A few weeks ago, I took the work crew to the airport and said goodbye. A group of ten teenagers and two adult sponsors had been in Colombia for the past ten days. They came from one of Dewayne Liebrandt’s supporting churches and he was here with them. They arrived on Friday, the second of July and departed yesterday, the fourteenth of the month. It has been nearly two weeks of frenetic activity as the work crew painted large portions to two different schools, with brief breaks for some sight seeing and recreation. They worked very hard and were a joy to have here visiting us. All were great kids and the two adult leaders did an excellent job too.
They arrived on Friday evening and we took them to the deaf school here in Bogotá for the night. The next morning we were up and heading off to Villavicencio. We set up our air mattresses in the school there and the next morning attended church there. I preached that morning and we had one baptism of a girl in our Christian school. That afternoon we bought materials and began painting. For the rest of that afternoon and the next two days we worked feverishly to get the outside walls of the school building and enclosed courtyard painted. On Wednesday morning we headed up to Bogotá and went back to the deaf school here.
We purchased materials and painted there all day Thursday. Then on Friday we took the work crew to Monserrate, a colonial church building located on a mountain top overlooking Bogotá. Even the weather cooperated as the usual veil of smog had been cleared away by a rainstorm the night before. In the afternoon we went to an underground cathedral in the nearby colonial town of Zipaquirá. We got back to the school late in the evening. On Saturday we painted in the morning and had a pizza party with the deaf church in the afternoon. Sunday morning we attended the Deaf Church service and then had a pizza party with the hearing church at Suba en the afternoon.
Monday we painted all day; putting in a hard day’s work. In the evening we took them all to a shopping mall where they had a great time looking around. Tuesday the deaf school began classes and the work crew shared with the deaf students all morning. In the afternoon it was time to begin packing for the trip back to the states. That evening we had our last, emotional devotional as we said a bittersweet goodbye. On Wednesday I was up at three and headed out for the deaf school at four thirty. I arrived at five to make sure everything was in order and we boarded the bus for the airport at six. Once again I said goodbye to all of them as Dewayne, who was here with them left as well. There were hugs and a few tears as we had become quite close in the time we had worked together. We miss them already and are very thankful to the Northside Christian Church in Yorktown, Virginia for sending us their best young people on this work crew!
