Home already?

Well, that's it I guess. My summer in Colombia is over. Samuel and I arrived Wednesday with bitter sweet feelings. I was so sorry to have to say good bye. "Despedidas", or farewells have always been hard for me, but this time it was like leaving my heart behind. Now on to trying to find contentment here in the US. God has been so good this summer, faithful to teach us and train us. My only prayer is that I might be able to use what I learned through the rest of my life.

So now what? Well I will be starting my Senior year in Highschool, and hopefully getting a part time job. I hope to continue working with a ministry that my church puts on called Friday Nighters. This is a ministry where we go down town every friday night and have a school gym open for kids from the neighborhood. There we play games with them, have a short worship time, a teaching time, and a one-on-one small groups after each lesson. I am also praying about teaching a Sunday school class, but that isn't decided yet. Samuel will be starting his Senior year at Emmaus Bridal *cough* I mean Bible =P College and is living at home this year so I get to be a wonderful little sister and pester him a lot. Just kidding.

But all in all, I am really sad to have left Colombia. There is the possibility that I will go back next year, but we'll have to see where God leads me. Right now He has me in Dubuque and I have to accept that and make the most of it. Ok, so no, it's not a horrible place. But it has no mountains, and not too many Colombians =P. It's also missing good Colombian cooking and the wonderful spring weather year round.

And, as far as I go, that's a wrap on my journey through Colombia.
Thank you all so much for your prayers. I could tell they were present anytime from the journey there, when I was with a family that I didn't know too well, to when we were with kids, to when I got sick, even down to the times I really wasn't working but I was sure learning a lot. All that to say that your prayers were appreciated and evident this summer.
Thanks again,
God bless,
Christina

Here, There, and Everywhere

Hi all,
So sorry I haven't posted at all for like the past 2 weeks. After the Lopez family, I went to my old teacher's house and stayed there till Sunday the 17th. While I was at her house I basically worked at my old school and helped the librarian with everything she had to get done. She is switching jobs this summer and it looks like the head librarian isn't coming back, so she has a lot on her plate right now. Not too much exciting happened that week, not too many people were around either so it was really quiet and kinda lonely. They are, however, taring down the old school building to make a soccer field so I'll post pictures of that.
Well, after that week, I went to a friend's house to be discipled and hang out and help out with them. I had a really fun week. They have a son who was either working or helping out in some ministry so seeing him was rare.  But i really enjoyed the discipleship because we went through most of the Emmaus Course "The Call to Holiness" which goes hand in hand with "The Call to Follow Christ" (which is not an Emmaus course). It's fun to think about why we should be holy: God says "Be holy for I am holy."
Holiness means that we are separated from the world and the sins of the world. God can't be in the presence of sin, so in order to be in His presence, we need to be holy.
Well I haven't finished the course yet, but I'll let you know what I learn when I do.

But now, after a drastic switch in plans for me, (I thought I was supposed to go to a farm for kids, run by the teacher that i was staying with) I was taken back down to camp which I really don't mind. Actually I'm really glad that I'm here. So now I'm sanding and painting tables and benches with Samuel. Not what I would call "fun" but it actually is kind of enjoyable because you can think about something else, or listen to music or adventures in odyssey while doing it. Unfortunately I forgot to bring the orbital sander down so I have to do it by hand, but i'm pretty ok with that.
So now you are all caught up and so am I.
Thank you all for reading this post (assuming you actually got this far)
Christina

Tables Benches Tables and more Benches

Hi again everyone,

I am still down at Camp in Villa de Leyva. Things have been going well. These last two weeks we have been working on sanding down and varnishing all the tables and benches in dinning room. This has been a slightly bigger task than we originally thought it would be. First we didn't have any power sanders. Thankfully one of the other missionaries in Bogota had a (very nice!) belt sander that he let us borrow. Now we are working on varnishing the tables that we have already sanded. The varnish is proving to be difficult and therefore the job is going to take more time than we had hoped. The largest problem is the varnishing because I will be able to sand everything by a week from Thursday (July 28, the day before I leave camp). But the problem is that there is a group coming in on Friday evening (July 29) and they will need to be able to use the tables (at least most of them). So we need to get that done. I also need to prepare for a sermon which will be presented on July 31. So time is a little short on many fronts. Please pray that God will make us wise to know how to spend our time this next week. Finally the Mendoza family (who live here at the camp as caretakers/administrators) are getting hit with some kind of a cold or the like. That is making everything a little more difficult, so pray for the whole situation.

