Back To School!!

School has kicked back into gear here in Colombia. It's been exciting and fun to visit the kids and see how much they've grown in just a couple of months of vacations! New children are being added to the rolls as classes begin again. Check out www.lacc4hope.org to sponsor one of these new kids!
~Tona

Waiting on the Lord! - part 2

We started out on our first missionary journey in January of 2006. With both excitement and nervousness at an all time high we plunged into the unknown. God has shown us time and time again that he has already gone before us and prepared the way. He has allowed me to do more for him than I could ever have imagined just a few years back. Am I greedy to want more? As I learn more and do more, I find that my life is photo mosaic art. You can almost make out a grand picture but there is too much missing still. All I can do is surge forward in hopes that the picture of my life can be a masterpiece, good and pleasing to God. Tona and I have been pushing through our Bible classes towards the licensed minister requirements. Our goal is to return to the States as licensed ministers waiting on our ordination and preparing for our next missionary term. So, we arrived to Colombia in what seems like last week. The time has flown by as we start the initial stages of preparation of our return to the States. We are looking toward the unknown once again. We are scheduled to return in July of this year. Making the transition from Missionary Associate to Fully Appointed Missionaries is the plan, but we will be playing the waiting game. Our application has been submitted and so we wait. With approval to proceed, we will be given an evaluation date in August to go to Springfield, MO. Psychological and physical exams are first and if/when we pass we will return again for orientation in October. So, in October, the same time we learn if we can return to Colombia, would be when I can start trying to schedule services and start raising our new budget. With our fate in the hands of the Board of Missions, we wait.

I will be preaching for the first time to adults (Colombians) this Sunday in a poor area on top of the mountain overlooking Bogotá. And most of March through July, I will be preaching to youth. And preaching retreats for youth and children. And I'm designing a new school. Who says I can't have fun while we wait?

Waiting on the Lord!

Once again I find myself seeking fervently for God's timing. Do I doubt? How could I after he's proven himself to me over and over? What God has always shown me is "In my timing not yours". So once again I find myself waiting patiently for the Lord.

When we arrived in Colombia sometime ago, we were planning a 2-3 year assignment. We raised our budget in a long adventure of selling all of our belongings (house, cars, furniture...) and danced from church to church all over the Eastern United States (Georgia, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Michigan). Here is where the fun begins. When we arrived in Colombia, one dollar was worth more than 2400 Colombian Pesos. You feel pretty wealthy when the rent on your house is over a million (pesos). Well, unfortunately the U.S. dollar has taken some abuse in the past couple years. After our first year the dollar was just under 2000 pesos and today is below 1900 pesos. What does that mean? We are now down to 78% of our original budget. The other bouncing factor is our U.S. income. Our income is based on churches and individuals pledging to support us on a monthly basis and sending in those pledges each month. We had a great December, bringing in more than our projected budget. The overage goes into our rainy day account for the not so strong months. Unlucky for us, January had been a monsoon. On top of everything else, 2007 was a painful time of unexpected doctors expenses and other surprises. What do you do with a maxed out Credit Card, 22% of your budget shot (peso-dollar), and a suffering income? Praise the Lord! A miracle wouldn't be a miracle without a need. God has always met our needs.

Here is the emotional process that I have been dealing with:

If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

1 Timothy 5:8 (NIV)

Although I don't have control over the economy or pocketbooks of others, am I failing my family and myself? If God is my provider, is he not also that for my family? What is my responsibility to my family? ...to God? As the spiritual leader of my home and missionary, did I not offer up myself and my family to God as a sacrifice?

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

Romans 12:1

I had a secular job and it paid well, but I did not provide that job for myself or my family. God provided the job and money to teach me that he will always provide for me so that I may provide for my family.

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

1 Timothy 6:16-18 (NIV)

So once again I find myself waiting patiently for the Lord.

Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.

Psalm 27:14

And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.

Hebrews 6:15

For I will ask nothing of the Lord that he does not want for me but I will ask for ALL that he wants of me.

So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

Genesis 22:14

How cool is my job?

