First Month in Bogota

The last two weeks God has blessed me with the opportunity to get to know the people at CDA (God is Love Corporation in Spanish) and to see His work through them. Experiencing the love of Jesus for the poor has changed the perspective about needs and desires especially when you hear the testimonies, when you see the transformation in the lives of the people, when you see thousands of people living below the lowest level of poverty just 40 minutes away from beautiful buildings, restaurants, luxury malls, and huge signs of prosperity.

The hope arises when you talked to the people at the communities reached by CDA. There are 5 areas of impact I have seen so far:

EDUCATION: Almost 4,000 kids from the poorest communities receive Christian education.

PTI: This is a vocational training center to teach parents and member of those communities, technical education and entrepreneurial skill to help them improve the level of their income. They learn bakery, beauty salon, sewing, jewelry, computers among others.

FORJAR: This is a small financial entity that lends money to the PTI graduates so they can start their micro-businesses. They send a social worker every week to check the procedures, the books and the business in general to make sure they are following the principles taught. FORJAR also finds jobs for the one who don’t have entrepreneurial spirit.

HEALTH: They have 5 Basic Health Centers where they have about 4,000 patient/each. HEALTH also has brigades (about 10 a year) in different communities.

GIRLS FARM: This is a home for girls who have been sexually abused and/or raped. The farm is located in a beautiful location outside the city with around 60 girls between 3 to 16 years old. They live there isolated from their families to protected, teach them, and minister to them.

All this work is done thanks to the sponsors. The biggest sponsor is a European organization and its little branch in Canada; the rest of the resources come from individual sponsors overseas and recently locally. Each kid’s education can be sponsored with just few bucks a month.

What I have seen is Word of God in Mathew 25:34-40 in action:

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what's coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. And here's why:

I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.'

"Then those 'sheep' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.'

Christmas gifts to the Girls Farm

Last Friday I was invited to go to the Girls Farm to give away the Christmas presents. That was a beautiful experience from the start to the end. We played with them for a while and then attended a lunch together. A group of young adults a church in Bogotá led us to a time where all together were prasing and worshiping God. There were presentations, songs, dances, testimonies, awards, lunch, and fellowship for several hours. Then, the fun part, the Christmas gifts! That was crazy!! They were shouting, screaming, yelling, and laughing all together. The pictures will tell you how happy they were.

For me the experience made me think about my little complains and how God has blessed me. What impacted me the most was the thought of God full of joy as He saw these little girls happy and excited for the presents. For me, the shouting and screaming were the best demonstration of gratitude towards the Provider, the Creator, the Father and I felt convicted when I have received gifts and I haven’t expressed all the joy I should just to let God know how happy I am for His blessings. How many times we are like little children demonstrating freely our gratitude? Is there any more joy for a father than to see his kids opening presents? Can you imagine God waiting for us to open a blessing just to see our faces full of joy but for His surprise we barely smile or even worst we complain?

The next couple of weeks I believe God will continue moving here within the organization, in the hearts of potential donors, and in the lives of these communities revealing to us how much He loves us. I encourage all of you to do more than a polite smile when you open your presents during this Christmas. Remember, the Father has the ridiculous idea of you seeing His kids shout and scream out of joy and thanksgiving.

Please continue praying for me and CDA; you should see how powerful your prayers have been manifested.

Merry Christmas!!!

Colombia’s Rating List

Food 10++++++++++

Getting better and better

Prices 10

I had a hair cut with shampoo, rinse, and coffee for $5.00!! Cheaper than Joanie’s

Coffee 10

Starbucks? What’s that

Weather 3

It rains every single day. God has sense of humor. I ran out of Orlando to end up in Bogotá. I don’t understand the people who say rain is romantic. They have mental issues.

Traffic 1

I don’t even know what to say.

Stress Level 1
Even Christian organizations get stressed. Help me pray for strength to keep my peace.

First Week in Bogota

Arriving

After a very interesting and adventurous 11 hours layover in Mexico City I arrived to Bogotá 12 years later. First thing, I had a huge hamburger for dinner (called Todo Terreno¹). America invented it but Colombians perfected it. I was exhausted so that’s all I remember.

¹ All Terrain

CDA (Corporacion Dios es Amor²) Banquet

Friday night I attended the 15^th Anniversary Banquet at CDA where I met the President of the organization, Mrs. Missy Christie, her husband Carlos and Jim Chynoweth and his wife, the American missionary couple who has been in contact with me the last few months. I was excited watching the little ones smiling, having fun, dancing, singing and thanking God. CDA was launching a sponsorship programs called Dame Tu Mano³ to cover the education expenses (Christian education with health, dentists, food, nutritionist, and uniforms included for $45.00 month – See picture). Almost all attendees became godfathers of at least one kid.

