The Last Week of Craziness!

After the team left we finally had a second to breathe, but it didn't last long! We had to put on our parents hat and go to a bunch of "beginning of the year" meetings at Alex and Maggie's school. I spent hours catching up on everything that had piled up on our desks over the past month...and we had one more exciting event to look forward to in the near future!

On August 28th two new missionary families arrived! We are so blessed to have the Robinsons and the Jordans here. We've been spending the past week looking at houses and apartments with them, searching for the best deals on appliances and trying to get cell phones turned on. This is an exciting new chapter for ministry in Colombia. Please pray for them as they get settled and begin their work here in Bogota.

This past week I also began my leadership role in the women's Bible study. Please keep this fine group of women in your prayers as I take on this role. This is one of those times where I absolutely want nothing other than the Spirit of God flowing through me and ordering every word that comes out of my mouth. I look forward to an amazing year with them.

Well, that's the end of our rush of events one after another. Life is settling back to normal...whatever that is! We're gearing up for lots of school visits and all that goes along with working with LACC. Alex and Maggie are doing well in school. Corey is back in Spanish classes and we're both working hard towards our next level of credentials. We're grateful for the calm right now, but what an amazing summer we have had!
~Tona

Week Four ~ AIM Team

We have been looking forward to this week all year! We hosted our first AIM team. They came from Mount Hope Church in Grand Blanc, Michigan, Mount Hope Church in Lansing, Michigan and New Life Fellowship in Moline, Illinois. They came to do an evangelism outreach by using a basketball camp to reach the youth of Tocancipá. On Monday we went to our two main target high schools and did school assemblies. The camp itself lasted three days with a morning session and afternoon session. The kids learned drills and technique, but every camp was laced with dramas, testimonies and Godly principles. Friday night we held a concert. Jerome and Trini-D came from Michigan to perform. They're rappers. It was so cool to see the reaction to them at the concert because even though the lyrics were in English, they had poured so much love into the community throughout the week that everyone went crazy for them! We also had the group Identidad, a local Colombian group. Jerome gave his testimony and Identidad gave a message and invited them to accept Christ. It was a very cool night!

Saturday was the final rally, championship games and all the prize giveaways. Pastor Aldo, the local pastor, spoke on turning your life to Christ. This is a community with a lot of barriers and he spoke strongly on overcoming them.

Sunday concluded their trip with service in the morning where Jerome performed again and Pastor Joe preached. The church prayed for the team and gave each one a gift. After a week of long days and hard work, it was time for their fun day! We went to the leather district for some shopping, up to Monserrate and finally to Crepes and Waffles for their final dinner and dessert!

This was an amazing team. We can say we love them best because it was our first official team, but they were so incredible, each one with amazing personalities and such passion to serve in any way necessary. We had a ton of help from the Master's Commission here in Bogota and when I asked them what they thought of the team they said, "We have never seen a team so intense in prayer, so passionate and so accessible by everyone." They left a mark on everyone here that they came in contact with.

As an added bonus, William was able to come spend Friday and Saturday with us, and even compete in the 3-on-3 tournament, making it to the semi-finals. It was an incredible blessing for Josi to have true quality time to get to know him.

If they happen to read this we just want to send a million thank yous to each and every one of you who came and poured your heart and soul into Tocancipa. It was an honor to work with you.
~Tona

Week Three ~ The Family Visit

On our way out of Texas my mom, sister and nephew met us in Houston to fly back to Bogota with us. We got to show them around "our town". The highlight of their trip was meeting the children they sponsor. My mom sponsors a little girl named Cindy and my sister and nephew sponsor a boy named William. We went to the school and had some time to chat, see what school is like for them and shower them with gifts! I think it was difficult for them to leave. I cannot tell you exactly what they were feeling, but this visit left a very visible impact on them.

We also had a chance to take them to some key places around Bogota. We went to Plaza Simon Bolivar, where the government buildings and the presidential palace are located. We visitied Monserrate, the church on the top of the mountain.

Technically this was the end of our "summer" because Alex and Maggie returned to school in the middle of the week. We had a very short time to show them around this city we love so much, but it was such a blessing to be able to give them a glimpse into what we do, why we're here and why we love these people so much!
~Tona

Week Two ~ The Andean Retreat

From Michigan we headed to Dallas, Texas. Every couple of years the missionaries from Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru and Bolivia gather together for a retreat. This was especially great for us because it gave us a chance to reunite with language school buddies and our dear friends, the Conaways. We had a week of great teaching, relaxing and just getting to know other missionaries, their struggles and triumphs on the field. There were wonderful speakers for Alex and Maggie, too. We faced a small but significant turning point on this retreat. Alex was no longer with the children, but with the youth. He's eleven, but entering the 6th grade, and however small, that was a very important transition to him. He found every chance possible to ditch his uncool parents and hang out with the cool teenagers! All in all, though, we left Dallas for Colombia spiritually refreshed and ready to get back to work!
~Tona

Summer Recap - Week One

Well, as I wrote before we had a very busy summer. Our first week was a quick break to see family. We went up to Michigan and had a wonderful time! The first couple of days were a bit of reverse culture shock as we walked through Wal-Mart and Toys R Us and saw how much there was to offer! We had a fun movie night with tons of American candy!

We spent a first couple days with Corey's side of the family for a family reunion. Both of his brothers and sister were there too with their families so it was great for all the grandkids to have time to get to know each other better. Our only mishap was that Alex fell out of a tree and broke his arm - our third day in the States. There had been a tornado just two days before family reunion and he and his cousins were playing on the fallen trees. We took a detour to a local hospital and later to a local clinic to get his cast on. Even with a broken arm, though, he and Maggie agreed this was the best family reunion ever!

Another highlight for our trip was my chance to reunite with high school friends. My childhood best friend, Missy, was just a week away from delivering twins! We got together for lunch and got to hear all about her journey through pregnancy. I'm happy to say she delivered two beautiful baby girls.

We had a great time with both sides of our family and spent lots of time at the lakes! It was so nice to be able to relax a little bit with everyone. We had been away for over a year and a half and getting even a short amount of time with parents, siblings, cousins, etc. was a nice refreshing time.

~Tona