Women's Prayer Retreat

Our women's ministry hosted the second prayer retreat of the year.  The first one (for the women at our hotel campus) was in March.  The second (for the women at our Miralvalle campus) was last Saturday.  

About 35 women traveled about an hour and a half outside of the city to spend time "listening" to God's voice.  We left the church at 6:00 a.m. and stopped for breakfast at a restaurant named Kaltepet on the way there.  

Once there we had a short time of praise and worship and a testimony, followed by the "prayer retreat" rules:  

• Stay silent--not the time to talk or pray with anyone else--just you and the Father
• Concentrate on listening for His voice
• Morning prayer time is from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

We enjoyed a great lunch with time to share our experiences, before repeating the same schedule in the afternoon.  We ended the day with group prayer and a short testimony time.  We were loaded up and ready to leave at 4:30 p.m. and arrived at the church at 6:00 p.m.

 

Women's Ministry Leadership Team

Friday in Bogota

Friday morning, our last day, we again went out on the streets near the hotel to share.  There are a tremendous number of people walking around in the area and you can almost always find someone who will stop and talk.

The bus picked us up at 3:30 p.m. and took us downtown so we could visit Monseratte, a mountain that dominates the city center of Bogotá. It rises to 10,341 ft above sea level, and there is a Catholic church (built in the 17th century) with a shrine.  The hill is a pilgrim destination, as well as a tourist attraction. In addition to the church, the summit contains restaurants, cafeteria, souvenir shops and many smaller tourist facilities.  All downtown Bogotá, south Bogotá and some sections of the north of the city are visible facing west. Monserrate can be accessed by an aerial tram, a funicular (cable railway) or by climbing, the preferred way of pilgrims.  

We took the cable railway up about 4:30 p.m. and there is an amazing view of the city.  After everyone had visited the sites, we all paused to pray for the people of Bogota, and, specifically those who made professions of faith during the week.  

We stayed to watch the sunset and see all the lights come out in the city and then rode down the mountain in the aerial tramway.  It was a great end to a wonderful week.  Now we wait to see how God moves in the hearts of the people and how he grows Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva, Bogota.

Rain, Flooding, Mudslides

It started raining last Thursday and, although it isn't raining hard all the time, it has been more or less continuous.  As a result, the ground is saturated, the rivers are very high and there have been some mudslides and flooding.  

Here are some pictures from the last two days

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The Department of Education called off school today so that parents/kids don't have to be out on the roads.  As usual, this is causing the most trouble in the rural areas.  Here in the city we are waterlogged, but not seriously affected.

Unfortunately, here is today's weather radar for Central America.

Please pray for the rain to stop--it is continuing today and the longer it rains the more serious the situation will become.  You may remember that four years ago we had a similar situation, with rain for more than a week.  At that time over 50,000 people were displaced due to flooding, bridges and roads were washed away.  I distinctly remember it because we were out of school for 6 days in a row due to the fact that, nationally, many school buildings were converted into shelters.

  

Wake Up Call

There were several strong earthquake/tremors in Nicaragua on Thursday and Friday before we arrived.  But, there hadn't been any additional ones until tonight's 11:10 p.m. "wake up" call.  It was a 5.5 tremor located about 30 kilometers or so from our location.  

It was a first for most of the team members from the states who are staying at the hotel with us; every one was calm, waiting patiently outside for 30 minutes before returning to their rooms.  

The team from El Salvador is at a different hotel.  I was able to Facebook chat with at least three of them and they are fine, but some of them are scared.  It woke many of them up!

Please pray:

1. for the safety of our entire team and the people of Nicaragua
2. for the tremors to cease so that we can continue to focus on our purpose for being here--evangelism--and not be worried or distracted.