OUTREACH!!

Hello family and friends! We have arrived safe in Bogotá, Colombia after about 15 hours of travel. It is so exciting to finally be here, knowing we are to start a new adventure with a new family God has so precisely put together. We know God has incredible things planned for us and He has already shown us how He is going to use us to make an impact in peoples lives. We have discovered He isn’t just using us to minister to people, but He uses these people to change our lives as well. 
We arrived Tuesday night and came upon our first opportunity to see God’s faithfulness, as Brad’s bag did not arrive at the airport. However, we were still in good spirits and stepped outside to the city of Bogotá that was much colder than we expected. The city is so busy; 8 million people within 613 square miles! We were picked up by two YWAM staff, Paola and Christina, and then drove to our base, which is a cozy house full of Christmas lights that made each of us feel at home right away. That night, Grace decided to fast until Brad received his bag from the airport. Praise the Lord, early the next morning the airport called to confirm our address because they had found Brad’s bag! Grace was so excited because we had not even eaten breakfast yet so she did not have to fast! 
On Thursday we went on a bike tour of the city. It was a great way to get to know the city and the people and an opportunity to pray over the streets. The night before we prayed God would keep the sun shining and the sky clear for our tour. He did until about 4 in the afternoon when we were at a bull fighting ring and it began to pour. No matter what has come our way in these last several days, it has not brought our spirits down. In fact, we see these what-seem-to-be-dilemmas as testimonies of the joy God continues to fill us with. We were able to see the oldest church in Colombia, a coffee factory, and we rode through the second largest red light district in the country. Our tour guide, Juan, informed us that prostitution is legal in Colombia so the places that sell women do not try to hide the fact that they are prostituting women. When we drove through the district we could really feel the heaviness of the area, and we instantly began to pray for these women. We believe that prayer over the strongholds in the city is so powerful and after we pray we feel so much peace. 
On Friday we rode the bus for an hour to the other side of the city and went to the Levantate y Resplandese Day Care, or the Rise and Shine Day Care. The children were from the ages of 2-15 and all from dysfunctional families in a bad neighborhood. This day care is more of a home and the women in charge of it are each on fire for the Lord and are called to take care of these children and raise them in a way their parents could not, in a way that shows them the unconditional love of Jesus. These children were so incredible. We feel we were really able to make an impact in their lives, even though we were with them for six short hours. Our theme for the day was “you are special” with a Christmas twist. Our favorite part was the last portion of our time where we sang worship songs, told them the meaning of Christmas and how special they are to Jesus. We laid hands on them and prayed over each of them. The Spirit of God was so present in this small room crammed with children. Praying over them was extremely powerful and God did something in their hearts that day. After prayer we were able to have some conversations with the older children and encourage them and really press upon them how special they truly are. We poured out so much thanks to Jesus who is constantly filling our cups. By the end of the day we were so full of joy and love because of the love of Jesus we were able to see in these Children and how much they were showing us they appreciated and loved us being there. 
God showed us in our ministry with these children how we are to be His hands and feet. This day of ministry really gave us a taste of what we are going to be doing all next week. We will be leading a Vacation Bible School in a city about an hour and a half outside of Bogotá for a whole week. Thank you so much for all of your prayers, they really mean so much. God is so good, and being here in Colombia is a blessing in itself