I really do love the month of January, it is a time to look forward and to dream for the future. In our case, as you all know, 2008 brings some uncertainty and change to us as a family and to the ministry. Yet uncertainty is good, although unpleasant to those of us that thrive on certainty, it helps us to focus on the important, to prioritize and to seek out faith in our Father. As I teach a class on the history of our movement one of the things that strikes me is the fact that these men and women also faced much uncertainty yet they were willing to move forward simply because of their faith in the Bible. They were willing to buck the trends and go against the sentiment of the day.

It has been now just over six years since we first began working in the neighborhood of El Paraíso, Mirador and Eden among other areas that are normally just referred to “El Paraíso”. I can remember the first time we took a short-term team from Southeast Christian in Louisville, KY to this poor area of Bogotá. The title in the Southeast Christian newspaper read, “The Paradise that is no Paradise”.

The Suba church plant in a somewhat poorer area of Bogotá was perhaps our first real success. We had had successes but this was a work that was done using the methodology that has served us well throughout the last eight years of our ministry and should prove to be fruitful well into the future. That strategy was to partner with Colombians to launch church plants that from the beginning would be Colombian. Within the ministries in Colombia from our brotherhood we were the first to use this strategy to plant churches that were far more indigenous from the outset. The method has been so fruitful that now others are using this method to plant churches. Yet, it was not easy to plant a church in this way.

One of the hardest things that anyone will ever do is try and foster some sort of change. When we arrived in Colombia now just 15 short years ago, we looked at all that was being done and decided that we would work to bring about change. Even though, over the years, that change has not always been welcome, in time change came and we are happy to see that a church is on the verge of becoming indigenous. "Christ for Colombia - Project 2010, has been a success and we only have to wait and see whether the change and the effort will be long lasting. I was told once by a professor of missions, at a well known missions school, that you will not know whether your efforts will be long lasting until you leave.

It was really a great morning of worship in both Los Alpes and in El Paraíso. We continue to see the church in El Paraíso grow. This morning there were 97 in attendance and two more people were baptized into Christ. This places the number of baptisms for this year at 40. However, more than just the numbers is the spirit that is present in the worship services and the general excitement and expectation that these churches have grown accustomed to seeing God work in their mist. That simply means that God is working in the lives of the people and lives are being changed for the better.

Another month has come and gone! The time ever seems to fly by yet there is so much that still needs to be done. Sometimes you wonder when it will all get done yet, lesson after lesson, sermon after sermon come and go and there continues to be substantial gains being made.

However, because of all the busyness I have found the need to focus my attention on what I believe will truly make a long term difference for the future. That focus is ever increasingly being focus on teaching the simple truth of God’s Word. Almost all the problems that I have encountered over the years have not been based on interpersonal relationships but on differences in Biblical Doctrine. Thus I am now teaching through the book of Hebrews and I am beginning work on a study that will cover the History of the Restoration Movement and then thereafter we will begin taking a look at the book of Romans.

For this update I thought I would share a little about a couple of young women who have been living with us and have been a tremendous help over the past few months.

Vanessa hails from California and is a recent graduate from Hope International University and is presently serving on a quest internship with Team Expansion, Adriane is a friend of Martha, our team doctor, and is here for a couple of months to help out where she can. Both girls have had a great time and have integrated into the work well. Vanessa has proven to be a great relationship builder and has spent much of her time with the people. As a result she has had a definite impact on peoples lives. Adriane has worked cleaning teeth and showing the love of Christ through her skill as a hygienist, yet her singing has impacted the church in more ways than one. In fact, often when people come to serve they find that what they thought would be their gift to give is something quite different.

Since our last update, Teresa and I have been busy getting ready and hosting a short-term team from Southeast Christian Church. It was a great week, of ministry that included VBS, dental and medical ministry and some building. In fact, in the children’s ministry more than 400 children heard the gospel message, many had teeth filled and at night those on the team shared messages, testimonies and life experiences from their walk with Christ. The group would leave early and return back to their sleeping courters late and once they left this morning I am sure they were tired but I am also sure that they returned to the states different from when they arrived.

We are back in Colombia!