Colombia Trip in 5 Minutes

There are many many more pictures and video from the trip, but this is a bit of how it all went.

Too Much Chai?

This is what happens when you drink too much Himalayan Chai Tea.

One... Two... Three... and One To Go!

Just to let you know, the India team arrived safely back at Qwanoes last night, and the Colombia and Vancouver Teams today! The New York Team returns tomorrow evening so they could help with the huge Saturday SS today. Lots of stories, photos and hugs floating around this place as we begin to all come back together. Thanks so much for all your prayers!

Team Vancouver's Final Word...for now...

We realize that we just blogged yesterday, but we would like to have a final word about our mission trip before it ends. So, last night we went on a sky train adventure! Steve, Andrew and Jess had never been on a sky train before so they were really excited! We took a couple of youth with us for a while and then when they had to go back for curfew, Team Vancouver carried on. We rode the loop around in the sky train and at every stop we jumped out and took a picture with the sign. At one stop though, Andrew and Steve didn’t make it on in time so Jenny and Jess had to carry on to the next stop and wait for them. It was pretty entertaining! This morning we helped with the New Beginnings breakfast again and it was good but it didn’t go as smoothly as yesterday. There was one guy who just wanted to argue and was getting the other guys riled up. It was a bad scene and Pastor Joe had to kick him out. There were more people there today too. Then this afternoon we did another UGM Chapel. This chapel went so well!! We met this one man who is a resident and going through the drug and alcohol recovery program, and he was the sweetest man ever! He has a fake eye and he took it out so Jess and Jenny were yelling for him to “put his eye back in”…it was nuts! Afterwards we started to finish up all the house projects that we started, then we had youth group. For youth group we did this crazy scavenger hunt thing, but the kids in Jess’ and Andy’s group weren’t motivated at all and did not want to do it, so we took them to a pizza place and fed them. It was kind of ridiculous but we had a good time. Now we are back at the house doing final touches on everything and getting ready for an early morning travel back home! We are super excited to share stories with everyone and to hear everyone’s stories. Jessica has a sweet story about the scariest pee ever, Andrew and Jenny have lots of stories about painting bathrooms together and Steve has stories about how this mission trip has changed his entire plan for the rest of his life! We are excited to come home and see everyone again. This is Team Vancouver signing out…for now.

Remember Jewel Heist on April 1^st!

She has called you…

Team VanCooves Update!

Team Vancouver has been very busy the past few days! On Monday, as was the plan, we went and climbed the Chief. Unfortunately, there was awful weather and it was snowing so it would have been impossible to come back down safely so we barely made it a quarter of the way up! We took a detour around and went on the Shannon Falls trail. We saw the most beautiful waterfall and hung out with the greatest kids! Steve climbed to the rocks that were right beside the waterfall with a couple of the guys who are pretty hardcore. The Chief was the highlight of the day for most of us. Jenny and Dotto hung out around the house, did some running around for the house and then when we came back we were back to working on the projects around the house. Gage’s little brother, Nygel, has been hanging out with us a lot lately too. Last night, Nygel came with us on our tour of East Van and it was sweet to hear about the streets from his point of view. It was interesting to see how the streets transformed at night time. Even though we didn’t get out of the car, it was still kind of scary to see the way that the people live. We also have heard many stories of the kids that we have met and it was interesting to see the way that they live or have lived. Yesterday, we also had our first UGM chapel. We had a fun little service planned out, but once we got there we realized how wrong we were in what we had planned. The group that we were talking to were a group of mostly middle aged men who were antsy for welfare day. So, we changed our chapel and made a new chapel plan in about 15 min. The new plan involved Jessica sharing her testimony and she was scared out of her mind. But she shared Psalm 13 with the people and told her story. The men were attentive and they enjoyed the songs that Jenny and Andrew played for them. It was an interesting experience and we are back again on Friday to do another chapel service for them. Yesterday we did more house work! We finished the weeding out front, made a trip to the dump and started painting the upstairs bathroom. We have been on a roll with the housework! We also went and helped in the afternoon with an after school program called “SAY Yes”. We went to Science World with them and then to McDonalds for one of the kid’s birthdays. We had cake and ice cream and came back to the house for dinner. Last night we went to the Friendship Centre and we saw some native dances and heard some native songs. It was good, but none of us really understood what it meant; it was still good to experience though. Gage wants to have some input in this blog; this is what he wants to say… Gage rocks!!!!!!!!! Today we helped with a breakfast at New Beginnings church for homeless people and because it’s the day after welfare day hardly anybody was there. The people that were there though were sweet to talk to. We had the opportunity to just sit with them as they ate and talk with them. Their stories are incredible! Then we came back to the house and had lunch, painted some more and now we are preparing for “SAY Yes” again. We will be sure to post more pictures next time we blog! We want to thank you for all your prayers throughout this week; God has truly blessed us and the people who we have talked to.