However, I was deeply impacted when youngsters in their 20’s gave their testimonies about how they were kids living below poverty level when they started at the CDA schools, they graduated from secondary (high school), and continued their technical or college education fulfilling their dreams. They were thankful with whoever their sponsor was in Europe or Canada for allowing them to continue growing and they were grateful with CDA because they were taught God’s principles and values and they learned to live a Christian live. One of them (you can see him in one of the pictures) was young boy who finished school, studied computers, the organization hired him to teach computers classes at the schools, and then helped him to start his own business. Right now, he is under 30, owns a furniture factory with 7 employees (4 of them relatives) and still teaches at CDA schools. I felt convicted for all the times I have complained God for silly small things. He didn’t wait for welfare neither for the government to supply for his needs nor did he complain to God for his physical or financial challenges but instead, he studied and worked hard to become a Christian example.

Mrs. Christie shared her testimony as a daughter of a Christian missionary from New Zealand and how she regretted not having the privilege of being born in this country but she felt more than privileged to be raised here with a father who passed to her the love for the ministry and the kids (Lindsay Christie, her father passed away few years ago). She was telling the story that happened just a couple of weeks ago when she arrived at the airport and one of the anti-narcotics agents stopped her; she didn’t know why, specially because the agent shouted her name from the distance; when he got there, he told her he was one of her students in one of the schools and shared with her that because he was from a very poor area of the city, his application to work on that division was denied twice until the third time he was approved and how he was not only thankful for the education but he is now proud to serve his country.

As you can see, the evening was full of watered eyes, at least for me, and several reflections came to my mind almost immediately. First of all, I thanked God for allowing me just to be here and witness what He is doing to this kids, second, grateful with my Church for its support, prayers, love, its leadership and the tons of friends who are praying for me, and lastly, I can’t wait to start doing something to see those lives transformed in a way I had not seen before in my life.

² God is Love Corporation

³ Give Me Your Hand

What’s next?

Sponsors from Canada and Europe are still here visiting the facilities until Nov 23^rd. On Friday Nov. 24^th I will have a tour to the facilities with Jim Chynoweth and then we’ll meet to Mrs. Christie to see what God has for us.

Church

On Sunday I attended the church El Lugar de Su Presencia⁴ and the experience was overwhelming.

Reasons why none of you would attend this church:

• You need to make a line and wait until the previous service is over (they have 7:30, 9:30 and 11:45 services) to get in.
• Sit exactly in order wherever the ushers tell you
• No saving seats
• You cannot (really) cannot get in or get out of the main sanctuary once the Praise & Worship starts. No, means no.
• At the end of the service, each row leaves in order starting from the back and you have to wait your turn.
• Coffee is not for free.
  

Reasons why all of you would attend this church:

• Hillsong, Chris Tomlin, Toby Mac, etc. music. Jabin is not famous here yet.
• Praise and worship is crazy. Everybody jump and leap and shout and kick (yes, kick like kicking)
• Very casual dress
• Not religious

I noticed something very interesting. Their Pastor is Colombian with Australian last name while our Pastor is American with Colombian last name (Yes, Perez’s are not from Mexico).

⁴ The Place of His Presence

Colombia’s Rating List (from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest)

Food 10++++

Outstanding, unbelievable

Prices 10

Lucille’s flavor with Teriyaki Madness prices

Coffee 10

There are no Starbucks here because this is the house of Juan Valdez and there are Juan Valdez Coffee stores everywhere with wonderful variety of the most tasteful coffee you can have at half the price of the guys in Seattle.

Weather 5

Cold and humid. Rainy (I just like the desert)

Traffic 1

Run for your life, stay at home as much as you can or close your eyes. Prozac is a valid option.

Stress Level 1

People are in a hurry all the time. They look like they have stomach problems and need to go to the bathroom especially when they are driving. You can feel their pain

Emotions - Confusion (1)

Confusion

“Confusion” means disorder; it is a mental state characterized by a lack of clear and orderly thought and behavior, a mix of several things, the inability to differentiate, disorientation, difficulty distinguishing.

Synonyms for “confusion” are: hallucination, turmoil, disconcertment, discomposure, mistake, error, disorder, chaos, anarchy, trouble, mess, muddle, uneasiness.

Confusion is an emotion related with destruction, defeat, failure, being mistaken, losing. Pele and Maradona are considered the best soccer players in history, and I remember hearing commentaries from my friends saying that they never knew what was going to come out of the play; Pele and Maradona would confuse the other team. Baseball pitchers and batters, football quarterbacks, and basketball guards try to do the same.

