We Came. We Saw. We Conquered. And then we went on holiday!

Ok, there's so much to write about, but it's already gone midnight here and I don't know when I'll next get the opportunity to write, so it might be a bit of a brief blog post, but there's more detail on a lot of the things on my blipfoto.

So, this is what the building now looks like:

 

 It has a door and a roof and windows and everything! There are even tables and chairs! The terrace still needs to be done and the electricity hadn't been put in before we left, but work is continuing as we speak. Through the remaining project fund we had left and an additional donation from someone in the UK there was enough money for them to finish the building and hopefully to buy a projector afterwards. Josh and I had the amazing privilege of sharing this news with Adelmo and Nuris. They were so overwhelmed they were lost for words for a few minutes. Thank you so much to everyone who donated to support our work here, it will be a huge blessing to the church: you cannot even begin to imagine their joy and excitement at having this practially finished. They have been praying for years for something like this.

We were sent this picture of them using the building with the kids club for the first time on Saturday!

We have done far more than we could ever have imagined or hoped here (reminds me of Ephesians 3:20 -  Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us). We thought we might just get the platform ready for the building to be built on at some point in the future. But look what's there now! And on top of this, just living as part of the community for 2 months has had a bigger impact than we could ever have planned or hoped. Through the way we lived together as a team, the community told us they learnt various things, and we have also learnt so much from them too, about God and about life in general. I will write a separate blog post about all the things I have learnt here in Colombia, because there's just so much to write, I couldn't possibly fit it all in here! We have a huge sense of achievement, especially considering some of the difficulties we faced, including spiritual attack. Massive thanks to everyone who prayed over this, things got much easier and so many of the burdens were lifted which made the last week much more enjoyable. The power of prayer is huge!

We have become like family here, and Adelmo and Nuris are just like parents to us. Leaving was so, so hard. There were a lot of tears! But what I've come to learn over my gap year is that the goodbyes generate some of the most special moments. There are 2 particular times that will stay with me forever from our last week in Santa Marta:

• The surprise birthday party! There's loads about this on my Blipfoto (29th June), but in short, they decided for our last Sunday to host a surprise birthday party for us all because we won't be with them on our actual birthdays. It was a really precious time, and I will never forget the things that were said.
• Our final prayer meeting. Again, loads about this on my Blipfoto (1st July). For our final prayer meeting we decided we wanted to share food with everyone, so Josh and I cooked chili con carne. I spoke from the bible in Spanish at about 2 minutes notice and led my first worship song, which was scary but I'm so happy I was able to do it! Afterwards, everyone stayed to play twister, jungle speed, pass the pigs and uno, with never-before-seen levels of cheating! The fun and friendship shared that night mean I will never forget this.

So now we are in our final rest week, our final few days together as a team. They're like a brother and sisters to me, and it will be tough saying goodbye, but we already have plans for meetups basically every month between now and New Year! We spent the first 4 days of our rest week in coffee country on a beautiful coffee farm, just relaxing and enjoying the scenery and free coffee. We are now back in Bogotá and are looking forwards to seeing all our friends from the first 2 months. And I get to see my actual family in 4 days! Although I now feel like I have other family members out here (the guys in the team and in Santa Marta) it feels a long time since I've seen my proper family, and I really do miss them, and I can't truly replace them with Colombians!

I am now reaching frostbite levels of coldness, despite wearing so many clothes I look like Michelin Man, and it's 00:35 so I'm going to sign off here and go to bed. I hope this fills you in enough on what's been happening since the last update. You'll have plenty of opportunities to grill me in more detail when I'm back in the UK!

Prayer requests:

• Continued safety on the building site back in Santa Marta as people carry on work to complete the terrace of the new room
• Safe travelling for the guys back to England and for me and my fam in Peru
• A great 2 days in Bogotá
• Thanks for everything we've been able to do, learn and achieve. God is so good!