Thanks,

Samuel

Hi Everyone,

After a weekend in Bogota I am now back down in Villa de Leyva. Today I have been sanding with a borrowed sander and it is super great! I love having power tools that will make my work much easier and quicker. I am glad I will actually have a chance of getting the job done before I leave. :) I am a little tired right now (the sander can really pull against me), but that is expected after a good days work. :) Thanks for keeping up and praying!

Samuel

Hi everyone, I am finally getting around to posting after too long. This long note I wrote a week ago. Hope you enjoy it. :)

This last week has been a crazy one (I guess 10 days really :) ). As I have said before the leader’s camp was good. It was tough, but I liked it. Then we had a 24 hour time to rest. During that time Mr. Easter and I went around helping get the camp in order for the kids and then we had supper at the pizza place that has the room upstairs and looks from the lower part of the plaza (next to the bank) up onto the church. It was good (as good as I remember :D ) and fun to be back where we had supper last time we were here.

Then Tuesday morning started out slow, but when we found out that the bus had actually left on time (I couldn’t believe it!) we went into panic mode. We started rushing around like chickens with our heads cut off and for me that was super stressing... That set the mood for the rest of the day so I was kinda frazzled the whole time. When the kids got here and we got organized things started working out and it was fun. We did lots of activities and had lots of time in the lesson room. It rained two of the days and that was kinda hard to keep the kids in an amused mood. But things went well. I had a good group and the guy I worked with was really helpful and a solid kids camp leader/counselor. We had fun and I think the kids (at least in my cabin came away a little different than they had arrived). This all seems so long ago as I write it down now because of the camp that just finished... WOW!

Anyway, on Friday we again got 24 hours to rest and relax a little. This time Mr. Easter left and therefore we didn’t get organized to help with the cleaning of the building etc. Therefore, Christina, two of the other leaders, and I went off to town and hung out there for most of the afternoon (at the french pastry shop). Then after supper (Carmesa and Mrs. Easter cooked that night and the next morning) we went back into town and hung out there till I finished with the internet and one of the other leaders finished watching his soccer game. We didn’t go to be too early that night (really bad idea!) and the next morning we got up early. That was a very relaxed morning ad we basically waited for everyone to show up from Bogota/Duitama. When the got here we got organized as counselors (Different leadership that was much more on top of things and more capable of organizing which was very good!). Then we kicked off the real activities with a great set of games that set the mood for the rest of the weekend. That made it a great weekend and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves very much. We did lots of games as we also had 5 very sermons done by Mr. Easer and Orlando Bueno. We used the system of meditation that was taught at the leader’s camp for a workshop after each sermon. The basic idea of the system is that you look at the verse or set of verses and divide it up into sections, main ideas, words, or key words and then you ask what does it say/mean and why does it say that? You as the questions in that order so that you can have a solid idea of what the verse actually says. It worked well and I think that some of the kids caught on really well. It was fun to watch them getting their hands “dirty” in the word even if they didn’t always communicate what they learned well and/or didn’t actually get the point of each verse. I was just happy to see some progress from the first workshop to the last. So generally this weekend was a great success and I liked it a lot.

