yopal

Brittany and I recently visited a mission church in Yopal, Colombia. Yopal is in los llanos, or 'cowboy country'. We drove there with Ferney and Alex (the church pastors) and saw so many cows and horses on the 9 hour trip. We were immediately introduced to lots of families and children in the town. We were welcomed with open arms and right away I knew it would be a great week away from the big city.

We were there to teach english and to do a program for the children. We ended up combining the two programs and did an hour of english before two hours of games, music, and art. The kids were a lot of fun and picked up the english vocab very quickly. They made t-shirts, watercolor paintings, paper crosses, and picture frames. Afterwards, we walked to a nearby park and played soccer during the afternoons. Luckily, there was only one skinned knee that I had to clean up!

Before church on Sunday, we went to the rio (river) to swim and relax. It was a fun experience with really great people. After the church service they sang happy birthday to Brittany and me (our birthday's are not until next week but they wanted to celebrate with us)! That night we played 'tejo', a typical Colombian game, with a bunch of members of the church. It was a great ending to an exciting week full of new friends and fun kids.

Our trip to Yopal was awesome and I really love the city, mission and people there. This week, we are doing Vacation Bible School in Soacha and are helping plan a youth workshop for this weekend. On Sunday we fly to Cartagena to help the Diocese of Connecticut with their mission trip. We are very excited about this trip!

Love, Kate