Home sweet Home

Well, I have been home for week now, and am beginning to fondly refer to my time in Colombia as “The good old days”…

Not really, but they were good. :) I know I will always look back at the time I spent there as one of learning, growth, and fun. I wouldn’t trade them for anything…except maybe…a couple million dollars :) Anyway, here I am back working at Chick fil-A and planning to start school soon. Thanks for reading, those of you who have done so. May God bless you as he has me.

In Truth,

Stephen

Almost Gone

(This was written on 8/3, but posted on 8/5 due to internet problems)

Here I sit in my apartment for the last night. My suitcases are packed, almost everything ready to go. It feels empty-ish in here. Wait, that is just clean, I forgot. Without stuff strewn about here and there in a typical Stephen fashion, well-you know. Anyway, everything is in the suitcases and I leave at 6:30 AM tomorrow for the airport. I will arrive in Kentucky at around 8:30 PM. What that means is that there is a lot of time in between for me to “be traveling”. Should be awesome. I have a long layover in Atlanta and am hoping to meet up with a friend who lives there. And, my internet is not working…so I don’t know when I will actually post this entry. Maybe after I get home.

But for now I can look out my window at the people cleaning the floors in the McDonald’s next door and think back over this trip. What a lot has happened, beginning all the way back in June. It seems like ages, yet also just like yesterday. The planning trip to tropical Girardot, the first couple meetings with schools, all were so long ago. It was pretty uncomfortable during those first few meetings, figuring out how to say what I needed to in the right way, especially with my limited vocabulary. But discomfort notwithstanding, God was there. I remember how He led me daily and helped me figure out what approach to take with each group. He taught me so much, if I can just remember it. Well, it turned into a whirlwind getting through the camp, and then wound down slowly over the last 3 weeks. It began to sink in as I said goodbyes to the different regular groups over the last few days. Then Friday, yesterday, today, seeing the staff for the last time until we see each other again. Wait…that doesn’t sound very important?!!

Well anyway, it all came down to it tonight, hanging out with Hugo. We chatted about all kinds of cool stuff while eating…OK mother, you likely don’t want to read this next part. The rest of you will probably want to publish it in the newspaper…eating…

…A whole roasted chicken. Well, almost whole. We left one of the wings because we were afraid that eating it might prevent us from being capable of walking out of the restaurant. So now, I am going to go to bed. I am going to sleep until 5:30 AM. Then I will get ready to hit the road for home. Wait--perhaps I should say the sky for home. One way or the other, I will be there in about 21.5 hours, and I have one word to say regarding that topic. Awesomationismly!

See you all soon,

In Truth,

Stephen

Lessons in learning

Well folks, as things are winding down I have been thinking about what I want to bring home with me. I have decided on a hundred acre plot of land and a couple of the Andes Mountains…

Ummm…

In reality I have been considering the lessons I have learned and how they will be applied when I return. There are three specific lessons I feel like I can point to that God has been trying to teach me. I am not a very quick learner for these types of things, so I suspect I will be working on them for awhile. However, at least I am started :) The first lesson I noticed as I was down here was a need to rely on God daily. You may remember my mentioning that in an earlier post. Doing things that are difficult and important made me really conscious of my dependence on His wisdom. I hope to remember this even when I get back to a more ‘normal everyday routine’ sort of life. More on that later. The second lesson was in regards to humility. It was multi-faceted but specifically related to remembering that God is the one who really does the work when I think I am doing it. While this is a humility lesson, it is also very freeing, in that I need not worry about the results. I can simply trust God. The third lesson I am working on is about loving people. I need to learn this because I am pretty selfish :) The way I feel this specifically is that I need to be willing to put aside my own comfort or image and care more about the people I am around than I do for myself.

This lesson has been a long time in the making, but one thing that brought it to the fore recently was a two day period last week. I had about 6 or 8 different deep, life-trajectory type conversations with people in the course of about 48 hours. Wow! God was working. This experience was awesome, and it helped me notice that I seem to have had a lot more opportunities down here for that type of thing than at home. My question then became “why?” What is the difference, is it geography, situations, or just mentality? I am not completely sure, but one thing I feel clearly. I need to be more focused on other people and their needs, looking for ways to let my light shine brighter. I want my mentality to be one that is always looking for opportunities. That, I believe will be one way of showing love to those around me.

Another thing that was not really a lesson, but which was awesome was some things God spoke to me during the camp. I felt Him confirming some things I had been feeling about my future. It was a really awesome time, and very different from what I am used to. The theme of the last several years seems to have been waiting for direction. I feel as if I am on a mountain pathway covered by clouds. Well, I believe God has blessed me by rolling the clouds away enough to let me see the next couple steps and at least a glimmering of the spectacular view for which I have been searching. I look forward to what I can see…and the rest that I still can’t see. :)

In reality I have only touched the surface of each of the ‘lessons’ I mention above, and there are more besides. However, at least it is the surface. Now any of you reading will have an idea of some of the themes I have encountered. And please, anytime you see me, feel free to ask me how I am doing in any of these areas. I welcome and indeed ask that you would do so. Accountability helps strengthen growth, I believe, and growth is what I want.

