Camp View

 

And now it's been 26 years...

 ... since we vowed to cherish each other all our days:

then

 

and now

2024

 

(every few years I post a blog with our anniversary month picture for each year, last time was 5 years ago!)

2023

2022

2021

2020

 

Past pics:

21st

 

20th

17th

13th

1st Semester 2024 FRIENDS

Girlfriends... I have had some great opportunities to spend time with other women this semester. First pic is a group of us Bogota missionary women who get together once a year for a retreat.

My friend Paola, we've known each other for 23 years now, since she was a teenager and I her youth leader!

 

 I had a short trip to California for a missions conference and was blessed to catch up with good friends there!

 

New friends - we met this couple late last year and are becoming friends. They live down the road from us and are leaders in a church in Bogota.

 

 Old friends - our childhood friend, Ernest, came to Colombia and we got to visit with him.

Cedric's friends! Luis David (friend from our years in Aposento Alto and our dogs' vet) gave Cedric a bike and is encouraging his riding skills. 

Cedric shares his birthday month of May with two other boys at church, so lots of celebrations!

 

 

 

 This extended family at church have loved us like family these past few years. We appreciate them a lot!

1st Semester 2024 MINISTRY

We had a women's lunch this semester. The men meanwhile went off to play soccer, but I didn't get any pics of that!

The youth group has had a great year so far. Weekly meetings, a few fun activities and daily devotions. Praying they grow in their love for the Lord. Since the Kids' Club started we've also had two new neighborhood kids start attending!

Our church has been faithful in prayer this year. We pray for half an hour Sunday mornings at the start of our meeting. Every Tuesday we meet for an hour of prayer on zoom and once a month we gather on Tuesday nights for prayer in person. Learning to trust and wait on the Lord.... and we've seen answered prayers too!

 

 

 Since April we have had our Friday Kids' Outreach Club meeting and lots of kids have been coming. It has given us opportunity to meet parents, some of the children and their older siblings have attended our meetings. A team from the US was here recently and they led one of the Venezuelan men to the Lord during their visit. These children attending are very needy on multiple levels. They are economically challenged, some of them love and attention deprived and have had a spotty education. (We offer behind the scenes help usually, I cook once a month for the kids... thankfully there is a wonderful team of volunteers sharing the Friday load!)

Our home continues to be used to host people. We encourage pastors/Christian workers to take a break from the city to rest (most find it hard to do!) This is a family who have a ministry in the densely populated south of Bogota where the population tends to be poor. Genaro, Yuly and Maria Belen are Venezuelans who bake bread for a living, but live to serve the Lord in their church.

Our last big church event was Easter at our home. It was a wonderful celebration of the resurrection... about 15 people spent the night and then everyone else showed up for a sunrise service, breakfast and then worship service.

One of the things keeping us busy this year is running monthly workshops for the couples (Saturday) and singles (Tuesday). It has been a good way to challenge them to mature in the Lord.

Some other projects that we have are 1) having my father's autobiography translated and published in Spanish... we are now in the distribution phase and 2) working on our yearly family camp plans... finding a place, organizing food and transportation, encouraging people to save, working on the sessions and activities. It's lots of work, but worth it!

1st Semester 2024 FAMILY

We had a great trip to Florida & Tennessee in March to visit family and share at a few churches. We visited Angela's sister and her family in TN and Bill's dad in FL.

 

 

 

In April the owners of our house replaced the ceiling in the living/dining/kitchen/school rooms as it was full of mold! We had a few chaotic weeks. Here's a before an after of the living room.

In June Cedric had his piano recital at another local church. Here he is with the two music teachers he's had in La Calera. They are brothers. Together with another 4 talented young Christian musicians they've started a music school in our town. We took the rest of the youth group to listen to the young musicians that day. First "concert" for a few of them!

2023 in Review

Some highlights from 2023! It was a good year, we all grew in many ways and saw the Lord work in our midst.

April

Spent time with couples... these are dear friends hoping to get married soon!

Had a wonderful Easter celebration with our church and guests at our home.

Held a reunion of the young couples' group from our old church in Bogota.

Angela was blessed during a missionary women's retreat in Cartagena.

May

  

A drain was dug to prevent our garage from flooding every time it rains.

Angela got to go on a one day retreat with local missionary women.

We adopted a new dog, Vela - her family moved to Spain. She had health problems until we figured out the problem, got surgery in August and all is well now!

Celebrated Cedric's birthday - along with two friends who share the same month.

Spent 24 hours with police and military presence on our mountainside, they were in search of a soldier hiding in the woods who'd gone AWOL after shooting a companion.

Our church women got together for a cooking class.

June 

Art class, completed a semester.

 

Valeria joined the youth group this month.

Angela learned how to cook Colombian beans properly - using a pig's foot!

Youth group, transporting everyone home on Satudays.

The women enjoyed a Sunday lunch out while the men played soccer (no pic).

 

July

 

We made a short trip to California and Cedric spent a week at Verdugo Pines Bible Camp.

Visited the California Science Museum.

In-n-out with friends.

Double date to the Getty Museum with good friends.

 

August

 

Angela's parents came to Colombia and we enjoyed every minute!

 

We hosted a lot of visitors who wanted to see them.

 And we visited the city of Bucaramanga with them.

And churches/friends there.

We got the keys to the house being purchased for our church to rent.

Saw some Colombian beauties!

September

 

Sad farewells to Nana and Papa at the airport.

Bill enjoyed a soccer game with the guys from church... but suffered for a month afterwards due to a kick in the shins.

Bogota outing with youth group to a science museum.

October

 

Andy spent the month with us while he worked on the paperwork and payments for the new house.

The mayor permitted Bible readings in the main plaza for the whole month. Churches took turns, ours read on 6 different days.

Spent the month wondering when the calves would be born. (Not our cows, belong to a neighbor but grazed in front of our house.)

Hosted another couples meeting - always a need among our families.

Ongoing homeschooling.

November

 

Our annual church - 3 other small churches joined us.

 

 Family Church's first baptism.

The calves finally started arriving.

Bill's dad visited for a few days.

We enjoyed a lovely thanksgiving celebration with dear friends.

 

December

 

 We started the month off with a wedding.

Which Bill missed out on due to a quick visit to Florida for a family reunion. (These are his sisters.)

Our church moved into the new house, Bill supervised things getting fixed and painted.

Our first Sunday in the new place. Still cramped, but much better than the last house.

We had lots of extra church gatherings during the month of December. Evenings together reading the Christmas story.

The youth group learned how to make Buñuelos, a cheesy fried bread.

We had a potluck on the 24th.
 

And a BBQ at our house on the 31st.

Along with a thanksgiving service.

 Bill enjoyed a quiet birthday this year.

(We also had a very quiet Christmas, Cedric got food poisoning so we enjoyed our Christmas dinner on the 26th! Forgot to take pictures!)