Update from Colombia

It’s been a while. Not easy to write a blog when I’m writing a bunch of documents all the time. The last thing I want to do is type again. Lots of things had happened in the last few months opening the possibilities for more help to the people here in Colombia.

My friend from the States moved back to Florida, my daughter, Erin and Kaya came to spend few weeks in the summer and helped at CDA. They don’t know how much we miss them. My daughter Jo moved to San Diego to live at 75°F instead of a 100°F but left tons of friends in Las Vegas. Mafe in the meantime is enjoying the rain in Bogota. O.M.G. it rains here!!

During this time CDA has hosted several visitors from Canada, U.S, New Zealand, Ecuador, and the Netherlands. Still expecting for friends in Florida and Las Vegas to come and see what God is doing in this country.

Also, several challenges have risen, in the organization and in my personal life. It’s interesting to see how every time you walk towards the purpose and the vision, immediately the obstacles, problems, and attacks show up. The weaknesses and the flesh also show up to remind me I’m a work in progress; as soon as I know the answer He changes the question humbling me to my limitations and giving me “opportunity” to be a better person. Some times I take advantage of these opportunities; most of the times I’m not good enough.

It was given to me the chance to go back to Cartagena with visitors from Holland who wanted to see the possibility to sponsor a home construction project for the poor in the community where CDA has its project. Visiting people’s homes and seeing the conditions is overwhelming. This is a project where the city puts some of the money and CDA needs to find donors to raise the remaining.

Then, I had to go and visit one of the most historically dangerous areas in Colombia called the Magdalena Medio (Middle Magadalena River) (Magadalena river is the largest longest in Colombia) where thousands of people have been killed for decades in the conflict between the guerrilla, the paramilitary groups, and the government army all mixed with the drug trafficking in the area. We were invited by the mayor to visit a small town, San Pablo, on the edge of the river to explore the option for CDA to take over the education, health and income generating programs. I went with a Doctor, the Scientific Director of CDA’s Health program and a co-worker who was taking care of driving and making us feel safe.

I knew it was going to be an adventure because of:

- An unknown territory famous for the internal conflict, the constant killing and kidnappings

- There was a supposedly 6 hours driving (really 10 hours) to the main city closer to San Pablo

- Then, we had to take a one hour chalupa (boat) trip on the river

- And the hot weather especially because I noticed we had a car with no A/C.

The countryside was beautiful, the river was huge, and the people warm and friendly. We visited the hospital, the schools, and the homes constructions sites in a very fast 5 hours tour so we could take the chalupa back to the city and drive another 10 hours to Bogota and the cold weather.

We talked to the people and asked them about the violence history and they told us there was a day when 80 people was massacred when the guerrilla, the paramilitary groups and the army took turns to take over the town of 32,000 people. They put most of the names of the people killed in a big tree in a park (see pictures). We are praying to do God’s will. If we are supposed to start the education, health, and income generating programs in this town and start a transformation of thousands of lives we will need the finances. There is no one NGO or a company in this area of Colombia because of its history.

In a 39 hours trip we spent 22 in a car and 3 in chalupa; we got home exhausted but motivated by the possibility to impact thousands.

In our trip back to Bogota we stopped in a place on the road with a gas station and few places to eat. When we were waiting for the food to be served I saw one of the most impressive acts of faith I have seen. Right there in the gas station I watched several plastic chairs and pews; something told me I should go there; as I got closer I saw a keyboard, drums, microphones, and some youngsters putting everything together. I told myself, only Christians do things like these. I approached them and asked if this was a church, they said, looking at me as an opportunity to share the Word, no, it is a concert and you are invited. How many people you think will show up, I asked, by faith, all of them. They were not ashamed of showing their faith and beliefs in the middle of nowhere, on the road, in a gas station. When we were leaving (we had a long road still ahead) less than ten people were in the chairs and they were saying over the microphone they were waiting for few more friends who promised to come before they start the concert. It was nothing like the churches I know in AmericaColombia with huge screens, air conditioning, ushers, coffee, children’s church, etc. but they were excited, joyful, and proud to have the chance of praise and worship God. or What a lesson for me and hopefully for some of us! (See pictures here)

I promise I will keep this blog more up to date. I know several of you have been praying for me and the less I can do is to keep you informed and show you how your thoughts and prayers are impacting in this country, its people and in my life. Some of you encourage me through your emails. You have no idea how much I appreciate it.

See you soon.

When the whole world rocks...