This brings me back to what I mentioned earlier, about ‘normal everyday routine’ life. Essentially what I want is to not return to a life of that sort. While I realize that a lot of this just has to do with semantics, I am after all, a communications major :) I believe the way I speak about life and think about life can influence in a big way the types of actions I make in life. With that in mind, my goal is to remember my time here, focused on influencing people. I want to translate the same mentality back to my old Kentucky home, that life there will be different. In coming back to a different setting and set of circumstances and environments, my goal will be to discover how I can take what we do here and improve what I do there with what I have learned.

Somehow, I feel like I have just written a reflection paper for class. Perhaps it is because that is the only time I open up about what I feel and learn…

If so, that worries me. It should not be so. Henceforth, it is NOT so, for I have written much about personal sharing and feelings stuff here, in a non-reflection paper setting. In fact, it is in a very public setting, open for the entire world to read.

Umm… I am beginning to worry myself with my level of openness. I don’t know if I am ready for this…

The end.

In Truth,
Stephen

La Fey (Faith)

The last few days have been full of interesting happenings. A quick summary would include the hours spent working on a DVD of photos and the concurrent frustration of different types of media files that don’t work together. Were I summarizing the last week, I would certainly mention the great times I have spent with my coworkers planning their future trip to Kentucky. Not to be left out would be the experience of being accosted by a man in a business suit selling antioxidant-filled energy gels. I would definitely mention the great conversations I have had over the last 48 hours, talking to various people about various important things. The most interesting was the clothing store owner who asked me for advice about his relationship with his girlfriend. He is a new Christian, she is a pastor in some fairly strict denomination, it sounds like. He hopes to marry her, but has not told her about his ex-wife from before he was a Christian, because he knows she believes that a person should only marry once in life. Uh-Oh!
Yes, all this would be included in a quick overview, along with a quick mention of the group meetings we have had over the last few days. However, I am glad to be free from any restraints like “quick overview” or “summary” and other cumbersome and interfering titles. I am glad because I want to speak a bit more about the meetings we have had this week. They were cool.

We started back with regular weekly meetings with the schools and groups this week, finishing up a module on character. The principle we discussed this week was Faith. We used the ‘Trust Fall’ activity to illustrate. In case some of you are not familiar with this activity, I will explain. One person stands on something elevated to about 4 feet. The group stands in two lines facing one another in a line out from the one person. They extend their arms in front of them in order to catch and the person on the platform falls (without bending their body) into the waiting arms of the group. Like the name says, you have to trust. Well, it was interesting to see the difference between the two groups we have used this with so far. One was a group of teachers in a school. The other group was young people, 12-20ish. Out of 25 teachers, only 5 would do the activity, and the others hardly even wanted to help catch their peers. It was pretty sad…

The other group was better, all tried to fall, and all did but 2 of them. We even added a couple elements with this group to make the activity connect more to faith. As the person was getting onto the stack of plastic chairs we used for our platform, everyone else went away, out of sight. The ‘fall-er’ would look around and see no one ready to catch them. Then one of the facilitators would blindfold them. At a signal, the group would enter silently and position themselves. As they got ready the facilitator would count down to 1 and the person would fall. They had to trust in what they could not see that they would be caught. I think that this was a great way to introduce faith, and how it relates to trust and relationships. After each activity we talked through what people felt and learned, especially relating to faith. Both the groups took good truths away, I think, to apply to their lives.

For myself, the comparison between the groups brought something into focus in my mind. Each of the teachers who didn’t go had an excuse. They had seen or heard of someone getting hurt in similar activities, they had back problems, they were afraid of heights, or of hitting their head, you know. Ultimately though, they were not willing to entrust themselves to the care of their fellow teachers. They didn’t have faith. I don’t know, I am reminded of our need to have the faith of a child. Yes, perhaps the adults simply had a more real idea of the dangers; they were too mature, too wise to participate. They had been through more in life, they knew better. Or did they? Were they perhaps missing something?

I think too often we ‘mature’ to the point where our faith is sterile and near useless. As we grow up we lose our ability to trust. Yes, we can call it wisdom, but I am not so sure. We can call it experience, but is that the right kind of experience? I pray to have faith like a child. I want a faith untainted by the ‘maturity’ and the hesitation of the world. I want to believe and obey like I don’t know any better :)

“Faith is the certainty of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”

In Truth,

Stephen

Flags, Food, Freedom, Fotos...Oh my!!

Today was the Colombian Independence Day. Many Colombians here spent most of it walking the streets to show their support for the hostages being held by FARC and to call for their release. I think that is a valid way to spend Independence Day, focusing on freedom for others. It was really cool for me to see the passion they have here for this subject; there were thousands out walking the streets. They wore white, many having special message bearing T-shirts bought just for this day, they carried flags, they blew whistles, they sang, they walked. I had less time to spend out in the streets than I would have liked to take it all in. However, I was impressed. I hope that these people feel strongly enough about this that it will make them take action steps to create change as well. If this number of people (and this is only is one city, they did this all over the country today) would do something, who knows what could happen. I think it is better than fireworks.

Some different T-Shirt designs
(Red, Yellow, and Blue are the Colombian flag colors)




















From standing on a bridge, this was the view in one direction. That is quite a crowd.














And my favorite shot, looking the other way off the same bridge.

