The People of Popayan

The best thing about spending an extended time in one place is getting to know the people.  After a few days of pleasantries, you begin to have opportunity to connect with people on a personal level.  That’s what’s been happening here.

Nola Update

She’s continuing to grow in her connection with Nancy.  No more crawling out of bed to sleep on the floor . . . actually just the opposite.  We have to pry her out of mom’s arms to give Nancy an little breather from time to time J. We also have a new word to add to her list of cute things she says . . . “boom-bah.” This is what she calls balloons . . . SO cute.  “Chiclet” means gum.  This poor girl . . . she speaks hundreds of Spanish words . . . and we understand so few of them . . . she’s probably thinking, “come on people!”  But if there exists any frustration in her heart, you’d never know it, as her number one favorite word has become “mama.”  It’s awesome.

Sisters watching Dora the Explorer

In the pickup

Nola in the backseat

Nola blessed me yesterday when she came running down the hall in La Casa de Mima and jumped into my arms yelling “papa.”  I immediately gave her all my credit cards.

 Lots of work . . . but bonding is happening.  We so love this little Colombiano.  You will too.

Church Service

On Wednesday I got a visit from our new friend Frederico (wrote about him in our last blog) . . . He came to see us and said in wonderful Colombian-accented English, “Jason, my brother, may I call you Reverend?  I only ask one thing of you . . . that you have a church service for me before you go back to America.”

So that’s just what we did.  The next morning, Frederico came over at 8:30.  I prayed that morning that God would give me something to share with him.  He and I spent two hours in the back courtyard under a warm Colombian sun talking about Jesus, how no one has the power to overcome the penalty of sin on their own, and how Jesus is truly the one and only way to God. It was awesome.

Church with Frederico

But here’s something more awesome.  After we finished talking, I noticed Arhenis, the housekeeper had been sweeping up behind the orange tree in the courtyard.  She had been listening to us speak and had been weeping.  I truly believe that even though Arhenis does not speak a word of English, she felt the reality of the presence of the Living God and it moved her.  Frederico interpreted for me as I shared with Arhenis about my families appreciation for her and God’s love for her.

Nancy and Arhenis

Working out

No change in the family routine where working out is concerned.  Give Nancy 9 square feet and a work out will happen.  Doing P90X . . . Kole says is stands for “puke 90 times.”  He may be right!

Student protests

The students continue to protest.  Luke and I went for a walk yesterday to spend time together.  As we walked towards the square, we saw large crowds starting to gather and heard a lot of shouting.  Before we knew it, a sea of students were marching down the road on one side of us and a battalion of riot police were deploying on our other side.  No so good.  Made it out fine.  No violence during that protest, but thing are continuing to escalate.  It was a good things for Luke to see.

Last night, Nancy and I ventured out to a festival they are having in the city square 3-blocks from where we are, when we arrived, things were peaceful, but the Policia were fully deployed.  They had a gigantic armored vehicle, barricades, and about 100 police in full riot gear.  It was a very unique juxtaposition.  A festival with thousands of people and vendor booths surrounded by a perimeter of riot police standing behind large barricades to hold back hundreds of protesting students.  Oddly enough, we’ve gotten used to it and feel pretty safe.

Festival in the square

Armored vehicle (yikes!)

Students starting to gather for another protest

Visit to Luis and Christina’s Home

Luis and Christina's Casa

While we were there we bumped into Christina, the beautiful wife of our translator and friend Luis.  We’ve had opportunity to spend time in several people’s homes while here, Luis and Christina have been a huge blessing to us.  We spent Tuesday in their home for lunch and playing soccer with a neighbor boy named Victor.  We have really connected with this couple and plan on having their family visit us in the Illinois in the spring. 

Soccer!

Luis's office building (under construction)

Nancy and Christina

Luis has helped us do late night runs to the pharmacy for more ibuprofen, showed us how people live, brought us to the mall to get groceries . . . so much.  We went on pick-up truck ride on Wednesday to see how the wealthy people live in Popayan.  Popayan has 90% unemployment . . . the most in all of Colombia.  Tomorrow we are going with Luis to the “rough side” of town. I want our children to see the struggle of how many people live.

 

 

Farm

Remember Frederico . . . the guy I had church with?  He showed up yesterday and said he wanted to show our family something very special.  So we all loaded up in his little Dodge Spirit and drove 30-minutes to a wildlife preserve in the country.  SO beautiful.  Frederico interpreted as a guide showed us through the whole park.

We love spending time with Frederico.  Everything always comes back to Jesus with him.  “Jason . . . you are my brother . . . Jesus has brought you to me to teach me about who he is.”  If only you knew Frederico how Jesus is using YOU to teach ME about Him.

Every bird, plant, tree, gato we see . . . he talks about how God created it for us to enjoy.

Frederico and mi familia at the farm!

Nancy and Frederico

Coffee Plantation

After we had some water and juice, Frederico said there was one more thing he wanted us to see.  We drove off into the mountains and after 20 minutes we saw a huge coffee plantation on the side of the mountain.  “What is this place?” I asked him.  “This is my home hermano,” he said.

Frederico is an architect by trade.  25 years ago after living in a shack after his home was destroyed by the 1984 8.8 magnitude earthquake that destroyed Popayan, he sold his car to out a down payment on this home, with apromise to the owner that he would pay the full amount in 6-months.  He prayed that God would help him.  One day he “randomly” bumped into an American who was visiting Popayan to purchase some horses.  He tookan immediate liking to Frederico and asked him to be his interpreter.  Frederico took him up on it.  After two months, the job was done and paid him $7,000.  Frederico took the money back to the man who owned this little house and paid it off in cash!

He now grows coffee and bananas to maintain and improve the property.  “My home is your home, my brother.  You are a child of the one true and living God.  You are my guest here forever.  Take whatever you want and come to me whenever you have a need.”  I have never met a man like Frederico.

Having trouble downloading those pix.  It will take your breath away, so will post them later!

Thanks

Thanks to everyone who has been praying for us!  Nina still has tonsillitis (it hurts mostly at night) but she is getting much better.  Turns out Kole, Clay and Nina all have Hand, Mouth and Foot disease.  Hence the fever, mouth sores, etc.  Prayer seems to be doing the trick, so please keep it up friends!!!

It looks like we may be leaving Popayan on Wednesday or Thursday, traveling back to Bogota to finish paperwork.  Going to visit an orphanage on Monday.