For the last two weeks, I have had Gordon Clifford and a member of his church here with me in Colombia. Gordon publishes much of what I write and translate and then makes it available for us and others in Latin America to use in our teaching and leadership training through the Christian Mission Press. Shipping materials into Colombia has become such an expensive and difficult task that it is almost as economical for someone to bring it in. In the case of Gordon, it also serves for him to see where and how much of his work is being used in the development of the Lord’s kingdom. It is exciting to see all that God is doing here in Colombia. He can then share that excitement with the churches and individuals who support his publication ministry.
When Gordon and his friend arrived in the country, we immediately loaded everything into my jeep and headed down over the Andes Mountains to Villavicencio. I was to participate in a special event and most of the several hundred pounds of materials he brought in were destined for the work in Villavicencio. We attended church on Sunday to give them an idea for our style of worship and a bit about the progress of the work in Villavicencio. We spent a full week there as work began on the first cabin on the new property we are purchasing for the church camp. While we still owe a little over $1,000.00 on the property, the current owner graciously allowed us to begin work. A church donated $4,000.00 to install the foundations for the first cabin, so I contracted the workers to began that process.
During the day I went in to work with Colegio Peniel, the Christian day school. We are in the planning stages as we are laying out our program of work for this school year. I had many meetings with the leaders as we established the goals and then laid the plans for achieving those goals. This includes my work as the school counselor and our yearly workshops on Learning Difficulties. Every single day we spent the mornings at the school and then head back out to the church camp in the afternoons. We were staying there, so that enabled us to spend the afternoons overseeing the work and relaxing a bit as well. It made for an enjoyable week. On Saturday we headed back up the mountain to Bogotá.
In Bogotá we washed all of our clothing and bedding and rested up from the trip. On Sunday we attended church in Suba. Gordon and I worked on our plans for books in progress and future works we hope to publish in the afternoon. On Tuesday we had a meeting with the preacher from the Suba church to look at some of the materials he has developed. We hope to publish these as a first step on the road to developing more writing talent within the Colombian church. Wednesday was a day to rest up and pack suitcases for their flight back to the States on Thursday morning. On Thursday evening, Dewayne Liebrandt will arrive to begin two weeks of intensive work with the deaf church. It has been a very busy but very rewarding two weeks. We appreciate Gordon and his work in literature production and his willingness to travel to Colombia at his own expense to bring in hundreds of pounds of literature for us to use. God has blessed us with many willing workers and good friends in the ministry here in Colombia!