EARTHQUAKE!!!!

We've had an exciting day! I was on the phone upstairs in my bedroom today chatting with my sister. Our roof is a fiberglass roof, so when the wind blows a lot of times you can hear creaking and different noises. I noticed the normal sounds but all of a sudden realized that the room was moving. Meanwhile, Maggie was downstairs thinking she was accidentally shaking the desk and our friend Nate was playing Mario Dance, Dance Revolution and thought it was part of the game! It took me a few seconds to realize what was happening and while still on the phone I ran downstairs where Maggie, Corey and Nate were and asked, "Is this an earthquake??" Corey said it was and I told my sister, "I've got to go. There's an earthquake!" and threw down the phone. Corey first said to get in the doorways and then we thought for a second about the poor renovations and construction the landlady had done to this house and he shouted to get out of the house. We all went outside. They say it only lasted a minute or so, but it felt like much longer than that! We stood in the yard all feeling dizzy, like in a funhouse when the floor is moving. It wasn't the violent shaking I thought it would be. Instead, it felt like the ground was rolling. The trees were swaying back and forth even though there was no wind and the puddles of water in our backyard were moving side to side. It was such a strange experience. Everything was just kind of swaying.

After a minute or so it ended and we rushed inside to get a hold of Alex, who was staying at a friend's house. The phone lines were all down for a while, first because of the earthquake and then because of the overload of people trying to make calls. I made sure to call my sister back who I was sure was probably having her own little heart attack after my frantic hangup. I did eventually get a hold of Alex and all was fine there as well.

I'm so happy to say that we're all fine and it seems that for the most part the quake wasn't too destructive. A few buildings had damage so far as has been reported. Sadly, six people lost their lives on the road between the epicenter and Bogotá because of falling rock and landslides. The official strength is listed at 5.7 on the richter scale. The epicenter is less than 35 miles from our house.

Here's Maggie's account of the situation...
"It was my first earthquake and at first I thought that I was just shaking the desk on accident, but then when I took the headphones off, my dad and a friend were walking around and my dad said, "Get out of the house!" and that's when I started getting worried because everything was moving back and forth a lot. I think God protected me in that earthquake because if it would have been stronger, the desk could have fallen on top of me because it was swaying so much." ~Maggie

~Tona

Bogotá Bible Fellowship

Another term of Bible study has come to an end. This year we studied Beth Moore's "Jesus The One and Only." We've learned so much, not only about the Word, but about each other. It has been such a privilege studying with these ladies. They are so diverse and each one with an incredible life story. They have lived all over the world, been through incredible challenges including cancer and husbands who were kidnapped. My life has been enriched by their insight, wisdom and often humorous views of life. To you fine ladies, thank you. I will miss you!
~Tona

Campamento Juvenil 2008

We love camp!! Every one has been so different. We've done children's camps and middle school camps, but this camp was "youth", which meant anyone between the ages of 13 and 25. I have to admit, I was a bit stressed out before we left. It's a long story, but basically two days before camp I was given the task to prepare a sermon to fill up TWO HOURS for this 12 year age gap revolving around stewardship in work, dating, with your body, etc. etc. All sorts of doubt and frustration crept in. I had been looking so forward to this camp because we thought all we had to do was lead a group and hang out with the kids - pretty stress free and fun!! However, no matter how much I tried to get out of it, it was to no avail. I preached that first kick off service and, guess what, I got through it! Anyway, that was the drama that ensued leading up to camp, but camp itself was absolutely amazing. Corey and I have been out of youth ministry for the most part since being here in Colombia and I was very nervous as I looked at our group ranging from 10 year old Maggie through David, a 20 year old guy. God knows just how to work things out and we had an incredible group. Of course, being camp there was plenty of goofing off time, games, team challenges and very intense altar times. I left feeling so renewed in the Lord.

A lot of changes are coming up soon and we are preparing to leave the field in just a few weeks to finish our term working from LACC headquarters stateside. I'll write a separate blog about those details later, but during this camp we had time to spend with kids we've been sharing our lives with for nearly two years now and some we just got to know over the weekend. The whole thought of leaving has been making me feel pretty sad, but I have to be honest, I felt a desperation of not wanting to leave throughout this weekend. I found myself asking God to extend our time. Several of the girls as we were leaving came to me in tears, literally hanging onto my shirt or my arms, and asked us not to go. There is such a swirl of emotions. I feel like we have established much here in the sense of relationships and that brings me joy, but then comes the immense sorrow of the reality that these kids don't all have internet or telephones that make it easy to communicate once we leave which makes me face that some of them I may never see or contact again.

I've gotten away from the topic at hand. Ultimately camp was incredible. With the exception of the lack of sleep, I would have stayed a month rather than three days! But now I must go. Some of those beloved jovenes are on their way over now and I don't want to waste a moment!

~Tona