Team Vancouver

The Long Flight Home

Here is the latest from the India team hosts:

"We are all in Delhi again. We have had an unusually high number of people sick this trip but His grace has been amazing, all of us were able to make it up to Harkidun as we got more donkeys and porters to make it possible. I believe the experience in the villages greatly enhanced the trip. We are about to go to debriefing time so I will find out more. Both Nicki and Tim have done an incredible job of leadership. Matt got better and then last night again had some problems but we got him on some meds right away. He had improved this morning."

The team flies out of Delhi this morning (which is evening there), so keep them in mind over the next 25 hours! They arrive back in Seattle at noon tomorrow.

Snapshots of Colombia

Here's a bit of a Colombia Journal from Chris:

(and for a kajillion photos, go to Facebook (FB account required).

Mar 22...Camp was incredible. So much happened at it!! Wow they are amazing at loving and relationships....better at it than us!! So cool to see how they can love us so much even with the language barrier. The whole camp worked out really really good. Thanks for all the prayers, it definately helped. And guess what, I lifeguarded a lot of the time! There was a pool and lots of people swimming so Merrisa and I lifeguarded a lot! So this one time...the only first aid kit at the camp was the little Kaleo one I brought and the only people with training was me as a lifeguard, Merrissa has a level 3 and Janet as an old nurse...how do you say freaky. Especially when people hit their head and go into shock....and you´re who knows where in Colombia!!! hahaha quite the experience and quite a few incidents but everything was totally fine and a really good times indeed!

Mar 23...Um ya it was nuts...people hitting heads and going into shock and cuts and hurt ankles...fun times indeed! hahaha. Today was amazing....went to this church where we knew a bunch of people. One of the guys at the camp who helped translate for us works there so he showed us around and was like this is your house now, if you need anything come here. If you ever come back to Colombia and need a place to do anything let me know...so cool!!! What else, hmmmm on every street here they have a security guard so on the afternoon before going to the camp we were playing frisbee and football in the street and the guard was watching us. I was like oh no I thought he was like watching we didn´t hit the cars...but then at one point the football bounced to him and he picked it up and started playing with us with the biggest smile on his face! We got to talk to him (he´s like 21) and he said how cool it was to see 18 year olds not fighting in the streets but playing. Then last night at like 10 we drive up in the buses and he´s sitting in his booth, I caught his eye from the bus and waved and the hugest smile on his face and he waved back! Then he came over to the buses and was yacking to us and Flemming gave him a brochure and explained all about the camp...such a freaking cool connection! oh g2g apparently we can get clothes washed today...better go collect it...

Mar 24...So this one time...I hiked through the Colombian jungle. Today they took us to the park where they do their YFC camp. Intense!! Hiking up waterfalls and along rivers and standing under a massive waterfall and up in the mountains...so amazingly beautiful you guys! Tomorrow I think we´re going to schools which should be awesome. Please pray for me, I feel sicker after being wet and cold all day....and for Catherine, she sprained her ankle on the hike..the same one she did at Mount Washington. Which sucks but it´ll be ok, just really hard for her to walk on.

Mar 25...Tomorrow we´re going to a really poor school and taking a bunch of music equipment to play. Fernando wants to make it a big exciting time because it is his first time at the school so when they think of YFC or when he goes back they´ll remember the crazy exciting time and loud music! Should be fun!

