campos biblicos!

The first half of our time in Colombia has brought many lessons, adventures, and experiences that we will carry with us long after our year here is over. Getting through the various challenges that we have been faced with was made possible by your continued love and support. Your encouragement, prayers, and financial donations have helped to make our lives here both joyful and rewarding and have enabled us to become a part of the community.

Our biggest joy has come in the form of a small group of kids who have become such a tremendous part of our lives. At least twice a week we make our way to the south of Bogotá, to a mission church in Usme, to spend time with these kids, our kids. Our time there includes lunch, homework, English lessons, culture lessons, crafts, and games. We have seen wonderful changes in our kids over the past six months: progress in English and Math, better behavior, increased responsiveness, outgoing spirits, and greater displays of love. We have hosted holiday themed parties, the olympic games, created a place for the kids to play, and were able to provide them with special Christmas gifts. Your continued support has made all of this possible.

Along with the time we spend with our kids in Usme, we also spend time working with other churches in the diocese. At the cathedral we engage in outreach through helping with the children, planning upcoming events, and assisting with a medical clinic. We also spend time in Soacha with Padre Carlos. This is a small church community that is trying to grow. We consider ourselves a part of all three of these communities and are excited to announce our latest initiative.

When thinking of ways we could be more involved we quickly came up with one answer - Vacation Bible School! We plan to hold a VBS at each of the 3 churches, and are considering doing a couple more weeks of VBS with other churches in other cities. Each VBS program will be one week (5 afternoons) and each day will include a Bible lesson along with crafts, snacks, games, and worship. Our theme is outdoors and adventure. Padres Diego, Jose Romero, and Carlos are all very excited about this plan and are supporting us in our venture. They have given us the autonomy to run the program as we see fit. As such, we don’t have a budget, so all of the expenses will be covered by us and through donations. We want to do a lot with our VBS programs, but we can only do as much as money will allow. We will start with our first VBS in Usme at the end of April with about 50 kids in attendance. In June we will work with the cathedral and Soacha and will have about 50 more kids each. We’re really excited about this project, and are working hard to make sure that it is successful.

All of our costs are in the form of supplies: snacks for everyday with a lunch on the final day, craft supplies, t-shirts for every participant, and game supplies. Any supplies that are left over at the end of our program will be used to sustain our ministry for the rest of our time here. We are asking for financial contributions as well as any words of encouragement, suggestions, and prayers. 100% of financial donations will be used specifically for our ministry first. If we do not use all of the donations on our VBS programs, then we will use the remaining funds for our mission trip with the Diocese of Connecticut to do a VBS in Cartagena in June. We have set up a paypal account to accept donations. Please click HERE to donate.

Thank you again for your continued love and support!
Love, Kate and Brittany