Friday night, four of us guys went out to eat, bidding Cody goodbye. It was a great time and we laughed too much, I think. Wait, that is not possible! Anyway, the cool thing was the restaurant. It is called “Crepes and Waffles”. The food was really good, the ice cream was better, the atmosphere was great and it wasn’t too expensive. However, the cool part for me was the story behind it all. Francisco told me about it, apparently the founder had a vision to help people. It is a Colombian company that started with one store and is now all over the country. Well anyway, all the employees are single mothers. This chain specializes in providing a great work environment for people who are in a difficult position in life, either abandoned, widowed, or something like that. It seems that that is not all, but they help out each employee when they start by giving them a washing machine or something like that to improve their quality of life. Quite a fascinating company, I like it. It might be kind of awkward if I went to try to work there though, so I guess I will stick with Chick fil-A. :)

Us four at Crepes and Waffles. I am apparently about to kick something... ...












Well, until next time,

In Truth,
Stephen

It is my pleasure to S.E.R.V.E. you...

So, I just got home exhausted, took a shower, and then remembered that I still have a blog. I am sure you can understand my forgetting, since you probably did as well. I haven’t written in so long that I will be lucky if anyone remembers to check and read this. So, perhaps the first thing I should do is tell why I haven’t written anything in so long, or put in a better way, I should 'explain myself!'. I have not had internet access. We just got done with the big event for the summer, which was our Campamento S.E.R.V.E. The acronym, for those of you who aren’t involved with Chick fil-A, is a leadership model we have. Each letter stands for a different aspect of a leader’s focus, all relating to service. It was a really awesome time to which I cannot do justice in writing. However, that won’t stop me from trying…

As you will remember, my friend Cody came here for the camp. Ten other Americans came down to participate as well, all Chick fil-A people. We started the camp at 9:30 PM Thursday night and ended at about 5 AM Tuesday morning. In between those two points there was a lot of riding in a bus…too much. Going out of Bogota, coming back to Bogota, you know. The areas in which we spent those few days were about 7 hours from here. Well, more importantly than any of that was that during the bus rides and at other times, there was a whole lot of God being there. We did a wide variety of activities from hiking to logic puzzles, eating, skits and pushups. We learned how to pick coffee, roast coffee, grind coffee, and drink coffee. We did a bunch of riding too, besides the bus. We rode horses, roller coasters, trains, and best of all a zipline. Perhaps more to the point, we rode 8 of them. I think altogether they were about a mile in length!! All that stuff was really cool, or, as they say here in Colombia “Chevere”. However, for me the weekend was defined by conversations. As I look back, I see the people I met, the discussions we had, the things I learned from them, and the things we all learned from God. I remember the freedom from bondage that came to one guy specifically; I remember the work I believe God is doing in the lives of one family who do not even believe in Him. I heard wisdom this week, and I pray that each other person did as well, whether they were from Colombia or from the U.S.

For me personally, the camp was a stretching time. I did a bunch of stuff that was not really comfortable for me. I tried my hand at translating during presentations, I gave talks myself. I got to lead in major ways that were new to me, stretching me and teaching me. It was a good time. It was a time with God. And I got a lot of really amazing pictures in the bargain. How could I ask for more?

The main theme that I felt personally was vision. I felt God continuing to confirm things I am to do in the future. It is really awesome; for so long I have felt unsure about a lot in my life, about my future. I have felt kind of like I was in a fog, only able to see a step or two ahead. Well, I think that over the last 6 months or so, God has been showing me a few more steps. I am really excited, and can hardly wait. Well, I had better end this post here. I will try to post again soon, and am also trying to get Cody to write a guest post as well. Anyone who wants to hear from him should be sure to comment on this post and say so. :)

A few pictures follow, out of the hundreds that I have from the week. I hope you enjoy!

In Truth,
Stephen






Here we are, preparing in a completely orderly fashion, for a trail ride during the camp
















This was a sad time, when my friend Cody was "robbed" by some hooligan ...
















Our fearless leader, Jesus Ortiz, on the zipline


















The whole campamento group in the Valle de Cocora

Finally...another post...

Well, sorry to disappoint. I never got my jokes back. Though, perhaps its better this way. I am still behind on the blogs, too. Like you couldn’t tell. However, I have an excuse. So you can’t blame me. I have been…busy. So there. Now I am done with the short sentences. Well, almost. Ok, now I am.

On Sunday I got to spend some time with an American gentleman and his Colombian wife, sister/brother-in law and nieces. It was a good time, reinforcing some cultural factors here. We went to church, which was lively, (typical of the area) and then went to lunch. We drove outside the city to a really good restaurant on a hillside. Afterward we went back to the house where my American friend and I watched a movie while everybody else took a siesta. All told, we spent the whole day together. It was not a big deal that we had to wait 45 minutes In between ‘events’ here and there. People just spend time together here. Cool stuff, you know, though a little difficult for someone like me to get used to.

Well, on Monday, (I didn’t have to work because it was a national holiday) I went for a long bike ride in the mountains. It was gorgeous outside the city. The farms on the mountainside looked so peaceful and the grass was so green it made me think I was in Ireland. I don’t know if the grass is really very green in Ireland, perhaps someone who has been there can confirm this; it is just what came to mind…

I got a couple pictures of the city from partway up the mountain, though unfortunately, my camera went on the blink after a few minutes. Consequently, I didn’t get many photos. One really cool thing I love about this country is that all the country roads are lined here and there with little settlements or restaurants. If you ever get hungry, just pull off almost anywhere and get a delicious arepa or two. I did that, in fact. Twice. :)

The most fun part of the ride was this one particular hill, going out of Bogota. It took 45 minutes to climb it bu only 5 to go down on the return trip later. I passed car after car on the downhill, it was pretty sweet!