Saturday May 24st. at 2:20 p.m. everything was moving and I couldn't believe what I was experiencing. The curtains, the TV, the bed, everything was moving from one side to the other one. My reaction was to stand up under the door (I heard that was a safe place) and then I remembered "correctly" that under the door is the worst place. My second reaction was to start laughing, I guess, that was how I expressed my fear. I went back to my laptop to check on the Internet any “immediate” news.

Few minutes later it was all over the news. It was measured as a 5.6 in magnitude and the epicenter was located about 33 miles from Bogotá. That was not a nice feeling at all! I didn’t even think about my daughter Mafe; forget about relatives or friends. I called Mafe like an hour later to ask if she was ok. She was by herself in a 6^th floor apartment building scared to death and her dad didn’t call her! A brave man! Hummm Don’t think so.

Millions went to the streets waiting for replicas and fearing a worst shake. At least 6 people were killed.

At midweek CDA decided to go to a small town in the middle of the mountains where 60% of the homes were destroyed. We prepared groceries, personal care items and a health brigade and went on the next Saturday. We were 36 in total including 4 doctors, 1 dentist, psychologists, social workers, chaplains and security in 6 cars and one ambulance. It was raining the whole morning and that made the situation look worst for the habitants in the small town of Quetame. We were divided in three groups; one in a small arena, another in a refuge about a mile away and the other team went to the countryside, 30 minutes away. More than 120 people were treated by the doctors, 45 by the dentist, and dozens of kids and families were ministered and treated by psychologists and chaplains.

We arrived around 7:00 a.m., had a sandwich for breakfast and left around 4:00 p.m. starving and ready to kill a cow for lunch. We stop at a town called Caqueza and ate like animals.

It was an experience that made me think about how we are not ready in case of a disaster. How helpless you are in some situations where you can’t do anything, absolutely nothing. For the very first time I missed Florida and its hurricane season. Then, went to this place with huge green mountains and you feel like a little mosquito surrounded by the beauty of the nature in its more spectacular size, and then you noticed that all those gigantic mountains were shaken like paper.

We are still in a rainy season and the weather is awful. It rains like 3-4 times a day; there are more than 170,000 victims of flooding all over the country and we are all hoping and praying it will end soon.

Colombia, The Only Risk is Wanting to Stay

I know it’s been a while… I should’ve done something about it and I won’t make any excuses. Hopefully you will understand. Tons of things had happened since my last blog; I’ll try to be concise without missing the most important events.

First of all, thank you for the emails and the prayers; they have worked! I can feel them when I have been attacked, felt discouraged, lonely, or simply to know I am at the right place. I declare blessings in your lives.

I want to talk about Colombia and the communities. This is a country of contrasts; you can find the extreme poverty in 54% of its population (more than that in some cities); Kids with no education, no health care, malnutrition, pregnant teenagers, no basic utilities such as water, sewerage, power, and gas. At the same time, you can see the prosperity just like in any city in America with wonderful restaurants, parks, buildings, huge malls, technologically advanced, and wonderful natural resources. It’s like living in San Francisco or San Diego and Africa at the same time. The central government has a lot of support from the people, there is 86% approval after 6 years, but the local government in cities or departments, with some exceptions, is not as good as the national. The people has the same characteristic; Lots of contrasts, some extraordinarily warm and nice, especially in the tough communities, and others very uptight and unauthentic. Christian communities don’t differ much. In general, Colombians are good people with a sense of survival and pride, willing to have a different life and show the world that the image sold by the media is not the truth for 99% of the population.

Regarding CDA, the last three months have been hectic. I have been visiting the communities in Bogota and Cartagena and working on the biggest event I have ever worked on. De-worm 500,000 people in Cartagena. The big day was April 26^th and here are some of the numbers to give you an idea of the magnitude:

• 80 public schools
• 175,000 students
• 150,000 educational brochures
• 500 class rooms
• 150,000 Christian literature
• 3,000 volunteers
• 250,000 lollipops
• 500,000 people

Doors were opened everywhere and the unthinkable happened. Thousands of people in Cartagena were going to the schools to receive a de-worming medicine, education about parasites, Christian literature, and a candy for the kids.

2,350 volunteers from the Christian churches worked together as a team to cover all the schools and collect information to evangelize their areas of influence. We needed 3,000 volunteers and at the end a total of 4,500 showed up. Several offices from the local government including the Mayor’s office worked together to accomplish the goal. Operation Blessing International, the donor of the medicine sent an officer and a camera man to cover the event. The national government did the same.

