So, we arrived at our new project in Santa Marta just over 3 weeks ago - scary thought that we're almost half way through! We are living next door to the church where we are working, in a basic but lovely house. It really feels like home now, and even though it is very different to where we were in Bogota we are just as happy here. The pastor's family live next door, and we spend most of our time either working or spending time with them which is really nice. It just feels like we are extra children in the family, which I think is one of the reasons we love it so much here.
The first couple of weeks here were difficult, adjusting to the heat and another totally different culture (we were often told in Bogota that Santa Marta is like another country, which I would definitely agree with now!) and also living much closer together as a group. However, the life of a missionary is never advertised as being easy, and it made us rely much more closely on God, and has also drawn us even closer as a team. It's so weird to think that there will be a time when I'm not living with these guys!
So, on to what we're actually doing here. This neighbourhood is built around a canyon, so everything is built up on quite steep banks. The church here is like a terrace built onto the pastor's house, and at the end of the terrace is some empty space. They want to build a room for their children's work here, but before that can go ahead, they need to build the bank up to a level platform. So up to now we have been cutting away at the bottom of the bank, building up a wall which will hold back the earth we use to bring it all up to the same level, and started to fill this in. Because of the temperature here (registering somewhere in the region of 'flipping hot' on our thermometer!) we work from about 6.30am till about 10.00am and then work again from 4.00pm till about 7.00. This was quite a weird structure of the day for us to get used to at the start, because it meant we had a lot of the day free, but now we are getting used to the way of life here, resting in the middle of the day, using the time for domestic tasks, doing the shopping, having devotionals, devoting time to studying Spanish and just spending time with the family.
They also have a great children's ministry here, with about 40 kids meeting at the church every Saturday, and 3 other kids groups meeting fortnightly in other neighbourhoods. We've had the privilege of helping out with these, leading some sessions and taking some activities in others.
The people here are really amazing, they are so caring and love spending time with us, which makes us really feel part of the community. When we are on the building site there are usually other people around helping out, which is so nice. The pastor's eldest son and his wife have taken us out to see a variety of places, from a beautiful beach to an arcade. On the Sunday just gone, we had a church outing to another beautiful beach (Santa Marta has loads of them!). It was such a lovely day, playing football together, messing around in the sea which was just like a warm bath (I still can't get used to the concept of the sea being warm!) and then spending some time praying together and worshipping. It ended up that I was the guest speaker, so I had half an hour to prepare a mini talk in Spanish, which I didn't feel went too badly considering! I think they understood me at least...!
I feel like my Spanish is improving, although there are many times that I am frustrated that I don't know more or can't express exactly what I want, but thank you for all your prayers on this, it has been much easier than I feared!
Prayer points:
- Visas: our current visas run out on the 10th June, so please pray that we won't have any issues getting them renewed
- Team relationships - that God will keep strengthening the team and drawing us closer together
- Health - Just ask that God will protect us all health wise over the rest of our time here.
- Rain - Santa Marta is in desperate need of rain. Please pray that God will send water!
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