Two different views of the city. It was too big to get all in one photo even from this height.





















The road down from where I stopped. Notice the car to motorcycle ratio: 3 to 3!

This week has been slow, just like last week except even more like last week. I hear I am going out of town tomorrow, though. Jesus Ortiz is taking me to a conference where he is speaking. Hugo and Francisco are already there. They have been attending the conference-a factor which has contributed greatly to the quietness of the office. Plans for the camp are coming together well, though, and it looks like it will be great. There are 11 Americans coming down next week, including my friend Cody. He is the only non-Chick fil-A person to be involved. Don’t worry Cody, you won’t have to say “My Pleasure” down here. There will be about 30 Colombians, making about 40 people altogether. The four and a half days of the camp will include various activities that illustrate servant leadership and opportunities to put it into practice. We will be in a remote area of the country for a couple days, we will get to make coffee at one point—beginning with picking the beans. A variety of things from milking cows to picking up trash to a visit to a theme park will round out the week, hopefully leaving everyone involved with a better idea of how to S.E.R.V.E.

In Truth,

Stephen

The joke of the day is...on me!

I’m sorry I haven’t blogged in so long folks, I got kidnapped and didn’t have internet access for a few days. I had to pull a Harrison Ford move…

…OK, so I’m pulling a Jim Carey move right now with this whole story…and if you don’t get the joke, well, neither do I. However, the moral of the story is to never try to be a Jedi.

In other news, the end of last week was really awesome. We did still have two groups that met Thursday and Friday. I had the presentation for each of them, but they were very different types of groups. I wanted to prepare for them earlier in the week, but a funny thing happened. You may remember how one of the main lessons I am learning from God is about relying on Him daily? Well, He decided to take that to the next level. He told me not to prepare for the groups until the day of for each of them. I was a little worried, but in the end it was really cool. Each day He gave me a couple scriptures to use, different ones for each group. This shaped each discussion, going over the same ideas but in a very different way. It was an interesting experience for me, trusting Him like that. It was definitely worth it though. He did a way better job then I could have........................duh.

Thursday night was really cool. We ended up staying late because several of the guys just talked and talked, sharing struggles and questions they have. It was really exciting how open they were. I think those kind of discussions (ones about stuff that really matters) may be even more rare here than in the states, I don’t know. Either way, they seemed to genuinely appreciate some people just willing to listen to them and to share with them. God is so amazing, being able even to work through a gringo who likes bicycling!

The Friday morning group gave God another opportunity to remind me that the impact on people doesn’t depend on me. My little talk didn’t go very well, I struggled for words, forgot things I meant to say, etc. Quick note of counsel for those interested: Don’t assume you will be able to quickly find a particular verse in a Spanish Bible, just by knowing the general area or chapter to look in. When put on the spot in the middle of a presentation, Spanish words all look the same. I promise. They all say: Necio, Necio, Necio...Anyway, the point is that after me doing a poor job God was still there. We got to pray individually with each student there, talking about relationships and pain and all kinds of stuff. I could really feel God’s Spirit there while we prayed; powerfully surrounding us. I am amazed by Him. Period. Oh, and I love Him too.

As you have likely guessed by now I did get away from the kidnappers…….

Well, what I mean to say is that it was a great week! :)

I am also excited to find out that a friend from the states, Cody Kerr, is going to come see me for a little over a week in a week. If that didn’t confuse you, let me try again. Sometime, he is going to come here one time for some time, just in time. It’ll be a great time. Anyway, there is a standing invitation to anyone else who wants to come down here and see a bit of Colombia. I have an apartment, so here’s the deal: You buy the plane ticket and I will pay your rent while you are here! Seriously, I’ll be here all week—I mean; until August 4.

Folks, I am afraid I have used up my daily quota of dumb jokes, so instead of writing like an intelligent, normal person, I will simply quit writing. I will try to come back tomorrow and tell about the weekend. Hopefully I will have more jokes by then. Thanks for reading , God bless-

In Truth,

Stephen

All's quiet on the Colombian front

It has, in fact, been a quiet spell these last 3 days. Most of my time has been spent in the office. Most of our regular groups are on vacation right now, so we are planning and preparing for the upcoming 'Campamiento' in July. It is the big event of the summer, and is the same thing that I came down here for last summer. It was a great week then, and I think this year may be better. They have changed some of the things we will do, it sounds like a lot of fun and very deep spiritually too.

We spent most of this afternoon practicing a skit we plan to do during the camp. It is something Francisco found on Youtube, a very powerful skit I think. If you want to see it, here is the URL http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=9_M0H5nrY8E

Today I met another American here. He is a businessman from Atlanta who is loosely connected to Chick fil-A through personal friendships. Anyway, he is in real estate and is working with Jesus Ortiz on a plan for a shopping center here in Bogota. He and his wife have an apartment here, as she is apparently Colombian. He seems very nice and as hospitable as any Colombian. I think he is going to invite me over this weekend, and he already did invite me to his place for a 4th of July celebration!

Tonight I met another guy who speaks English pretty well, too. He is a young Colombian and studied English in high school. He works in a little shop that sells logic games and puzzles and other things like that. He and his friend who worked with him were both really friendly. The non-English speaking guy, Rafa, and I even played a game of chess. I think I will meet up with them again in the future sometime. They were cool people. :)

Well, that's all for now folks-

In Truth,
Stephen

Praises go where they belong!