I love my job! I mean, how cool is it when you get to tear down a drug house and build a school? My latest project is in a very poor and a bit dangerous area southwest of Bogota. The city is called Cazuca and is on top of a mountain that overlooks Bogota. Although the school is an existing LACC School it is in need of major improvements and I get the honor of designing/redesigning an addition to the school. While visiting the school to take measurements and evaluate the task ahead, the school's director was talking about the past occupants of the neighboring houses. He pointed to the house that shares a wall with the school and said that a drug dealer lived there for many years and was a drain on the community. The property now belongs to the school and the first order of business is to destroy that house. What once emprisoned the community will now provide a free education to the poor. God is good! Well, I'll stop typing for now and get back to the designs. Did I mention that I love my job?

Colombians Take A Stand

It started on Facebook. A group was formed for 1,000,000 voices against FARC. FARC is the leading guerilla force in Colombia that is responsible for kidnapping many people. Based on what recent captives released have said, the conditions are horrible as they hide out in the jungles. The country is tired of violence and fear of kidnappings. So this group decided to name a day to hold a protest. Somehow, it became a worldwide event.

I watched the news today as they showed cities throughout Colombia and through the world where people had gathered to chant things like "Freedom", "No more FARC", "No more kidnappings", etc. In the show above you can see pictures from Alex and Maggie's school as they went out to march and pictures from gatherings all over the world. Below is one of the news articles written on today's events...



Colombia Marches Against Rebels



BOGOTA, Colombia -- Hundreds of thousands of Colombians wearing white T-shirts marched in their homeland and abroad Monday to demand the country's largest rebel group stop kidnapping people and release those it holds.


The idea of the protests against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, was born less than a month ago on the social networking Web site Facebook, and nearly 100,000 people in 165 cities around the world confirmed their participation.


The protests were concentrated in Colombia and Latin American capitals, though there were smaller protests in other places including Sweden, Hungary, France, Italy, India and Miami.


In Colombia's capital, the protest swelled, with long lines of people shouting "Freedom! Freedom!" marching along Bogota's main thoroughfare. Television channels suspended normal programming to broadcast marches around the country, and anchors wore white the T-shirts symbolizing peace. In between reports, the channels aired proof of life videos of hostages who remain captive in the FARC's camps in the jungle.


Crowd estimates in Colombia varied wildly, with estimates at the Bogota march ranging from 500,000 to 2 million. "I hope the FARC is listening," said former hostage Clara Rojas, who took

part in the march. She was freed last month after nearly six years in captivity.


Colombia's government says the FARC is holding more than 700 hostages, including three U.S. military contractors and former French-Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, whom it is trying to swap for imprisoned rebels. Talks brokered by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez recently led to the release of two hostages, including Rojas.


The FARC have called the march an attempt to bolster the political fortunes of its enemy, President Alvaro Uribe. "If the suffering of those in captivity has been unjustifiably prolonged ... this has been because of the inhuman intransigence and worthless pride of President Uribe," rebel leaders said in a statement released Friday.


Uribe addressed a packed public square in the northeastern city of Valledupar on Monday.
"To our fellow countrymen who live abroad, and who today have united with the rest of their compatriots, we want to extend our gratitude," he said.


In neighboring Venezuela, more than 2,000 people wearing white T-shirts marched in Caracas. In Panama, hundreds of Colombians demonstrated, while some 400 people shouted anti-FARC slogans in Argentina. In Mexico City, about 200 people gathered in front of the Angel of Independence monument.


In Stockholm, protesters bowed their heads for a minute of silence, while a couple dozen people in Hungary protested for an hour outside parliament. Television images showed Colombians and Americans at rallies in Washington, New York and Miami. Others joined events in Paris and Madrid.


Inside Colombia, the mobilization has exposed deep divisions over how to end the decades-long conflict that preceded the nation's cocaine wars, Latin America's oldest and strongest leftist insurgency.


For weeks, invitations to the march flew through cyberspace, mainly among the young and relatively wealthy who use Facebook in a country where about one in four can afford to use the Internet regularly. But as momentum grew, so did criticism of the march's narrow focus.
Many relatives of hostages fear the protests could endanger their loved ones, while others argue the march should denounce all violent groups, including the far-right militias critics say are backed by politicians in Uribe's camp.


On Saturday, Colombian news organizations received a statement from the rebels promising to release three more ailing hostages. No date was set.