Colombia

This is long overdue I know…where does the time go.  I think that I was in an after camp coma, recovering and resting and getting caught up on life, and here we are, almost two weeks after the last camp.  Now just where to start… The first camp, boy 11-13, was probably the most difficult.  We were house bound a lot cause of the rain, and having 13 boys of that age group cooped up inside, they tend to go a little crazy.  Every time it stopped raining or when it was just raining a little bit we would run outside and do everything we could before it started to rain again.  In this camp we had the male staff share their testimonies for the devotional time.  I think this was really impactful for them because a lot of the staff come from similar backgrounds as these boys.  It was good for them to see that someone understands them and that they can make different choices, even when they have everything going against them.  Hearing some of these kids...

Hey guys so camp went really well, like really well...The girls were so sweet and lovely and the had a great time.  At lunch on the last day they were banging the table saying “we don’t want to go” and even though I am exhausted it is hard to see them go.  I always tell them at the beginning of camp the we have 0 tolerance for bullying cause this is a safe place for everyone. And we really want to make this a safe place, a place where they feel loved and accepted and it’s hard to see them go cause 98% of them are going back to places that aren’t safe, places where they don’t feel loved and accepted and it’s a step of faith to let them go and trust that God has got them, to trust that what they learned her and what they felt here won’t be in vain and that they will carry it and feel it as they go back to not so idea situations, that somehow in the craziness of their lives they will keep their innocence.  But guys please keep them in your prayers, it seems like things are...

Brace yourselves this might be a long one, I guess that’s what happens when I don’t update you guys as often as I should.   I feel like there is a lot to update you guys on, a lot to pray for and just a lot of random thoughts that have been going on in me head.   But I guess I will just start writing and see where we end up. In March I had two lovely visitors, a grandma and her granddaughter, that came and worked and worked and worked.   They got so much done.   Cleaning and organizing and shelve and coat rack building, but I think the best part of it was the lovely company they were.   Between the lovely morning chats (before the granddaughter woke up) and the endless games of Rook… we won’t say who won most of them.   But it was awesome having them here. Just a few days after they left my mom and another friend came to visit.   It was also very lovely.   Showing them around Bogota and around Colombia, going to one of my favorite places...

Well I have been back for almost a month now and its been good being back and getting settled back in.   Two good friends of mine that met here and got married but left to live in England for the past 3 years are now back and going to be living and working on the farm (doing agriculture work), so I have been pretty excited about that.   Last week we had a week of orientation and staff bounding time, which was nice to see and connect with people again.   We had a couple come and speak to us and talk to us about God’s faithfulness and His goodness, even when the suffered the loss of a daughter to leukemia.   It was really powerful and a good reminder that even in the hardest circumstances that God is always good and always faithful.   I will have to keep reminding myself of this when things with life and camp get overwhelming. With some very lovely friends I have already gotten one shopping trip out of the way and will have a couple more to do and I have a lo...

Some of you know, from my many emails asking for prayer, that our last camp didn’t end how one would want/imagine/hope.  I won’t get into all the details because there are a lot and a lot of them have since been sorted out, but it would also make the blog long winded,  But on the last night of camp one of the boys got hurt.  A few boy jumped up and hung from the soccer net and it tipped over and fell on this kids face.  His bottom lip was ripped up really bad, like scary movie bad, and he lost several of his upper teeth and some of them got pushed up into his gums.  He was rushed to the hospital and has had two surgeries, but is now home and recovering.  There is still some figuring out to do and he will need implants, which insurance doesn’t cover, so we are seeing how we can help out with that and other additional costs that come along with this incident. Needless to say it wasn’t fun and I was struggling with the whole realm of emotions.  (I am...

I am sitting here in my nice cozy home drinking hot chocolate as it is pouring rain, I mean pouring rain.  I have never in my life been so thankful for the rain until I moved into a house that relied on rain water for everything… FOR EVERYTHING, and as the rain comes pouring down, I am reminded of Gods faithfulness.  I sometimes don’t know  what God is up to…Most of the time I don’t know what God is up to. In a season full of blessings, but also filled with stresses and questions and wonderings… God has always proved faithful. From bunk bed mishaps, to sitting on the side of the road in a broken down truck on moving day, to only having seven girls sign up for the last camp, to wondering where my full time team is, cause if I am being honest, its a little hard doing this journey alone… but God has always proved Himself faithful and has always provided just what I needed, when I needed it.  From money to pay what we needed to get the bunk beds done, from a tru...

So here it goes, another camp in the books and it was a full one.  20 beautiful girls ages 8-10 and 9 staff… every single bunk was used minus one.  And despite them coming together a little late, the are BEAUTIFUL and the girls and staff loved them and they go perfectly with the rusticness of camp.  It feels so good to have the bunks done and now even more then ever it looks like a camp, which of course makes me excited. We did a little bit of a longer/harder hike with these girls and it actually turned out exactly how I wanted it to.  There was lots of complaining on the way up, a lot of them telling me they didn’t want to go any further but once they got to the top, the loved the view, loved hanging in the hammock and loved playing the games up at the top and on the way down they we’re all smiles.  I always ask them what their favorite part if camp was, a lot of them said the hike.  ( Well almost all of them say the food… we make sure to fill them up...