned into a 2 ½ hour prayer session as the locals were swarming from all sides. Did they see Jesus on that beach? They received healing, deliverance, and blessings. On Saturday and Sunday, we were able to visit churches where Pastor Steve and John preached and the people rushed toward the altars. Thanks to missionaries like Steve and Judy that have planted and cultivated, the harvest was and is ready. I look forward to seeing great things in La Palma Christian Center and Orange County Worship Center.

Pastor Steve (LPCC) had shared with me a lot and prophesied into my life. God thru Steve has confirmed many of my prayers and visions. All I can say is, if I scratch the tip of the ice berg of what God has for me, those that knew me will no longer recognize me.

“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:37-38

Corey

Yet I Will Praise

It seems from the moment we left the States, or maybe even before when we were raising funds, things have happened left and right to try to keep us from being in Colombia doing the work God’s called us to do. I suppose you would call those attacks from the enemy. And as most close to me know, and I’m sure the enemy knows, my softest spot outside of my husband and children lies with my sister and nephew. One of the hardest days in my life was back in the fall of 1995 when I was leaving for college and my nephew, then just three, was so mad at me for leaving. I had been part of nearly every day of his life and here I was going for what seemed like forever. Since then I have slowly moved further and further away to Atlanta, Costa Rica and now Colombia, but still a huge portion of my heart remains in their hands.

Praise God for the invention of the internet and internet phones because we’re able to talk every day, several times a day via one means of communication or another, but knowing my weakness, I feel like Satan has known how to cut me the deepest. Since we left the States one crisis after another has seemed to follow them. Just recently the devastating loss of two young people in their lives and this very week the loss of a best friend has once again shaken their world to the core. I have to be honest; my hardest struggle being a missionary does not come from lack of American foods or the ability to get things that are a convenience in the States. It didn’t come from whittling down our belongings to the quantity of 12 action packers, security issues or language and cultural differences. My hardest struggle comes from not being able to be there physically with my family when crisis falls. I realize there is not much I could do in person to make any situation better, but it hurts when I just want to give a hug or a smile to signal my support. I don’t mean to imply that their trials are all about me, I’m just stating how their trials affect me.

All that said, in these times of despair when I feel so frustrated and discouraged with my distance, the same song always finds its way into my heart. It is the song that brings me to my knees before God and reminds me to praise Him because it’s all in His hands. I just thought I’d share it on here because it never ceases to inspire me and maybe it will you one day, too.
~Tona

Yet I Will Praise

I will praise You Lord my God
Even in my brokenness
I will praise You Lord
I will praise You Lord my God
Even in my desperation
I will praise You Lord

And I can't understand
All that You allow
I just can't see the reason
But my life is in Your hands
And though I cannot see You
I choose to trust You

Even when my heart is torn I will praise You Lord
Even when I feel deserted I will praise You Lord
Even in my darkest valley I will praise You Lord
And when my world is shattered and it seems all hope is gone
Yet I will praise You Lord

I will trust You Lord my God
Even in my loneliness
I will trust You Lord
I will trust You Lord my God
Even when I cannot hear You
I will trust You Lord

And I will not forget
That You hung on a cross
Lord You bled and died for me
And if I have to suffer
I know that You've been there
And I know that You're here now

Even when my heart is torn I will trust You Lord
Even when I feel deserted I will trust You Lord
Even in my darkest valley I will trust You Lord
And when my world is shattered and it seems all hope is gone
Yet I will praise You Lord