san pablo vbs

After a great trip to Cartagena, we jumped right into our last VBS in Bogota with San Pablo church, the one we attend almost every weekend. All of the children came from a poor neighborhood about 25 blocks above us. We met a lot of children from this neighborhood back during novena (the nine days before christmas). Like novena, the families said that the program would be best at night, when they could bring their kids down after work. The first night, we were waiting at 6pm with our t-shirts and songs ready. We decided to get started around 620 with only about seven kids. Around 645, ten more kids showed up and we had to adjust the schedule to make sure everyone could make a shirt, sing the songs and play. By the last day, we had over 20 kids and they started arriving at 5.

After the last day of VBS, the kids walked all 25 bocks up the hill with a few parents to their houses. It was pouring rain and they didn't have umbrellas. They told us later that the kids all arrived soaked to their houses but were so happy to have new t-shirts and some treats from the US that my boyfriend Sam brought.

The kids loved Sam and Brittany and I were so grateful for his help. Moises was a little boy who is one of eight children. He kept acting out and leaving the group because he wanted attention. Brittany and I were getting frustrated because Moises is one of the kids who we know best. We were counting on him to be a good example, but he just couldn't handle us sharing our attention with a group of other kids. Sam took him in as his little helper to solve the problem and his behavior completely changed.

Thanks again to everyone who helped us make these programs possible. We have been able to have five vacation bible schools all over colombia with your donations!

VBS ended and we went to Soacha for our usual Saturday program. Like I have mentioned before, Soacha is outside of the city and is where the majority of the internally displaced families start their new lives. For that reason, our group of kids is constantly changing. This past Saturday, we had four new children from the same family. The entire group was really well behaved and they loved their new hot wheels cars and hair accessories from the states (thank you Major family!).

This week, Brittany and I have been showing the bishop of West Virginia our work/Bogota and celebrating Colombia's 200th birthday. We are also preparing for a quick trip to visit a mission in Bucaramanga this weekend.

Love, Kate