Mar 26...The school...where to start. Hmm 300 kids there and it was like painful. They´re so poor and have like no hope and no future. It was the poorest area I have ever seen. It was like a 3D puzzle with the brick houses stretching up the mountain. And sketchy too....we walked to another school and we had to stick in a tight group and walk fast. Then the van we were in could not make it up some hills so we had to get out and we were like oh no problem we´ll just walk up the hill and the driver was like NO run ahead of the van to be safe. So while doing that Merrissa dislocated her ankle. She took 6 tylenols so was fine on it all night but we´ll see how it is in the morning. Some of us have gotten a fever bug...not me...but first Josh then Kelsey now Catherine and she has it pretty bad so pray for that one. Tonight we had a lot of people over as a farewell thing so that was amazing to see so many of the people again...I love them so much! Tomorrow morning we go to a market then mall then packing then out for dinner so that´ll be pretty fun. Um so ya better get some sleep....

Team Vancouver Update

Hello Everyone! We, Team Vancouver, want to give you a little update on how things have been thus far. We finished the day camp on Thursday afternoon. The whole week was incredible! There were so many kids and they all loved us! We played fun games with them and just loved them. Thursday evening we went to the Badke’s to cook dinner for Jim and his family. We wanted to make shish kabobs on the barbeque, but his just wouldn’t cut it. So, we pulled out the brand new barbeque from the back of the van and surprised Jim with a nice little present! Jim, Andy and Steve put the barbeque together while Sarah, Dotto, Jenny and Jess prepared the meal. We had great conversations at the table and before we left we sang some songs around the piano. Then we headed home because we still had a lot of cleaning and packing to do before our big trip in the morning. We left at 6 am Friday morning and drove for the ferry. We knew that we were in for a long trip ahead of us, so we packed the car with blankets and pillows so we could sleep while we travelled. We listened to Adventures in Odyssey all the way to the ferry and then while we were on the ferry we slept. When we awoke we were a little disoriented because of the time difference. We were all feeling a little jet legged, but we kept on going. First, Dotto took us on a grand tour of Ladner Baptist. Then back to her home for lunch and a short rest before continuing our journey. After lunch we went and picked up a freezer and we headed for Jenny and Carla’s house. Since being here we have met some pretty sweet kids. We have had an opportunity to go swimming with a youth group, help with a car wash for the youth group to go Mexico and tonight we helped with Sunday school at New Beginnings. The house dynamic is pretty interesting; plans get changed often and we are usually late because it’s next to impossible to organize everyone all at once. We have started some projects around the house and we are now on the dish and supper schedule. It is really sweet! We all love it a lot, and we love all the jobs that we have been given. We also really enjoy hanging out with Billie and Mark (K4’s) and Gage (a youth who lives here), and just being a part of what there life is like everyday. It has been a very new experience and we are planning some trips downtown to buy some souvenirs! Tomorrow we are climbing The Chief with some of the youth and the rest of the week is pretty busy with a bunch of activities. I would tell you the plan, but I can almost guarantee that it will change at least once before midnight! So, we will keep you all updated, your prayers are appreciated and we will for sure be praying for all of you!

Praise God

Praise God everyone! my sister went to the hospital and had an operation which located and fixed the problem last i heard (2 days ago) she was just recovering with her appetite and sleep thanks a lot for your paryaers my sister and family appreciate it!

More From New York

From Little Kim: Everything is going fine. We are doing de-construction work - we were tearing down concrete columns,ceiling tiles and wallpaper on the 5th floor Thursday and Friday. And some of the evenings we have gone as a group walking around the area (don't worry, we are a group and things are fine). Today Neil picked us up in his van and drove us to Ground Zero, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, 5th and 6th street (where all the ritzy people shop, including Tiffanys! Katie was thrilled), a beautiful old catholic church with beautiful stained glass windows, and Trump Towers! We are going to early morning church service, having a nice Easter brunch, (one of the metro staff drove Vanessa and i to a huge grocery store which was much better). We are just now decorating Easter eggs and some of the metro staff have joined us as well; they haven't decorated Easter eggs in years. Ryan and Steve came to share with us last night; they are very tired but excited to be here. We all take turns helping out with the meals and cleaning up. Monday some of the staff are taking us to places that tourists usually don't go. We were supposed to work Monday morning but we are going too fast for the maintenance guy here. They can't believe how great this team works. Then Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we work from 9 am to 5:30. Friday the students go on sidewalk Sunday school till late at night, then Saturday is the huge Saturday Sunday school. So a few full days ahead of us. We are getting muscles from the sledgehammering! We have an Awesome TEAM!

