Colombia Day 4 - Teaching in the Mountains (& Ruth's Bday!)

Happy birthday to you, happy birth… wait we’re in Colombia. Cumpleaños feliz, Cumpleaños feliz!  Feliz Cumple Ruth!Today was a day of birthday surprises for Ruth Fox, we all signed a t-shirt in her favorite color which also happens to be our team shirt color which also happens to be the color shirt her sister sent down as her present, none of which were planned. She also got a bag of her favorite candy, skittles, and her favorite gum.After the morning festivities, we all packed into the van and rode up to a mountainous area of Bogota. We walked up to the only point in Bogota where you can see the whole city. It was quite the spectacular view. We prayed on the mountain and went to meet all the children waiting for us back at the church. When we arrived, all the children were just getting ready for worship. We started joining in and then we were invited to go up, ok… so all went up and started to sing and play the song they just sang, Here I Am to Worship. Luckily I knew the song well enough to play it, but it was definitely an impromptu opportunity to connect with the local ministry. After the worship set, the children (and basically everyone else) followed us to the park down the street for a mini children’s program. We started with a simple game of dodge ball (so we thought), which then turned into an hour ordeal, but that’s ok because everyone had a blast! After dodge ball, we taught the children Las Armas de Dios, that was also a fun time: oracion, espada… el yelmo… escudo… Anyway, after Las Armas, we sang another song: Happy Birthday, again! This time complete with cans of silly string!  After the silly string was sprayed, Richard told the story of Joseph. Five costume changes a piece!  After the story, we all prayed and then left for the church to have lunch. We all loved the kids we met there today and it was hard to say goodbye to everyone.After the hour drive back to downtown, we got a tour of the government buildings then went shopping. Then we went out for a light dinner. At dinner, we had cake and… sang Happy Birthday! Also at dinner we left the restaurant and went back to the hostel. Amanda wanted to bake special gluten & dairy free cookies for Ruth’s Birthday. After doing everything humanly possible, (except deep frying) the cookies ended up as some new concoction spread for breakfast (the altitude was not agreeing with Amanda)As I close tonight’s post, please pray for the kids we met today, and for Bogota as a whole. There is so much need here and there aren’t a lot of willing servants. Also pray for the ones who are here listening to God’s call and ministering to the people here. Also, please be praying for the team, that we would all stay healthy and those that are not feeling 100% would feel better soon.Thank you and good night,- Drew for the team