Friday was a busy day. We had two events, one of which was a huge opportunity. God must have been at work, because we were able to share with a group of about 500 people for 3 hours. This is how it went down...

Apparently this school has a 'family day' every year at the end of the school year. In the past they have had fun events, dances, etc. Well, the people with power have been impressed by what Operation Reconciliation is doing, it seems. So, they decided to have a seminar for all the student's families for their family day event. We had activities and experiential learning events, testimonies, teaching, etc. I think the day went well, people seemed to react positively. The main focus of the day was on character and family communication, stuff like that. It is so hard because there are so many broken homes here. Even if a parent wants to spend time with their child, they often have to work all the time just to provide food and housing. There are a couple pictures here from the event...










































































Today I spent some time riding my bicycle around the city. Every Sunday here, they shut down 5 or 6 of the main city streets to cars. Only bicycles and pedestrian traffic is allowed. It is possible to go all over the city this way, without having to ride in traffic. This place is HUGE! I rode for several hours and when I looked at the map later, the area I rode around was only about 1/3 of the city. Well, it was enough to tire me out, anyhowsers. A couple not very artistic shots of the city streets are below, finishing out this very short post. I don't think this post is even long enough to build a fence with...


























Vendors selling anything from fruit juice to bicycle parts line the streets in places during the Sunday rides








In Truth
Stephen

A sandwich of learning...with the police in the middle!

I have a secret to share. I discovered this over the last couple days, and since you have likely never thought of it, I wanted you to be the first to know: God is smarter than me.

OK, but seriously-He is. The last couple days have been interesting and I definitely had a reminder that I always need to seek God and His direction. Monday we had a meeting with a group at the Bella Vista school--that is the same one we went to last Monday. We were talking about sexuality again, but to a different group of students. Well, it was rough. I felt like I wasn’t ready and the kids didn’t want to listen…you know. Anyway, God is faithful. He wasn’t angry that I hadn’t even thought to ask Him for help before the presentation...(stupid of me). You know how you feel after you do something that felt like a failure? Well, Satan likes to get me in those times :) I don’t want to over-spiritualize the whole thing, but I do think it is part of that guy’s job description to try to debilitate and condemn us. Anyhow, God would have none of it. He reminded me that it is not really up to me or about what I do anyway. Ultimately, it is He who will work in people’s hearts. Whether I feel that a day was successful or not, whether I think anyone listened, or think that ‘I’ did well is less relevant than simply doing my best. It is the Holy Spirit who will follow up on our work. That makes me feel a lot better about stuff when things don’t go “as planned” or whatever.

God did lead with some specific ideas, though; several changes we needed to make to improve situational attention maintenance and positive cerebral focus abilities among the students. Oh…sorry, that was the communications student part of me getting out of control there :) To make a short story shorter, we busted out our sweet new moves during the meeting today, and it went much better, praise the Lord.

Yesterday, in between learning all this, I went to the Colombian National Police Academy. Jesus Ortiz, the Operation Reconciliation founder is also involved with another group, which, although apparently started in the U.S. I had never heard of before. It is called “La Red, Business Network” and is a Christian leadership consulting and training organization. Well, they have contracts with the police, army, navy, and air force here, and are growing programs within their officer training programs. It is pretty awesome, I got to sit in on a couple of the sessions and meet another man, Juan Carlos, who works with Jesus in this. They also have programs operating in Guatemala and Mexico among court judges, military, teachers and police. I was impressed with the presentations they were doing, and plan to check out this organization once I get back in the states, it looks great. I took a couple pictures on the sly while in the Academy. I had a feeling that it wasn’t allowed, but, you know. Well, it was against the rules, as I found out quickly. I guess I was not as sly as I thought…

I would appreciate continued prayers for me and those here I am working with. Pray that we may stay close to God personally, and that the light of his glory may shine through us. Pray for the students we interact with, many so young and vulnerable, yet so mature in the ways of the world. Pray for clarity of mind as we present and discuss, for open hearts and minds. Our goal is to instill a vision in these young people that will drive them to strive for a better life, a true, eternal one. Sweet! Thanks for reading my rantings, have a good rest of your day…or night…or cup of coffee…or chicken sandwich…or whatever is up wid yu der…

The main walkway after the security gates at the Police Academy. he he...













A sunset+pedestrian, bicycle and vehicular traffic on the street in front of the office OR is based from. It is Calle 127 for those of you who want to look it up on google maps...in between Carrera 19 and Carrera 14? I think, the Autopista...
The bike path there is a part of the largest city bikeway system in the world, for those of you who care to know. Bogota has more bike path space than any other city, anywhere. So there, take that Oregon!










In Truth,
Stephen

I thought the weekends were for resting?

First, a quick note on the weather here. Or, more to the point, the sun. It rises at about 5 AM and sets at 5:30 PM, approximately. What this means for me, getting off work around 5 PM is that I have no daylight left. For some reason this makes it feel like I have worked from dawn til dusk... ... ... Well, I am used to still having a few hours of daylight left after 5 PM. Anyway, the point of all this is…

…After a long week with lots of work and crazy bus situations, it was Saturday. Consequently, I went for a bike ride. And wouldn’t you know it; the whole ride was a hill.

Now, thattsswwhaaat-I’mtalking about!!! Wait, what am I talking about!?!?!?