A Bit of Colombia

Sheri's mom passed this on to me:

"Things here are pretty crazy, I of course am stressing way out as we were told that the expectations are huge for this week, and Catherine and I have been put in charge of a Communion service and you know me being a Geiger everything has to be perfect. It's been pretty sweet here tho. Lots of fun!! Last night I was dancing with one of the girls and ended up getting my own arm in the face and got quite the bleeder!! It was so funny.. There was blood on the floor and then I was in the bathroom and laughed and well it turns out that when I laugh a lot of air comes out of my nose because there was blood like sprayed everywhere!! It was pretty amazing!! Catherine is loving learning Spanish, she is constantly learning new words and repeating random things..." - Sheri

Team Vancouver Update

Hello Everyone! This is Team Vancouver with an update! This week we have been crazy busy with day camp and preparation for our trip to the mainland. We have also been working very hard on Jewel Heist for when everyone returns. We have begun to look at our mission as varying degrees of local mission. We are working on Jewel Heist for our immediate community, doing a day camp in Duncan and we are also doing random acts of kindness in the surrounding areas as well as preparing for our trip to Vancouver. We have also spent time on our knees praying for our fellow Kaleo students who are on missions abroad.
Day camp has been going incredibly amazing! We have had quite a turn out with both the kids and volunteers. Steve is in charge of the relays and he loves it! He gets to run around and make the kids do crazy things…and he gets to do it too! Jessica, Jenny and Andrew are on the drama team and we often find ourselves being put on the spot to entertain. The dramas that we do are fun and interactive for the kids and we enjoy doing them as well. We have had loads of fun preparing and spending time with the kids and the other leaders. Getting to know the people in the community has been a really eye opening experience. The team is really enjoying the time spent together and the time spent with the people in the community.
This morning we helped out a man and his family who went to New Life, but had to move to the mainland because his daughter got sick with cancer. He owned a furniture store on the island and because he is now living on the mainland, he is renting out the store to a church. This meant that the whole store had to be cleaned out and everything had to be put into storage. So this morning, our team went out and helped him move his store into storage before the day camp started. We had a lot of fun while doing it, and we really enjoying helping out the community in random ways because we know that God has His hand in it all.
We would love it if you guys could pray for energy for us. We are honestly so exhausted! This week has been filled with late nights, early mornings and busy days. Also, we would love to have more mission opportunities when we are in Vancouver! If you could pray also for the joy of the Lord to be our strength! We realized today that we can do nothing without the strength of the Lord and your prayers are appreciated.

~Jessica

Safe in NYC

Just got a call from the Kim's, and the New York Team is safely at Metro Ministries after a long but happily uneventful trip. They were wonderfully hosted last night in Seattle by Parker, who worked at Qwanoes last summer, and were picked up by Metro staff so they didn't have to brave the subway system (think of the walls in your local Subway sandwich outlet). On arrival, they came to a realization that they are really in Brooklyn, as they were the only white people at MacDonald's. This evening they joined in with the youth group, again the only white folks. Tomorrow they go straight to work with renovations to a building Metro Ministries purchased last year, and then will help with the kids ministries on the weekend. Please keep them in your prayers!

Update on Matt

We received word that Matt was able to go on the trek after all. It seems that he ate a "burger" in Delhi that had more life to it than expected, and he became very sick. As standard procedure, he went to the hospital and was on an IV with penicillin for several hours. The next morning he was feeling much better and so was allowed to go on the trek, but without his pack for the first few days. So he and the others are now probably well up in the mountains and enjoying warm and sunny weather as they trek through snow. Please keep praying!

Please pray!

hey guys,

i just recieved an email saying my sister is in the hospital with a lot of pain. lately she has been having trouble swallowing food and shes been getting x-rays. if you guys could please pray for her and my family that would be great. thanks a lot everyone!

Thank you Jenny!

So what's up with TVC?

