One of the regrets we had from last year’s trip was that we didn’t get an opportunity to spend more one-on-one time with the orphans. So this year, we deliberately scheduled an entire day to play and interact with the children. Because of the schools being in double sessions, we had different kids in the morning than in the afternoon.

In the morning, we had several of the older boys with us who wanted to play sports so we split up with part of the team playing soccer and basketball with the older boys and the other part of the team playing games with the little children. After games, we headed back to the orphanage in order to purchase and serve lunch to the children and staff. After lunch, Ken played his famous Baseball Card game with the boys (who begged to play again) and then headed back to the park with a new batch of kids (all younger) for more soccer and other games.

There we met a young man (16 years old) named Luis Rafael who was in a government relocation program. He had been abandoned by his family and entered a paramilitary group in the jungles at the age of 9. He had recently been relocated by the government temporarily to Medellin. Ken engaged him in a long conversation and learned about his background and shared the gospel with him. He was definitely impacted by the encounter and we encouraged him to stay in touch. There is a chance that he will be relocated to the United States.

We walked back to the orphanage and then back to the hotel to crash after a long, hot, busy day.