April 1st

Hey everyone! So today we thought it would be super fun to go to the Russian Circus on Ice, so we did! Then we decided to relax by the beach and go zip lining through the jungle; it was beautiful!! Then we finished up our day by going to a movie in the beautiful theatre around the corner. JUST KIDDING! April Fools!! Today was truly an amazing day though. We took an hour and a half drive to Barranquilla and spent our day at the school, La Rosa De Saron. The unique thing about this school is that it is one of the only private Christian schools in the area, and it is totally free for students to attend. We got to go class to class and try to have conversations with the children.

 

 

The school ranges from pre-school to 11^th grade. They were all so excited to see us and wanted nothing more but to talk and take LOTS of pictures with us.. they were adorable! We also had fun bringing 100 stuffed animals to the preschoolers, who were in disbelief that they were gifts for them. One other amazing opportunity we had was to sit down and do a group activity with the teachers of the school. They knew minimal to no English, and many of us didn’t know much Spanish. We paired up with a teacher and with our language barrier, had to learn how to introduce each other in each other’s language. It was an awesome experience. At the end we put them in the middle and surrounded them and prayed but when we were done, God moved them to pray for us. Most of us had no idea what they were saying but it was really moving. Even with the language barrier we really felt a connection with one another in the sense that we all share the love for God.

 

 My personal favorite part of the day was getting to give the stuffed animals to the children. To see their faces light up the way they did was something I will never forget. We couldn’t speak together but we would make the animal noises together and it was fun J (Mackenzie Henry).

 Today God blessed us all in so many ways, but God really blessed me personally by allowing me to meet Isabel. Isabel was a woman in her mid-40’s who was a single mother. She had 3 kids ranging from the ages of 5-8. She was such an awesome woman. I could just feel God’s love radiating from her. I was so glad I was able to communicate with her in her native tongue. She was able to teach me more Spanish and I tried to teach her a little bit of English. In the end she shared with me that her brothers and cousins were in the US and how much she missed them. She was very upset that she can’t communicate with them because they only speak English and she only speaks Spanish. She asked me if I could maybe help her translate letters to her brothers and cousins. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do that today, but God moved me to help her. Somehow I want to be able to help her one day communicate with her family once again. (Whitney Krieger J)

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone! We appreciate all your prayers.

Today we all put on our Sunday best to go to the church. The church was very theatric, and had a group of teenagers (jovenes) putting on skits, to represent Easter. Praise God that the pastor who spoke was originally from Houston, Texas and was able to translate everything into English, for us ringos. Later we found out that that was the first time English had ever been spoken or translated in that church. God sure does spoil us!

 

This video is from the church we visited.

After church, we went into the main city and split up into groups. Each group had 5 places in the city, which we had to take pictures with, and then get back to the hotel by 4:30. My group was fortunate enough to pick up a local, who helped us cheat the game a little. He brought us to every place, and he argued with the store owners so we could get the price we could. Kevin stuck through it, with us girls, as we stopped at all the shops to get new Colombian trinkets. Our new Colombian friend, Delimiro Martinez, was the highlight of my day. He was so kind, and shared all his stories of his traveling. The city was so beautiful. It was nothing even close to anything in Michigan.

We thank God today for giving us the luxury of English in the Colombian church today, and such beautiful weather. We also thank God for the fellowship happening in the group. Again, we appreciate all your prayers, and we will keep you updated on more adventures throughout the week!

 

First blessings

We received our first gift today. When we arrived in Bogota it was necessary to rebook our luggage. At first the gate agent informed us that we would need to repay for our 5 extra bags. When we got ready to pay she said, "it's ok you don't have to pay anything!! God is so good!!

We know that He will supply all of our needs! Philippians 4:19

We are walking and ministering in this truth!

Can't wait to share with you more!!

Today is the day!

Today is the day! Please pray as we head to Colombia. Our plane leaves Grand Rapids around 6pm.

Want to be a part of the trip? We are asking that you pray for us daily.  Here is a prayer guide to assist you!