Thinking again over this last week it has been great to connect with people that I knew before and to get to know people that I have never met before. The leader’s camp was especially neat for me because of all the leaders I had never met and yet they were all so easy to talk to (partly because I am “Jim Fleming’s son” ! and also because they are all there to learn so they just drop right into subjects about the bible or about what you are doing without a single problem.) So I had lots of good, fun, exciting, and encouraging conversations that weekend. It was good to see all the leaders together with the goal of better handling the word of God and also getting together to share with each other. I also got to know a lot of kids this week and that was good too. Two conversations that I have had in the last week really impacted me; the first one I had while talking to the administrator of the camp after a lesson during kids camp. We were talking about struggles we have in the christian life and it was really neat to encourage him to keep up with what he is doing because God IS working in his life. He knows it and I could share with him some of my experience this last year of how God has been working in my life and he seemed to be encouraged knowing that what he is feeling is positive. The second conversation was with one of the counselors at the youth camp. He is a guy that knew the gospel for a long time before he really accepted the Lord as his savior (to the point that he thought he was saved). He has had struggles as a result (in his pre-salvation experiences) and he feels like he waisted those years. Now he is very active, but he wishes things were different before. So, for him it is very encouraging and motivating seeing me working for the Lord because, while he can’t change his past (and actually he accepts that God worked the way he did for a reason), he can encourage and help others who are at my stage of life take advantage of what time they do have and on top of that he can keep going in the things of God himself. So those two conversations were really neat.

Samuel

A week with the Lopez family

Hi all,
Last week as just what I needed after 3 camps in a row! It was relaxing yet I was able to work and help Erika (the mother and wife) with any and everything. I got to her house on Monday and stayed there till today when I moved in with the Byes.
Erika discipled me for the week. We went through the first three chapters in the book of Luke, learning how to mark your Bible, and what we can get out of each passage. In all three chapters the humility of Christ seemed to be emphasized. There's the obvious humility shown when he was born in a stable, but after that the angle announced His birth to SHEPHERDS - not scribes or priests. His mother was nothing special, and Joseph was simply a carpenter. The fact that John, a man who could have claimed to be Elijah or even the Christ, was humble enough to know his place and even lived in the wilderness! Jesus was then baptized by John, who was infinitely lower in position than him.
So what can I - we get out of this? If Christ was willing to go from infinite GLORY with His Father, to one of the lowest estates of the time, how much more should we be willing to scum for Him? My prayer for my life, was that God, at the end, would be able to say "Well done, my good and faithful servant." Now my prayer is that He would say "Well done my good, faithful and humble servant."
Keep me in your prayers,
Love
Christina
***Irony of the week: I asked God that He would make me a humble servant, so He brought me to my knees right in front of the white, porcelain throne. Yeah, that's right, I've been feeling sick for the past day. Pray that it would be nothing more than a little food poisoning or something. Thanks for following, Christina***

The Fear of the Lord (pt. 2)

Hi all, 
In my last post I ended telling you about kids camp- which was only for days of last week. After the kids left on Friday, teenagers ages 13-18 came for an adolecent camp. This was a really scary experience for me because I only knew 2 girls out of the 80 kids that were there, and even then I didn't really know them because they were pretty young. It was still a good experience for me, even though I felt very much alone. 
The theme for this camp was also the fear of the Lord, but we had a much deeper study. The main speaker (Orlando Bueno) did an excelent job teaching this group. To honestly have the fear of the Lord, we have to understand who He is. In the five teachings we had we learned that God is:

• God is big (HUGE), and I am nothing. Here we studied how God sees all and knows all, His eyes wander the earth looking for the righteous. Does everything I do privately and publicly glorify God?
• God is judge, I am guilty. David Easter gave this talk, and he gave the illustration of when His brakes went out while driving through Bogotá.... not a good thing. The Fear of the Lord is like the breaks of the Christian life: it's hard to live this life if we don't fear God. He also gave a tidbit of the gosple and showed how he is Consuming Fire; sending all those who reject His gift of life to an eternal suffering. 
• God is holy like a fire. Here we talked about 7 specifics. 
• The purpose of the law (Deut. 6:1-5): to Fear God and love the Lord. 
• We also learned a little bit more about the Law. Read Leviticus 19 if you want to know what we talked about there.
• The sin of A. & S. (Acts 5) What was their sin, and what happened to them?
• The steps of sin (Joshua 7:21): You see, you covet, and you take. (James 1:13-15) It attracts us, it secuces us, we sin, and we die.  
• Who do we look like? (Isaiah 8:13) Regard the Lord as Holy, he should be your fear, and your dread. "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Arrogance, pride, and the evil way; I hate." Proverbs 8:13.
• Two types of sadness: of God and of the world (2 Cor. 7:10, Matt. 27)
• And the Holiness of God. Acts 3:19 Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; 
• The next lesson was on the Lord is Master. But something that I learned more was a "recipie"for the fear of the Lord:
• You have to have a desire to follow God
• A conviction of who you are in comparrison
• And a fear of the Consuming Fire.
• And lastly we learned that God is everything, and without Him I'm empty. 

