Twice a year all of the missionaries in Colombia come together. In the spring they spend three days in Bogota for business meetings. In the fall they come together with families for a retreat and a little bit of business, seek too. We had a great opportunity to get to know the missionaries outside of Bogota. We all met in Medellin, another city in the mountains. In the evenings we had services with a special couple, the Homers, from Wisconsin. Mrs. Homer had an amazing testimony of growing up Amish and how her life changed when her family left the Amish. During the days we had some fun time. We spent one day on a Chiva bus touring some small shops, a pottery shop, a hide tanner – that we found funny because they paint cow hides to look like giraffes and zebras, a “cheesecake” factory, a place where single moms make big plush rugs, so thick they could be used as beds, and a few more stops, but the kids (okay, and us) were worn out long before the trip was over. The next day we got to do Maggie’s favorite thing – go horseback riding! That made up for us dragging them on the long bus ride. During this trip Alex thought he’d convince his caretaker that he was allowed to walk on top of the monkey bars…so he has a nice shiner in a few of these pictures. We had Thanksgiving dinner with our missionary family. It was so nice to have a little bit of that home feeling. We found out that we have a great group of missionaries here in Colombia!
~Tona