Essentially, there is this hill with a neighborhood on it. The road goes all the way up and around a bit until it gets to the top. Makes sense to me, so I decide to ride it. It took me about 30-45 minutes to climb I think. Not too certain, since I was focused on other things than watching time…but it was definitely a slow ride up--but pretty sweet going down before I went up again. Nice curves at high speeds, you know. Can’t beat that!

Anyway, for those 4 of you who actually care about this stuff, I tried to figure out the grade of the hill. After all the conversions from kilometers and other mind bending logic-er, math- I think it was about a 1000 foot elevation increase over 1.5 miles, about a 12% grade. The elevation at the bottom was around 8500 ft, so the top would have been 9500-ish. The view was pretty awesome, though it was cloudy. The pictures below should speak another 4 thousand or so words, leaving you with a pretty good impression of the area...

This is the view from the house of Jesus Ortiz, the Operation Reconciliation founder. His house is on the right.








The view into the valley from part way up the climb.














The brick road that winds up the mountain. You can see a strip of it below as well.























This is from the top. It was pretty sweet, looking down on this neighborhood from up there, thinking about all those poor people who had not just had as fun as I had!









Sweet!

In Truth,
Stephen

This Week Behind Me

One thing is for sure. Life here is different. But good. Though in different ways. Obviously. So, in what ways is it different, you ask? What have I been doing, you ask? Well, it’s a long story, I respond. It’s ok, I’ve got time, says you. And so it begins…

I have now met with all the groups Operation Reconciliation works with on a regular basis. One is a group of about 25 school teachers, one contains 15-ish high school students, and the third consists of 10 unwed mothers from a teenage mother’s home here. The way that Operation Reconciliation (OR) works is to go to the sight of a group once per week for a meeting. There is a small amount of curriculum in the form of handouts and exercises/homework. They go through a series of character traits, one per week, which are important to a whole and successful life. Each group has the same trait each week, though the discussions are obviously different because of the different personalities in the groups.

I am learning a lot about how they do things here, and it is pretty encouraging. Even though this country is, in many ways more morally loose than the U.S. we are still able to go into public schools here and teach about character and at least a little about God. We still have to be a bit careful about religion, but there is a lot of freedom. Identity was last week’s character trait, and Humility was this week’s. Teaching about identity focused on who we are created to be by God, learning to find our purpose and meaning in life in Him as our maker. The direction for discussing humility has been to show that we all have things we need help with. We can’t live alone or be perfect. We need to humble ourselves and confess our sins or problems to others, to get help to overcome. I have been encouraged by how open the people here are, willing to share and be open about their struggles.

I think I am beginning to understand how the buses work here. Of course, now that I say that I will likely get lost again tomorrow, but still. However, if I may put it delicately, everything I now know I learned the hard way. What I mean by this is that I have been lost in the city because of taking the wrong bus; I have had to walk and had to take a taxi twice because I didn’t know what bus to take… Even when using the Transmillennial, supposedly simple, I have been late for a meeting because I didn’t realize that the bus I needed didn’t start operating until an hour later. Oops. Oh well, every day I keep learning more about the buses here, so by the time I leave I should have figured out how to get a ride to the moon. I will be sure to bring you back a piece of cheese as a souvenir, don’t worry.

Or, you could just come with me. I am sure we can fit at least 60 people in a 20 seat bus! That is about how it feels during the busy times here, you wave down a bus, and step onto the bottom step to get in as the bus takes off. Holding on for dear life to the handrail, you realize that you can’t even get far enough into the bus to pay the driver. You cannot, in fact move any farther than the first step. Every seat is full and the two foot wide isle is packed. You look anxiously at the back of the bus, hoping that it has a back exit door. No such luck. That means that every person in the bus has to go past you to get out. A couple people finally do get off, giving you a spot to move to, or else a couple more get on, forcing you in between that suited businessman with the earbuds and the old lady with the shopping bag. You can’t move. The handrail on the ceiling is pretty useless since even the jerky stars and stops can’t knock you down-you are too tightly entrenched between other passengers. Each time someone needs to get off the bus, they push you into the face of the mother with her baby sitting in the seat beside you as they go by. There is only room for two people beside each other in the aisle, but there are already three and this other one is passing you one way or the other. Add to that picture the necessity of figuring out where exactly you need to get off, and you have a fair idea of what it is like to ride the bus here. Lots of fun!

When I can I prefer to commute on the bicycle I am borrowing, which is another experience in itself. I will not go into any detail right now, but let’s just say that Chris Shute and I would be extremely cautious and sedate drivers here!

One huge difference here that would have killed me is the job situation. It is extremely rare for a high school student to have a job, something I had a lot of and enjoyed immensely. In fact, most college students don’t either, and many adults have trouble finding work. Jobs are rare here, and there are lots of things people do on their own to make money. I am always seeing something new that some guy has thought up to get tips. Of course, there are at just about every intersection a couple people selling snacks or newspapers, but there are lots of other options. In most grocery stores the “baggers” aren’t employed by the store. They bag groceries and often carry them to the car, earning only tips. On busy streets where parking is scarce a man will often stand all day and help stop traffic and direct a driver in and out of a small parking space. Again, all he earns are the tips. Some of the most creative I’ve seen yet are the men who get tips from bus drivers. They will stand for hours on a street corner with a notebook. They record times of when different buses pass them. Then, as a bus passes they will give the driver hand signals to tell him how far apart he is from the other bus(es) belonging to his company. I guess they care about knowing this, for whenever a bus stops near where the timer guy is working he will hop on for a second and the bus driver gives him a little money. Crazy times.

