After the success we had last year in visiting a public school, we requested an opportunity to do this again and we were NOT disappointed. On Wednesday morning, the entire team visited a school near the YWAM orphan home. We gave our presentations to hundreds of kids and their teachers. This was the first opportunity for some of our students to present their testimonies outside of the “friendly” confines of the orphan home. Amanda, Kayla, and Ben each did a great job. As usual, when we were done, the kids of the school mobbed the members of our team (they don’t get to see many non-Colombians and our kids were treated like rock stars).

We then went to our little favorite café for a quick soft drink or water (it has been very hot) and then loaded up to visit another nearby school. This one was in a very poor area and was itself in a poor condition. The children had to sit in an open-air courtyard and we prayed for the clouds to block out the hot sun and eventually they did. The presentations went great (Ben modified his a little to be more of a story/narrative of his own life) and the kids enjoyed the entire visit. Again we had to push through the thronging crowds just to get out. This time the kids were asking for autographs.

After lunch, we split into two teams with one going to a park in another very poor area of town. The other team returned to the first school that we had attended in the morning where we were able to address the older (middle and high school) students that were there for their split session. We borrowed a projector from YWAM and set that up in the covered courtyard and Ken did the same story of the Titanic that we use for the sketchboard but we were able to use powerpoint instead. These older students were VERY interested in the story.

The second group (that went to the school) walked back to the hotel afterwards and the first group rode back a couple hours later on the bus.