This past week, I made my last trip over mountains to Villavicencio. As I typically do each month, I went down to work with the kids at our Christian School there. I spent Monday afternoon after my arrival visiting with a blind Christian in the nearby village of Restrepo and then returned to Villavicencio after dark to rest up a bit after the drive and to get ready for several hectic days that would be sure to start early the next morning.
On Tuesday morning I was up at five and headed off to the school a little before six. I checked in with the administrators and set up my schedule for the rest of the day. All morning I received students who had some sort of problem in school. The first day I did follow-up on students I had worked with on my previous trip down. That kept me busy all morning with no time even for a short break.
For lunch I had been invited to the house of a family in the church. I spent some time visiting with them a bit and then headed back to the school. All afternoon and evening I had meetings with the parents of the children I had worked with that morning. My last appointment that evening was cancelled unexpectedly. The wife was delayed on returning from a business trip and could not make it to the school at the scheduled time so they called and postponed the meeting till the next night. So I used the time to visit some of our former neighbors from when we lived in Villavicencio.
Wednesday followed much the same schedule as Tuesday, except that on Wednesday I was meeting with a new group of students. At one time in the morning, I took an hour off and met with our class of graduating seniors. Then it was back to meeting with individual students. Once again for lunch I had been invited to eat with a family in the church and so took off for that. By two in the afternoon I was back for meetings with students and their parents. That kept me busy till eleven thirty that evening. I made it back to the house to crash for a few hours and to be ready for another early morning.
Thursday was my last day there as on Friday I had to teach classes in the Christian University all day long. So I was up early and at the school for the six A.M. beginning of classes. Again I met with students till ten o’clock at which time I left for a meeting of the school board meeting. That went on till noon but was very productive and important. As the meeting ended I went back to the school to pick up my car and a couple of church members who had asked for a ride to Bogotá. After rounding them up and loading the car, we headed out for the return trip to the capital city.
The drive back up was uneventful and had fewer delays than what one would typically expect. Heavy traffic meant the drive was a slow one as places to pass a semi are few and far between. But we arrived back up in Bogotá as dusk was settling and I dropped off my passengers and headed back to the apartment to unload the car and begin getting ready for Friday, when I was to spend the entire day teaching. It was a typical, tiring trip but a rewarding one. I am blessed by the opportunity to work in the Lord’s kingdom and thank you for sharing with me in this ministry.