Colombia 2013 Prayer Guide

Our team is excited about this trip and we are praying that God will fill our hearts with love for children and open our minds to the way he wants to use each of us to share that love with people in Barranquilla! We are so honored and grateful that you have agreed to share in this opportunity with us, through your prayers and support. Please use the prayer points on this sheet as a guide and a reminder to help you pray for our team. May God deepen your own experience of His love as you pray for others!

Just as a reminder, we will be working on a variety of projects, including: constructing, painting, distributing teacher and school supplies, as well as blessing our global partners while in ministry with INNetwork in Barranquilla and El Refugio in Cartagena, Colombia.

TRIP DATES: March 29-April 7, 2013

PARTICIPANTS (17):

• Bob and Bonnie Rozema
• Hailey Houck 
• Elyssa Oostdyk
• Whitney Krieger 
• Tyler Nousen
• Kevin , Lissa Cobband Jann Cobb
• Justin Boogaart
• Mackenzie Henry
• Rachel Wrench
• Aubrey Herrema 
• Brooklyn Bruin
• Corrie Good 
• Erin and Nick Glab (in Colombia)

Friday - Saturday, March 29,30 
Pray for us as we leave Grand Rapids, make connections in Houston, Bogota & continue onward to Cartagena. Pray for strength, energy, & grace as we make each flight, arriving and settling into our guest house. Also pray for introductions we have for the week of ministry with new friends & the tour of this big South American city.
FOCUS: Safe Travel & Settling in for a week of ministry

Sunday, March 31 (Easter)
Pray for adjustment to the culture & preparation for our time seeing the City and attending church in Cartagena. We will be visiting people and setting up our projects for the week.

FOCUS: Blessing our partnerships around the world


Monday, April 1
Pray for grace and love as we spend our day traveling to Barranquilla and visiting teachers & children at Rose de Sharon Christian school. Pray that we are a blessing to this group.
FOCUS: Grace and Love

Tuesday, April 2
Pray for grace and love as we spend our 1st day painting at El Refugio. Pray that we are also a blessing to the children we get to help in the after school program. Pray also for the team devotions.
FOCUS: Cultural and Physical Adjustment

Wednesday, April 3
Pray as we bless El Refugio with another day of painting. Pray also that we are a blessing to the families of those selected to get water filters given by the Corinth Water Project.
FOCUS: Team Unity & Spiritual Growth

Thursday, April 4
Pray for grace and love as we spend another day with El Refugio. Pray for Martin & Rossy Morales who head up this work for YWAM. Pray as we travel to Cartagena and feed the homeless in the city.
FOCUS: Building relationships & Physical Endurance


Friday, April 5
Pray as we spend the last day in Cartagena visiting families at the church and school. Pray for the people on our team to have energy to do the drama and crafts for children’s church.
FOCUS: Grace and Love

Saturday-Sunday April 6-7
Pray as we leave Cartagena and travel back to the US. Pray for our team going through customs and our connections in Houston and Denver before returning to Grand Rapids. Pray also for the team to have spirit-inspired items that remind them of their time in Colombia.
FOCUS: Travel and Action Items for return home

Crossroads is going to Colombia

Our Crossroads team is going to Colombia on March 29, 2013. There are several ways that you can help us.

Pray
We will be working in conjunction with El Refugio
El Refugio is a not for profit foundation that helps the holistic development of children, adolescents and their families who live in vulnerable conditions in the city of Cartagena Colombia.

Contribute

We are in need of 

school supplies

Spanish/English dictionaries

Gifts for the children

Toothbrushes

Participate

We have 2 dinners planned as fund raisers at Big Boy in Grandville on March 19th and March 25th. Come out and support us!

TEACHING IN COLOMBIA

The plan was to provide professional development of teaching strategies and English instruction to a group of teachers for 3 days. The team was prepared, eager and ready to go. What we learned about ourselves and others was the true gift of this journey. 

Day 1
Our time together began with the basics;
the alphabet
vowel sounds
colors
songs
etc. 

On the wall was a list of strategies that we added to as they were introduced. Many countries use a lecture format during class instruction, we wanted to acquaint them with some SIOP strategies to help students retain information!

We were pleasantly surprised at how "into it" the 20 plus teachers were. 

