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 26th 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
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.
Doors were opened everywhere and the unthinkable happened. Thousands of people in 