This week will be busy. We have all our regular groups, but we are also going to two new ones. They are at the same school where we went last Monday. We have two groups of 20 students to discuss sexual freedom. I would appreciate prayers for these times especially, as I am doing most of the talking. It is a bit difficult to talk about this topic to begin with and I am trying to do it is Spanish which makes it even harder. Pray for my vocabulary, for the student’s comprehension, and most of all for receptive hearts. This is such an important topic for this culture, where things like masturbation and pornography are common and things like virginity are rare. We really want to impress on these young people that they were made for a purpose and it is so much higher and better than what they see in the movies. Pray that they will have the courage to stand up and be different.

I would covet prayer for my relationship with God, too. For those of you who read the first blog entry, you may remember that I tend to get distracted by new surroundings. I have some goals for my walk with God, but need to follow through and make sure they happen. It is super important that I stay close to Him so my light can shine brighter.

This is the front of the school where we went last week. It, along with most buildings here, has a fence and a gate with a guard.














A few of the kids in the group















This is during an activity we did. The guy in the red t-shirt is Francisco, the main man in most of the stuff we do here















It was pretty weird getting mobbed by a bunch of elementary schoolers at this other school. I guess I do stand out a bit here, huh? Behind me is my best friend here, Hugo Fernando. He is pretty awesome and has taught me a lot about the culture.

Just a quick post with a few pictures. This first is the front of my apartment building--notice the name on the front!!




























Unfortunately, this is the view out my back window...
















These next two are from the weekend trip last weekend when I was out of the city...















This is definitely one of my favorite pictures I have taken. Ever. In my life. For serious.


Bye-

Que he hecho?

Wow, a lot has happened since my last post.

First, a quick summary of the weekend. We went to this place, did some stuff and came back.

Next:

But for serious, not a lot of exciting things happened during our time at the vacation house. We spent time planning a bit and relaxing a lot. I did get to try several different typical Colombian dishes over the course of the trip. One interesting one is called Sancocho. It is a soup which consists of a flavorful thin broth containing a huge chunk of potato, a huge chunk of plantain, a huge chunk of yucca root, and a huge chunk of beef. I will leave it to you to figure out how much of it you think I ate. The weekend was also a good time to get to begin to accustom myself to not being able to understand what was going on around me. Really though, it is hard work listening! I cannot understand things the way I can in English, I have to focus hard and I still only catch on to the gist of what is going on at times. Tan pobre yo! Anyway, on to what happened today...


Every Monday the OR staff (all 4 of them) meet to discuss how the last week went and make plans for the current one. That was this morning at 8 AM. I began to get a feel for the groups they work with on a regular basis. Right now they have three regulars: one group of students, one group of teachers and one group of pregnant girls and unwed mothers. This afternoon 3 of the other OR staff and I went to a school here in the city. We were scheduled to do a one-time workshop with a small group of their students. We had 16 from the 7th-9th grades. The ideas we brought them were focused on purity and dealing with sexual temptations as creatures created by God for a purpose. We got to use some experiential learning type activities and I was given the privilege of entertaining the students with my Spanish skills by giving the main message we had to share. We got to break up into male/female groups afterward to discuss temptations and responses to them in more detail. Thankfully, Fransisco took over at this point and did most of the facilitation of the small group conversation. I would have been like a white (very white), bike ridin' (very fast), chicken sellin'(My Pleasure!), home teached (very splendificultly), gringo kid out of water if I had tried to do that part. Wait...

...
...
Maybe I should just have said a fish out of water...

Anyway, I was surprised at how quickly some of the guys opened up and talked about the things they are going through. It was very encouraging and they seemed sincere in their desire to live pure lives. My main concern is that they need someone to keep them on track and lead them on a continual basis. However, we may have a chance to figure out a way for that to happen, since before we left, we were asked to come back next week. They lined up two or three mornings for us to go have similar conversations with other groups of youth at the school. Please pray for the students at this school, there are around 400 of them. It is one of the few free schools here, as even most public schooling costs at least a small amount. That means these children are from very poor and often broken homes. Our hope is to be able to influence the whole school by taking groups of 12-15 students from each classroom (of 40 students) to go through this workshop. Please pray that we will be able to set up a method for continued influence, that any who want to may have a system of support to help them make good choices for their lives. Please also pray that the students who we are able to talk with will feel confident and share these ideas with their classmates.

During our travel to the school I got to ride on the main bus system here, the Transmillenial. It is the backbone of the immense bus transportation here in the city. As many of you no doubt know, buses down here are very different from the nonexistent ones in the U.S. The main difference is that they exist. I think there are more public transport buses in this one city than in all of the U.S. There are hundreds or more local ones; Then if you go to the edge of the city, there are scores more bound for various outlying cities or villages. I would guess that about 10% of the vehicles on the road are buses, making up a much greater percentage of actual travelers. Another 60% or so are cars, and the remaining 30% are motorcycles and bicycles. I am just making up all these numbers, so don't quote me or anything, but seriously, there are a lot of buses and two wheeled vehicles here. I do think my percentages are pretty accurate. Well, more local traffic news later, officer Don is now off duty.