The next challenge is to create a project to raise $500,000 to daily feed with the proper nutrition 4,200 kids living in these communities. If He gave us the strategies to de-worm 500,000 in Cartagena, He will do more for these kids.

I had a meeting with a group of Christian women from the U.S. who came to visit the projects and one of them told me something very interesting. She said that the U.S. should take care more about Latin America because we are neighbors and anything good you can do for your neighbors is good for you. Please keep myself, CDA, and Colombia in your prayers.

Love you all.

Colombia's Rating List

Cartagena 10

Beautiful city, great people!!

Bogota 10

Great city!!

Ice Cream 5

Too good! I gained 5 lbs!

Las Vegas 10

The best bakery close to the office

Rosario Islands 20

That's it! it's another world

The Caribbean Coast - Cartagena

Great news! It hasn’t rain in January. It’s colder early in the morning but warm during the day. Besides I had the opportunity to go to the projects in the Caribbean Coast, specifically in Cartagena, Barranquilla and Cienaga. Also, I visited an orphan home in the mountain of the Sierra Nevada in Santa Marta.

What God is doing in Cartagena and Colombia is just overwhelming. The timing, the connections, the mind, and the hearts of the people are almost in unity. There are some challenges with the culture but is improving (I hope so).

However, the weather cold or hot, the lack of some things in the personal area and other small issues lost all relevance when you see how the Lord is working for the communities. It’s very easy to practice every day the “Motivated by Love, It’s All About the People, and Christians Serve” when you realize than it’s an honor and a privilege to serve Him.

I want to share what the city of Cartagena (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartagena%2C_Colombia ) is doing. There is a local government decree which I want to translate for you (Only the first two articles), you will love it!:

Decree # 005

“Standards of Citizen’s Conduct and Coexistence”

The Honorable City Council of Cartagena exercising its constitutional and legal faculties decrees:

Article # 1:

Establish as a fundamental for the recovery of religious principles in the city of Cartagena, the practice of prayer and brotherly hug at the beginning of all daily activities in the local government entities, public and private companies, educational institutions, Police Stations, Military Stations, Assemblies and Stakeholders meetings, Malls, Radio Stations, Taxi Cabs Offices, Union Organizations, and in the family.

Article #2:

Establish the date of the Independence of Cartagena to practice of prayer for the city through massive events in public places with the organized participation of the various Christian denominations with presence in our city.

Also, I went to the schools and health center in Barranquilla and a pre-school in Cienaga. In Santa Marta, I had also a very unique experience in a farm bought by a Colombian family in San Antonio, TX to host orphans. They produce organic food and are in the process to be self sufficient.

I cannot choose which project impacted me the most. The project in Cartagena is a dream come true and a testimony of how things should be done for God in the middle of a very under privileged neighborhood. The city wants to use CDA’s model to be replicated and make it part of several programs around the city to fight poverty in the next four years.

In Barranquilla I was impressed on how a small church without resources built a school and the members took turns to teach because they didn’t have money to hire teachers.

In Cienaga, I saw one of the poorest areas I have ever seen. One of the biggest Banks in the country just visited the pre-school and they want to help us with the resources. Only God can do it.

Santa Marta is not a CDA project but what these families are doing in San Antonio, TX to keep the farm running and see the kids crossing the river bare foot every day to go to school just crunched my heart.

The testimonies and the lives transformed are so common that people kind of get used to it. I think I am the only one who gets excited every day and I want to keep it that way. It changes the perspective about our little desires and silly complains.

I am working on promoting the child sponsorship program and my goal is to cover 1,000 kids by the summer. I believe He will give me the ideas, contacts, anointing, help, support, etc. to accomplish it. It’s not easy for me but a piece of cake for Him.

Please keep me, CDA, and these communities in your prayers. So far, your prayers have given me the strength and the enthusiasm to start every day as the first one. Also, for the Child Sponsorship program “Toma mi Mano” (“Take my Hand”) to reach the small goal of 1,000 kids sponsored.

I encourage you to see the web albums from Cartagena and Barranquilla to see the pictures. They speak more than these words.

In His love.

Colombia’s Rating List

Food 10

What can I say? You have to come.

Ice Cream 15

I have to confess my sin. I am addicted! Pray for me.

Weather 10

Beautiful! I hope it last forever.

Traffic 1

I don’t want to talk about it.

Appointments 1

Nobody is on time. I’m sorry but I hated!