April update

This will be somewhat random in order, but let's see if I can get down some thoughts about the happenings of the past months.

The first thing that comes to mind are the recent developments in the life of Camilo, our neighborhood friend who was living on the streets for several months until finding a cheap habitation close by where he has been able to stay for the past couple of months. Slowly, signs of progress have been showing themselves. Camilo is generally an upbeat guy, and almost always pleasant to be around. In many ways he is not the typical drug addict on the streets. He's intellegent, college educated, speaks passable english, and has a great desire to change his life. A steady job has been his goal for the past couple of months. Finally it looks like he has a good chance of seeing that come to fruition. Somehow, he got an "in" at the local governemnt office, and has been going through the application process. Today in fact, he is in a training course of some sort for the morning. It's been great to see him excited about the possiblity of getting a job, and being one step closer to a better life. Last week was Tyler's birthday, my roomate, and we took Camilo with us for the best hamburgers in Bogota; Golden Corale. More than once he expressed how much he missed having friends to pass time with. As he put it in spanish, I'll translate, "I've turned into nothing more than a small animal, that has no life." But the great thing to see that night was his hope for something different, a life apart from the drugs that have nearly destroyed him. We are all hoping greatly that he gets the job.

The effects that drugs have on a persons´ life are far too easily seen by walking the streets in and around my neighborhood. Each night as I comfortably settle into bed, there are men sleeping on the sidewalk down the street from my house, each one of them, just like Camilo, trapped by drugs. Carlos is another young man that we have become friends with over the past couple of months. He is 29 years old, and has much less hope, it seems, to escape. Quite regularly he stops by our house for a chat, or to ask for something to eat, or clothes, and is almost always completely incoherant. He's been on the streets for much longer, and in many ways is more typical of the type of person roaming the streets for their next coin to get drugs. In talking to him, he has little hope for change. Usually his response to a friendly question like "what's going on?", is something like, "just waiting for the end of the world brother." In spite of the overwhelming despair, I believe in the possibility for change, and believe in the power of friendship and a little love. If you find it in you, pray for Carlos. Pray that somehow he comes to see a hope for new life. A hope for change. A hope for contact with other people. A hope for renewal. A hope in himself. A hope in God.

Something that I'm continually challenged with is this: what is my response the needy, the outcast, the unloved, the poor? I have periodically been reading "Works of Love" by Soren Kierkegaard. I can't recomend it highly enough. He presents our calling to love our neighbor exactly as it is; a commandment, free from distinctions, preference, and anything but easy. It is something that we must will ourelves to do, dedicate ourselves to do, choose to do, remembering that it is not optional, but a duty.

"It is in fact Christian love which discovers and knows that one's neighbour exists and that - it is one and the same thing - everyone is one's neighbour. If it were not a duty to love, then there would be no concept of neighbour at all. But only when one loves his neighbour, only then is the selfishness of preferential love rooted out and the equality of the eternal preserved."

In other news, over the past two months I have been working at "Luz y Vida". (Becuase of a ministry rule that doesn't allow for "couples" to work together, I was forced to move from the Other Way to the school. "Couples?" you wonder? Well, yes, I guess it should be said that I've met a pretty cool girl from Texas who also works at the Other way.) Each day we go with the bus to Colombianita, the same community that the kids from the Other Way come from, to pick up a group of kids to bring back to the school for the day. It's a small group, 11 in total, but they are a handfull. I'm currently working with two of the kids one on one, tuturing in math and spanish, and teaching computer classes to all the kids at different times during the week.

Unfortuantely the governemnt has been threatening to bull-doze Colombianita and relocate the families to a section in the south of the city called Ciudad Bolivar. Ciudad Bolivar conisists of about 2.1 million people, many of whom were displaced becuase of the war, and nearly all who are extremely poor. Currently, Colombianita is situated close to the center of the city, within reach of us and many other resources that might be able to help the kids. If they are relocated to the south, they will be placed in the largest pool of poverty, drugs, paramilitaries, and violence in all of Bogota, too far for us to reach. The thought of loosing the kids is freightening. We have been working with many of the kids for the past two years, and have poured so much into them. To see them go would be a tragedy. As it stands the date for the destruction of Colombianita is May 30th. As well, the government has decided to give many of the families money, in hopes of convicing them to leave peacfully and with a hope to start a life somewhere else. If in fact they are relocated, the coming months will be increadibly difficult for many of the volunteers in our ministry.

On a lighter note, I, along with several others, have bought a bike. I now find myself zipping in and out of traffic, pretending I'm on a motorcyle, passing cars and busses trapped in traffic jams. It's awsome! I've found that I can get anywhere I need to go, even the north which is about 100 blocks, or 45 minutes, as quick or quicker than by bus. I save money, get exercise, it's winner. Tomorow Luke, another volunteer, and myself, are planning on taking a trip up into the mountains, to a lake about 60 kilometers from Bogota. It will be a good test of how much endurance I've built up over the past two weeks zipping around town.

Did I mention that I'm going to Alaska?? For one week in May I'll be in Alaska for Adri's brothers wedding. Can't flippin wait. Not to mention how excited I am to see everyone in Ohio. And Amish Country. It seems the more time that passes, the older I get, the more attached I become to the simpleness and beauty of Holmes county. I miss the rolling hills, fresh air, green grass, motorcycle rides, family...all of it, even the smell of fresh manure.