This is a pretty typical motorcycle for around here. They usually have somewhere in the are of 100-125 cc engines. For anyone who needs a comparison, a 500 cc engine is kind of small in the states.









Signing out__
In Truth
Stephen

Here are a few pictures in my apartment in Bogota.
This one at the top is obviously my little kitchen...

This is one side of the living room/dining room area.
















This is the other angle, the dining area, with the bicycle I mentioned in my last post. I haven't used it yet, but I feel it will serve me well.













Just for kicks, this is a picture of the "bottled" water I bought the other night. It is cheaper to purchase it in bags. This bag cost 1300 pesos, or about 85 cents.





Well, more photos later. Let me quickly explain a bit about the people I am connected with here so I can use names to refer to them. The founder and director of the organization I am here with is named Jesus Ortiz. His wife is Marcela, and they have three children: Edwardo, Sara, and Camila. I am staying now with them and Marcela's sister, Sandra at their summer house in Girardot, a smallish city about a 3 hour drive from Bogota. We will be here until Sunday afternoon. Marcela and Edwardo are recovering from a bad cold (the whole family has been sick recently) and Jesus and I have been talking about plans for the summer.

He is a man of great ideas and feels called to a great work with the youth here. I am excited about what I can learn while here, for certain. I can see that he will allow, and even expect, me to jump right in and help with the work they are doing. That will be a great experience for me, though stretching. I have been working for a few hours on plans for a one-week camp we will be having in July. It is the same one I came down here for last summer, though it will be very different this year. Well, I had better sign off here, there is no internet in their house here, so I am in the clubhouse of the condo complex. I think it is time to head back to the house, so I will say goodbye until..."The opportune time". Dum ...dum...dum...

I'm gonna shock your culture!

First day down, 61.39 days left to go! Sweet!

Anyway, Bogota is a huge city. I think I have decided to simply do a bicycle tour from one end of the city to the other instead of cycling across the U.S. It will be longer. They do have a pretty organized system for their roads though. It is really easy to understand-at least that's what they keep telling me! Let's put it this way: I thought I got away from the New Jersey traffic regulations about left hand turns...but they are the same here too-except they are now is Spanish and full color.

Moving on, I spent the majority of the day today planning for next Monday, which will be the first day I actually start working with any of the youth here. We huddled up and made a game plan in the heavenly language. I understood at least 73% of what was going on, I promise.

I didn't mention my apartment yet, but it is very nice. It is small but comfortable and fully furnished. I found out today what I hadn't been told before, which is that this isn't just an apartment they lined up for me to rent, I am actually living in the apartment of one of the relatives of the family I had contact with before I came. This came as a bit of a surprise to me today, talk about hospitality! She is unmarried, and simply moved in with her sister for two months while I am here. It is full of decorative little knickknacks and things which I wondered about before I knew this detail.

As I mentioned before the people here know hospitality to the nth degree. They keep buying me food and are very nice. It has definitely been great to see the friends I made last summer on my one week trip, and to make new ones too. Obviously the apartment is one huge example of hospitality, and I had merely to mention an interest in buying a cheap bicycle to commute during my stay before someone had her sister calling her brother and found me a bike to use. It isn't quite a speedy road demon or anything, but is likely better for commuting around here. It is simply a basic mountain bike, and a girl's at that. If I can figure out how to post some pics I will let you all see it for those of you who either care about bikes in general or simply want to laugh at me for riding a girl's bike. However, Chris and Cody, I bet I could still smoke you guys on a climb with these sweet wheels!

Well, apparently I will be going somewhere away from the city for the "weekend" with the Ortiz family. I put quotation marks around the word weekend because the trip starts tomorrow, on Thursday. The way I am used to working, I would have called that half a week, but hey-I'll take what I can get. I just hate to think of those of you working at CFA slaving away in that double drive-thru while I get to see the countryside in Colombia for a whole weekend! All I can say is, Eat More Chicken!!

With the trip these next few days, I don't know whether I will be able to update this til I get back, so hold your breaths for the next installment.

Living it Forward

I leave the country tomorrow. This will be my second trip overseas, and by far the longest. At 6:45 AM I go to spend 8 weeks in Colombia, South America. I am excited!

I will be working with a Colombian organization teaching leadership and character to high school students in Bogota, Colombia's capitol city. I hope to be able to update this blog every couple days so anyone interested can keep up with what I am doing. Your comments and notes will be greatly appreciated--I want to hear from you!

I ask up front for prayer for this trip. Obviously, safety is a huge concern, as Colombia is one of the most dangerous countries in South America-if not the world. However, the main thing I ask for prayer for is that I will be able to maintain and deepen my relationship with God while there. New places and change often present challenges to me in remaining focused on God. I get distracted easily I guess.

The importance of the God-me relationship was driven home to me today as I was reading in Joshua about how the Israelites conquered the land of Canaan. Joshua actually asked God to stop the sun for them so they could finish a battle, and God did it. That is crazy! Well, here's the deal as I see it. Joshua knew what God wanted done. He had listened to God and heard his wishes. He asked God for something to fulfill God's command to conquer the land. I guess what I want to say is that I want to be in a position to know what God wants from me while I am in Colombia. Obviously this will require that I listen to Him. That is why I ask for your prayers during this trip, that I may seek Him daily even in a new setting.

Well, that's all for now, folks. I will let you know if I make it safely there tomorrow. :)

In Truth,
Stephen