The terrorists plan their attacks, not just to destroy a building or to make a car explode, but to create confusion. The greatest damage of the September 11th attacks in New York and Washington, in addition to all the lost lives, was the chaos produced due to confusion. Nobody knew what was happening and what else was going to occur. Wall Street was demolished, a lot of companies went bankrupt, and entire families moved to other cities, states, or countries. The terrorists achieved their objective by creating confusion in towns, the economy, and politics and among tourists and airlines, etc. Confusion is a weapon utilized to weaken one’s opponent.

God confused the Egyptians when the Israelites were crossing the Red Sea. The Scriptures declare, “At the morning watch, the LORD looked down on the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud and brought the army of the Egyptians into confusion. He caused their chariot wheels to swerve, and He made them drive with difficulty; so the Egyptians said, ‘Let us flee from Israel, for the LORD is fighting for them against the Egyptians’ ” (Exodus 14:24-25).

I will never forget the explanation I received about how confusion compares to the windshield of a car. I cannot drive a car with a misty windshield because I cannot see what is in front of me. I have to wait a few minutes until I am able to see where I am headed clearly. Confusion is like a misty windshield, and I have to wait until I have a better vision of what is happening in my life.

When confusion is present in any situation in your life, you should clearly understand that you are in the middle of an attack intended to make you choose wrongly and to make you fail. At that moment you should stop and wait until the windshield of your situation is clear. That is the right time to take a closer look at what is happening in order to use the proper tools so that you come to the correct decision.

In a moment of confusion, one person can kill another. A minute later, there is no confusion, but the decision has already been made and the consequences of the decision must be faced. How many of us end up in jail, how many of us have fallen into infidelity and adultery, how many of us have been fired, how many business opportunities have we wasted, how many of people close to us have we hurt because of too quickly making decisions when we are confused?

Emotions - Confusion (2)

What to do?

The opposites of confusion are order, tranquility, calm, serenity, peace, classification, organization, systematization, and method.

If confusion is the inability or incapacity to differentiate or difficulty distinguishing, the best tool to end confusion is vision. We cannot permit circumstances of the moment to stop us from seeing where we are heading. We should search for that clarity, the vision that gives us the tools we need so that confusion will not overtake our senses and our minds.

If you make a decision led by confusion, when time passes, and you meditate on it, you will notice that you took action too quickly, that you made a mistake, and you will want to turn back the hand of time to correct it. Obviously, you will be unsuccessful.

It is important to remember that confusion, like other emotions and feelings, is temporary; they are here today, but they may not be here tomorrow. However, vision will be here today, tomorrow, and always. Vision gives you the security to know the path you should take towards your destiny, even though you cannot touch it or you have not arrived at it yet. Let me explain: by definition, vision is the immediate and direct view without a sensible perception. Confused? It means that vision is not necessarily associated with reality. I can have a different vision from yours about the same subject. Even though both perceptions are different, they are both valid because our paths and destinies are not the same. If you hold on firmly to a vision of your destiny, then you will stop feeling the temporary confusion you are experiencing. To make it more clear, let’s look at the negative perspective. Until you know what your vision is—even though it has not become a reality yet—confusion will govern your mind and your thoughts and lead you to make mistakes.

A plane ticket from Los Angeles to New York gives you a vision of where your trip will end, even if you are not even at the airport yet. The flight could have voids or delays; it can be slow or fast, comfortable or uncomfortable; it can have stops and connections, but you know, thanks to vision, that sooner or later you will arrive at your destination, and so you can endure any distress. Everyone goes through those uncomfortable moments in a different manner. Some sleep through them; others play with their portable computers; others go to the bathroom 10 times; others look outside the window all the time; still others read, work, pray, or drink, but nobody, absolutely nobody, jumps off the plane in the middle of the flight, no matter how confused they might be.

Do not give up on your destiny because you do not have vision, and consequently confusion can take a hold of your life. It is not bad to feel confused; the mistake is to make decisions when you are confused. That is why you need to stop and focus on the destiny that has been prepared for you. Focus on your desires, your dreams, your yearnings, and your promises. Every time you do this, you will reduce the possibility of facing negative consequences that arise due to mistakes you have made.

“Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” Proverbs 29:18

Important

Confusion’s goal is to keep us where we are, to stop us from seeing where we are going.

Suggestions

Write a dream that you have always had that came true.

Write two desires you have always wanted to fulfill

For a few minutes think about those desires and that dream that have not come true yet. Imagine living that dream and getting those desires fulfilled. Close your eyes and thank God for the vision He is giving you, for the wonderful things He is showing you, for a future with blessings for you and your family. Now take pen and paper and write down that vision you are having, so every time you feel confused, you can remember your destiny and where you are heading.

“Problems are those circumstances you see
When you have not defined your goals”
Anonymous

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.
Live the life you have imagined”
Henry David Thoreau
American Writer, Philosopher, and Naturalist