Spirit

A "spirit" of calm and tranquility has come over the office today. A great relief after some tense weeks before the national extraordinary assembly over the weekend. This comes together with some long awaited and much needed rain in Colombia, giving a peaceful feeling.

Looking towards the misty mountains on the rainy yet peaceful day. Photo by Curtis.

Celebrate

Today is the 4th Sunday of Lent, as has been the case with every Sunday, the word for today, again, is celebrate. This morning in worship was a true celebration. Vida Nueva (the church were we usually attend in Bogota) hosted the Assembly worship. It was a packed house! The new Executive Committee of the church, including the new bishop, were commissioned and installed in worship.

(Left to right) Outgoing Bishop, Pastor Gustavo Torres leading the commissioning. Incoming Bishop, Pastor Benjamin Ojeda. Vice-Bishop, Pastor Atahualpa Hernández. Secretary, Andrea Ayala. Treasurer, Antonio Lara. Parliamentarian, Alex Suarez. Member, Alba Averalo. 

Endure

What a word for today. The IELCO held its extraordinary assembly today, electing a new bishop. The assembly elected the skilled and experienced Pastor Benjamin Ojeda (a former bishop, and retired pastor), who will now have to "endure" the tough job ahead of him. Please keep Pastor Benjamin and the new administration in your prayers during this time of transition.

From left to right: me (Curtis), Pastor Raquel Rodriquez, Director for Latín America and the Caribbean of the ELCA, Pastor Patricia Cuyatti from the Lutheran World Federation, Pastor Benjamin Ojeda (newly elected Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Colombia) and Katie.

Help

The word for today is 'help'. Tomorrow begins the National Assembly for IELCO. The church will be having very important conversations about the leadership and future of the church. So today, we ask for help from all of you, please join us in prayer for IELCO, the leadership of the church, all the pastors, and the Holy Spirit to move in all speaking and voting at the assembly. Come, Holy Spirit, come!

The office has a weekly devotion, this morning Pastor Nelson lead the devotions, and brought everyone
one of these El Salvadoran crosses. The opening song we sang (text shown) "Another World is Possible". 

Found (Find)

Restaurants in Bogota, for lunch, are incredibly inexpensive. In Colombia, lunch is the biggest meal of the day. One of our best 'finds' for lunch is 14 Sillas, we often have our lunch here (and after a lunch so huge, a very small dinner). The restaurant is about 2 blocks from the office, so a very easy walk. A lunch, at a nicer restaurant like this, will run about $3 a person. 

The menu for lunch today: cream of vegetable soup, rice, choice of meat shredded pork with
vegetables, chicken or steak, mixed fruits and patacon (fried plantain) 

Power

With the recent drought in Colombia, the power (electricity) has been unreliable. Because our apartment building is a new building, the power has been extra unreliable. We have had to go to sleep some nights hoping that there will be power the next day.

Power lines outside of the IELCO offices. Photo by Curtis.

Witness

One of the ideas of the photo-a-day for Lent was to blog about our day to day life a little more. Well, the truth is, some days are just sitting in the office working, nothing overly exciting. When I saw today's word, witness, I was excited to share a project I have been working on. Sunday School lessons for Lent, written by and for Sunday School teachers within IELCO. I am working on the designing, they are being emailed out weekly for the teachers. I have one left, and that is Easter Sunday (hoping to get it done by the end of the day).

The Sunday School lessons starting with Ash Wednesday, it will finish with Easter Sunday.