Lost in Translation

Well, we made it to Bogotá, and since Holly already blogged about the trip I´ll skip that to give you my first impressions of being a missionary in this country.

I had forgotten how gargantuan this city is! For the first three days my head was spinning just trying to find my bearings. Thankfully I´m starting to understand how the addresses work here. They just changed them all a month or so ago, so even some of the Colombians are learning. The system is logical . . . the calles go towards the mountains, while the carreras run parallel to the mountains. The numbers go logically based on their distance north/south and their distance from the mountains. I´ve driven a few times already, which was a little tramatic the first time but is now "normal."

Speaking of driving, you have to not make mistakes. For example, I made the mistake of thinking I could get off a road under construction, but it took over an hour to get to a turn-around. Traffic is incredible if you take the wrong road at the wrong time. Picture moving five feet on each change of the stoplight. It´s a wee bit different than Hibbing, MN or Ames, IA!

Holly and I have essentially felt overwhelmed with all that has to be done to get set up here. In the first week and two days we have: filed for our cedulas (ID cards), received our shipment from the States, begun the process of getting a driver´s license, and worked on a bunch of paperwork to rent a house.

Renting a house is not a simple task either. They want to have two cosigners just to rent a house, which both need three or four documents to show their income, position, property, etc. We turned that in yesterday, so we´ll see if we got approved or not. We are very pleased with the house that we´ve picked out, since it´s fairly close to the seminary building (about 10 minutes or less), has a good price, and has all that we need.

We set a new record for getting our shipment out of customs. I got there at about 11 a.m. and had our shipment to the guest house garage by about 3 p.m.! Usually it has taken between two to five days to get this done. Apparently many of you are praying because I´ve been stumbling my way through, and it´s been working.

We visited the Tunal church last weekend, where Holly´s parents ministered. They are doing very well and now want help to start a mission agency to send missionaries to different cities in Colombia. Their goal is to send one couple every four years. I surely don´t feel like an "expert" in that area, but I´m definitely willing to help in any way possible. We also may begin our work with a young pastor who is ministering in Suba. This part of the city has grown tremendously . . . I remember hearing that it had about two million people. We´ll keep you posted as we see God´s direction unfold.