Team Vancouver is getting ready to begin our missions trip Tomorrow (Monday, March 17th). We will be helping out with our first day of Sports Day Camp in Duncan. On Thursday we had a meeting to discuss how everything would play out for the week. Steve is going to be in charge of Relay Races and Jenny, Jessica, and Andrew are helping out with Drama, and Dotto will be working wherever she is needed. We are getting really excited about the opportunities that we will have this week to help New Life church build a relationship with the Native community around them.
Yesterday we headed into Victoria to pick up a BBQ that we will be giving to Carla and Jenny (where we will be staying in Vancouver). The way things worked out, we were able to get both a freezer and a BBQ for cheaper than we thought, so we will have left over money to do some Random acts of Kindness and to maybe help out Carla and Jenny a bit more. We will be leaving for Vancouver on Friday and will be there until the following Saturday. While we are there we will be doing some work projects in the house and helping out with Youth events and such, as well as leading two UGM chapels.

Please pray for us this week as we help with the Sports Camp in Duncan; pray that God would use us to portray the message of the Gospel through our actions, and to build relationships with the children that will be attending the Camp. Pray for opportunity to bless people during our trip, pray that God will show us where he wants us to use our money. Pray for our trip to Vancouver; pray that God will use us to bless Jenny and Carla, and that we will be able to give them a bit of a break. Pray that God will open our eyes as we are in Vancouver and that we will be aware of the need around us.

We trust that all is going well in Columbia and India, and we will be seeing the New York Team off on Tuesday. We are praying for you all and we pray that you will move and be moved as you live out God's plan!

Love Team Vancouver

Live from Bogota!

Hey All,

Well we just arrived about 2 hours ago into Bogota, Colombia. Our trip has been so blessed with smooth travel, going through Customs at the Border, and security and even our connections went smooth as could be. We arrived in Bogota around 10:30PM local time after a short 1 1/2 hour delay heading out from Atlanta. As soon as the team walked off the airplane they all had the same looks on their face, "We're actually here! We're actually doing this! WOOHOO!" After a short time getting through immigration and bag security we were greeted by a whole group of very joyful Colombians! Here's a quick video of our travels to Colombia these past two days...



Thanks everyone for your prayers! God has been listening intently! At this moment we basically have one prayer request, health and rest. This day has taken a lot out of the team and they need amazing sleeps at night. Pray for an over abundance of energy! :)

Well I should be getting to bed, it's almost 2AM here.

Buonas Noches!

(pardon the bad english skills, I've been up for a very long time...)

Colombia Team in Atlanta

God's timing is good! Despite a huge tornado that ripped through downtown Atlanta Friday night, the Colombia team landed safely this morning for their layover in the Atlanta airport, and are scheduled to depart to Bogota as normal. Jordan says the team is "rather sleepy, but have good spirits," and that it is "hot, insanely muggy and very busy." They will let us know when they arrive in Bogota.

Update From India

I received a call from Nicki at about 4:00 this morning, which was a pleasant 4:30 PM there! Here are some updates on the Kaleo team there:

• Matt has picked up a bug that has left him very sick and unable to keep things down. As is normal in such cases, their hosts (and Tim) took him to the hospital for a short period to avoid dehydration. They expected him back this evening. However, he may not have the strength to participate in the trek that begins at 7:00 AM tomorrow, in which case he would stay at the base with one of the hosts. Tim is also still recovering from his crazy schedule before the trip.
• They arrived at the base yesterday afternoon from Dehli, after a long but great day with tours of significant places such as Haridwar, and instruction by one of the hosts.
• The trek tomorrow will be about seven days, and will include much of the same areas that last year's team traveled. They will be led by one of the hosts and his daughter.
• The weather has been great - warm and sunny - with the possibility of a couple of hours of rain tonight, which would be good.
• The students love India! Some are already talking about returning, possibly even to teach there. The team is getting along well and is much appreciated by their hosts.

Let's keep them in our thoughts!

On The Ground in India

We just received a note from the couple hosting our India Team:

"Thank you for sending such an incredible team again!

Everything went smoothly in route, through customs and on to the hotel.
Everyone seems especially wiped but that is to be expected.

Tim and Nicki did a great scripture/prayer time tonight and now everyone
has hit the sack.

There is evidence of love, unity and desire to grow. Thank you
for your prayers."