TRIP TO RIOHACHA

With all the busyness and excitement of the past few weeks, we forgot to update you on a wonderful opportunity Chris and Andrew have to meet and connect with our brothers and sisters who we’ll be serving with in Colombia. The next 9 days will be exciting ones for Chris, Andrew and our friends, Dan and Bonnie Schwartz who are with them. They all left today to go to Riohacha, Colombia to join a mission team from Forest Hill Community Church in Charlotte, NC. They have quite the trip to get there. They left Seattle this afternoon and will arrive in Santa Marta, Colombia tomorrow night; that includes a 12 hour lay-over in Bogota, Colombia all day tomorrow, which is Bonnie’s birthday.  They will get there super early in the morning.  Please pray that they will be able to sleep on their flights and that they will have smooth travels and health during this long journey.  And pray for extra blessings for Bonnie on her birthday, it’s quite the birthday adventure.  Chris commented that this is his first international flight from which he will go through customs with a civilian passport instead of a military passport, a weird experience for him.  The last time he flew on a international flight on a civilian airplane, it was for a military deployment and he carried an M-16 with him and had paperwork that gave him permission to do so.  Definitely a different trip!  So now it's time for new beginnings, new experiences, new adventures!  J 

Andrew, Chris, Dan, Bonnie at the Seattle Airport this morning

In Santa Marta, Chris, Andrew, Dan, and Bonnie will connect with SAM missionaries and the Forest Hill team. On Saturday they will travel about 3 ½ hours to Riohacha.  While there they get to share the hope of Christ through evangelism in the community, work on construction of the church building and a school/university, help with an English class, and worship and fellowship with the congregation of Iglesia Castillo Fuerte.  We are excited for this opportunity for Chris and Andrew to connect with the other SAM missionaries, the people of Riohacha, Pastor Mejia and his family, and the members of Castillo Fuerte.  And we are excited that they get this chance to learn more about Riohacha and the region we will be ministering in.  We are thrilled that our friends got to join them; Dan and Bonnie are members of and leaders in our sending church and will be able to represent Riohacha to our church family from their experience there.  Prayer needs: Pray for people to be receptive to the Gospel, pray for relationships they will form with the people in Riohacha, pray for the team to all work well together, pray for health of all the team members, pray for the part of our family that stayed home. Crystal, Ashlynn, and I stayed home with our little ones and will be working hard to get ready to move out of our house on April 13/14.  I told Chris that I am a little jealous that I couldn't join them, but we decided that there is just too much going on for both of us to go on this trip at this time.  Lord willing, we'll all be living and ministering there soon, :).  We feel blessed that they get to preview our mission field and scout out the area. Kenny Krestan, Director of International staff development from the home office in NC will be joining them to show them around, discuss our mission there, and answer any questions they might have.  

I can't wait to see pictures and hear about their trip and all about Riohacha.  And we can’t wait to share with all of you who are praying for us more about what God is doing there, about the city and people of Riohacha, and about the Castillo Fuerte church family.