Progress Report: Semester 1, 2022

  To enlarge any picture, just click on it and you'll see a bigger version!  

This is the year Angela had her 50th birthday! Started off the year celebrating with some special friends... my wish is to see as many life-long friends as possible in 2022. Also managed to see some special family members during a 6 hour layover at LAX.

Nesbitt Girls

Dot and Rob

 

Me & Pao

Muñoz family

  (Hung out with Leonard family too but forgot to take a picture!)

 

 

 

We were so happy to have some of the Wicks family visit us from California. Had a blast of a week hanging out and seeing some of the local sights.

 

Cedric and Patrick

La Calera central plaza

 

Juan Valdez coffee downtown Bogota

 

 

Lots of miscellaneous happenings, here are a few we remembered to take photos of!

Reconnected with old friends we hadn't seen in a dozen years.

 

We happened to go into the city one of the days all the motorbike owners in Bogota were staging a protest. Traffic was paralyzed, we had to walk to our appointment!

Cedric keeps helping with the conservation project on our mountainside. Here he is with a freshly planted native walnut tree.

 

Sunday afternoons it's becoming a tradition to hang out for a bit in the La Calera plaza eating local deserts! Jeronimo is the other preteen boy at our church.

 

 

 

They set up tents only on Sundays to sell locally made deserts! Bill chooses arroz con leche (rice pudding), Angela an oblea (wafer thin cookie filled with caramel), Cedric jello and our friends like a type of cheesecake or Colombian version of pavlova.

The cow that is pastured in the field in front of our house had a calf a month ago.

 

Many creative projects are produced daily in this spot!

 

We continued to be blessed and encouraged with our involvement at Family Church. Praying for growth and impact in our community through this group.

 

In March we had a tragedy - one of our dogs killed our pet cat, Limon. It was awful. But Cedric's Colombian "grandma" gave us two new kittens two weeks ago who have softened the loss! We call them Sal y Pimienta. (The dog is now happily rehomed on a nearby farm that doesn't have small animals.)

 

In April Angela helped host a small retreat for missionary wives at the retreat house where we live. Refreshing time!

We kicked off a Couples' ministry for our church in April with three 20+ year marriages and four couples only married 1-3  years. Praying it will continue and be a help.

Easter weekend was a special time to celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ by joining together both Parkway and Family churches for an overnight retreat and sunrise service.

It ended up being such a cold and overcast morning that by 7am we moved inside to warm up and finished off the meeting in our living room (about 45 of us)!

We had tamales and hot chocolate for breakfast afterwards and ended our time together with BBQ hamburgers for lunch! Alba has been such a help to have join our church this year and serves with much joy.

 

 

One of the guys from Parkway put together this speedy video summary of our time together and posted on Instagram: Fast summary of Easter Celebration with Parkway and Family Churches (click)

 

 

To conclude this report: Cedric's 11th Birthday.

 

Spanish language class

Art class

 

 

 Jeronimo and Cedric have birthdays a week apart. Here are some of the men praying for them at church on Sunday.

 

 

Long time friends Samara and Juan came over for a sleepover playdate.
 

 

Breakfast in bed

 

 We went on a family field trip for his actual birthday to a Hummingbird Observatory a half hour drive over the mountain from our home.

 

 

We finally saw what our house looks like from the other side of the valley. That's Casa Kiwi highlighted.

 

Finally, a new post for 2021!

This year has flown by in a blur! Here's just a few pictures of some of the memories we've made.

We moved back to Colombia after a year in NZ and immediately moved into another house: Casa Kiwi, also in the region of La Calera.

This house was originally used as a rescued children's home, so it has plenty of space and even a playground!

 

Higher up on the property we have permission to hike on the mountain and use the flying fox (in the US you call it a zipline)!

 Our sweet orange kitty (Jalapeño) didn't like our new place and disappeared within a month. Our friend gave us a new kitty and Cedric called him Limon!

It's been 10 years since Cedric joined our family! And 23 years since we got married.

We've had four trips within Colombia this year, here we were in Bucaramanga with friends and Medellin with Grandpa and Liliana.

Our car has spent a total of 2 months at the mechanics and enjoyed two tow rides to get there! Praising God it's been running really well for the past month, they seemed to have fixed all the major issues.

School has been ticking along and we are within 7 weeks of finishing up 4th grade!

Weekly swimming lessons have been a constant. We were so saddened by the sudden accidental death of the lifeguard/teacher (pictured standing). A somber life lesson for the kids.

We have a bread baker in the family... lots of yummy treats!

Part of our new ministry this year has been to provide a place of escape from busy city and ministry life. We've had loads of weekend visitors and enjoy spending time with them.

 

And we've truly enjoyed being part of a new church and seeing growth in the lives of the people. Even though we are just a small group, it is a happy fellowship and we trust the Lord uses it in a mighty way.