While teaching there were many times that I wondered if they thought that we were just plain crazy!

Day 2

All of the teachers came back! After a review the focus was on body parts, vowel sounds, family words, sequencing and sorting. Today was a little different than the first day, about 1/2 hour into the instruction the heavens opened, and the rain fell and fell and fell! The electricity went out, did I mention the hot temperature in Colombia and the humidity? The students scrambled to open windows and as they did the water began to pour into the building, onto the floor and quickly flowing towards all of our supplies, that were so nicely laid out! Now our team was scrambling! Someone turned to me and asked if we should cancel the day and send everyone home. "No way"! 

The class simply took a break and moved outside under the covered patio. One of our team members brought a set of Bal-a-Vis-X balls with her. Everyone had a great time using these balls.  I am not sure which was cooler, the rhythmic sound of the balls or the amazing rain storm splashing all around us! 

After the rain finished we returned to the inside instruction and continued to teach without electricity. Praise God that there was a breeze! Our last strategy of the day was rotating centers. The groups of students rotated through four centers learning and practicing English.


 Loved this day! I kept thinking that the people of Barranquilla must live with this torrential rain system all of the time. Recently I saw this video of what happens here, terrifying and eye opening.

Day 3, 
On this day the students came to us. The Lord had provided a comfortable, beautiful home for us to stay in.  The teachers would come for instruction and then stay for lunch. Many arrived a half an hour early! This was to be our final day of teaching with them and we wanted it to be spectacular! 
The focus today was on the use of pronouns, this, that, these and those, foods, Rosetta Stone and conversational practice. 

The students were excited to use the words that they had learned and often called one of the team over to help with pronunciations. It felt good to see the planning and prayer fulfilling the purposes that we had hoped for!

As our time was winding down, My husband, the team leader approached me and asked if we wanted to teach a 4th day. Originally this was what I wanted to do. Now in the moment, I was stressed out thinking about all of the logistics.  I know that I gave him the "What?" freak out stare! The team quickly agreed and we planned on regrouping and preparing that evening. Immediately, my mind went into planning and controlling mode. Within 10 minutes everything changed. Instead of tomorrow, we were asked to teach the 4th session right after lunch! 

Gulp, breathe, don't freak out, I told myself.

This required a few moments with the team. As I broke the news to them, they were amazing. Let's do it! they all rallied together.  This would require the good old teacher stretch and pull it out method that all teachers understand! So much for planning time! Within 3 minutes we had the whole session planned out! Praise God!

 In that moment, my daughter also a teacher turned to me, looked me straight in the eyes and admonished me, "You're not going to like this, but remember how you wanted to teach 4 sessions and you were not happy that we only had 3? Well Maybe God is saying, Here is your 4th session. It's on my terms not yours." She was so right!  As usual God was teaching me to let Him be in control.

Teaching session 4
After a fabulous lunch of chicken, coconut rice and vegetables we returned to the classroom. I was excited to see how God was going to pull us through this time together!

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

Who knew that playing memory would be so much fun? Our culminating activity was conversational centers. Using, scrabble, comprehension  questions, fluency practice, sentence construction and answering questions to solidify the English language acquisition.  Session 4 was by far the best one! The students were so enthusiastic. As a teacher it is extremely rewarding to teach those who desire to learn. 

During our session reflection, our team was showered with compliments, hugs of appreciation and hearts that had become knit together. We are already planning a return trip. 


 

Barranquilla-Colombia

Barranquilla, Colombia
Similar, yet different than the Colombia I envisioned. Perhaps I have seen one too many movies with drug Lords, ancient air strips, gun fights and tropical locations. Barranquilla was filled with colorful buildings reminiscent of it's Spanish roots. There is a definite class system here. Classes are separated by occupation, life-style, income, family background, education, and power. Here it is referred to at your stratus, increasing in your status from 1-5. This level effects employment, education, and relationships.

Our team had several goals on this trip; Instructing teachers, visiting homes and building relationships. All of these goals were with the purpose of sharing the gospel with those we met. I am grateful that the gospel is for every stratus.

Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Colossians 3:11