Every day, Colegio Peniel (the Christian day school in Villavicencio) has a couple of cars and a small van pull up and unload kids in the morning and then return to pick them up as the day ends. It is a significant cost to the student to pay for these private transportation services and the rather questionable mechanical condition of the vehicles sometimes makes one wonder about the safety of the service. But at the moment, there is no other choice. The school cannot provide the dependable and safe service to the students for a lack of a vehicle. It has been a dream for a long time of the school to be able to offer this service on a non-profit but paid for service basis that would be safer and more economical.
At the same time, the school and the church find making full use of our church camp property difficult, because each time we plan an event there, we must contract with one of the local bus companies or drivers to haul our students out and them pick them up. That charter type service is often very expensive and sometimes difficult to program. On more than one occasion our students have been left abandoned when something came up or the bus broke down. We would then scramble to find transportation. Again, we found ourselves dreaming of having our own dependable transportation service available for camp use.
Several times each year now we are having work crews coming into Colombia. I must be very careful when searching for transportation, as the bus or van must be in good mechanical condition and the driver must be fully trustworthy because we will be hauling a load of Americans who are visiting Colombia. As a result, finding dependable bus and a secure driver is always a bit of a challenge where I must invest a significant effort in order to make sure there will be no problems. Once again, we find ourselves dreaming of being able to use our own van and a Christian driver.
Gustavo, one of our elder/preachers took early retirement from his high level banking job to dedicate himself full time to the preaching of the Gospel and to serving the church without the need to draw a salary. For nearly twenty years he has done just that. He has been a tireless worker and a dedicated servant in the Lord’s kingdom there in Colombia from that day until now. The only problem; that once adequate pension has been eaten up by inflation and no longer provides for him and his family. He has been successfully building a new business to once again provide for his family, but he has had much less time for the work and the church has felt that absence. One of the businesses he know and is working to restart is a taxi/transport business. He would make a perfect driver: capable and dependable. At the same time as he provided for himself, he could provide for the church as well and once again be free to serve the church-if only we could help by securing a good sized van!
After much consideration and prayer, Gustavo, the school, the church, the camp, and our own work crew program are looking into the possibility of meeting all of these needs by purchasing a 14 to 16 passenger van. We are now laying this fleece before the Lord to determine if it is in His will. The van will cost about $40,000 US and the idea would be to purchase it outright so that the use of the van will need to only produce the salary for the driver and the maintenance expenses to keep the van in good working condition. As we pray about this need and opportunity, we ask that you consider joining with us in this important project in your prayers and through a special love offering for this purpose. Together we can provide for many needs and glorify our Lord in the process!