Thank you all for keeping up with me,
I had a great time at camp and am looking forward to the rest of the summer. 
Sorry I don't have any more time to write. 
Thanks again
Christina

The Fear of the Lord, and the Fear of the Little Ones! (pt. one)

Well ok, the little ones aren't very scary, or scary at all, but it seemed like a good title.
Anyway, this past week has been a great week, but it has also been jam packed with events. Starting with Saturday, June 26th I went down to a town called Villa de Leyva (where Samuel is working, and is also the background of this blog.) There the assemblies have a camp where I worked. For the first three days ( Saturday, Sunday, and Monday) I worked in the kitchen with (obviously) the kitchen staff. The head cook had four daughters 18 and under that helped her out. She also had a friend of theirs helping, and three hired helps as well. It was fun getting to know them, but nothing compared to kids camp.
From Tuesday to Friday I also had the privileged of counseling with the head cook. (Her name is Alma). Together we were responsible for nine girls ages 6-9. We had a blast working with them teaching them, and watching how quickly they soak up information. The theme of this camp was the Fear of the Lord. We looked at who God is in comparison to us, what this Fear is, and why we should have it. As far as the kids were concerned they did a great job paying attention (at least as much as they could) and they responded well to the messages. We also presented the gospel throughout the camp explaining why they needed God and what would happen depending on the decision they make. The whole camp staff did an excellent job presenting the message to the little ones. On Thursday we went down to a really muddy place on the camp grounds and had them get all muddy. The mud represented their sin and how God sees us as unbelievers. Then in a little canyon they placed a log and brought the kids from death by having them sliding across the log. On the other side the kids were reciting Jn. 3:16, Romans 6:23 and other gospel verses. They then also want to sing a few songs, so on the way back to get cleaned up we did. That was probably one of my favorite parts of the camp. For some of the kids it was like "click" "I GET IT NOW". For others it was just fun getting dirty, but we pray that the seed was planted in their hearts.
It was sad to see the kids leave the next afternoon. Some of the counselors also left, while some stayed and worked in the next camp.
I would ask prayer specifically for the nine girls that were in my room: Maria Jose Niño, Maria Jose (last name unkown) Gabriela, Lina, Alieth, Enmanuela, Daniela, Lydia Easter, Laura. Pray that these girls would grow up to know Christ as their savior and Lord and that all they learned would stick in their minds. Also pray that they would continually attend a church and work hard to study their Bibles and be more like Christ.
Thanks so much for your prayers,
God really has given me a good summer so far and I don't want it to end.
Thanks again,
Christina

The fear of the Lord and the fear of little ones!

A week ago Saturday, I went down to a small town that in 3 hours north of Bogota. There the assemblies in Bogota have a camp. This first camp was an Elders-Deacons camp which was actually more of a short term seminarry. (Samuel, I'm sure will tell you more about it as he attended that camp.) From Saturday to Monday I worked in the kitchen mostly washing, drying, and putting away dishes. The rest of the time I was setting and clearing tables, or helping with small things. That weekend went by quickly.
On Tuesday kids from 6-13 years old came. As soon as they arrived we decided that it might be a good time to decide how we are going to divide them up, and what counselor is with whom. Yeah, not exactly effecient, but its Colombian style and eventually everything works out in the end anyway, so there's not really a need to worry right? I had the privlage of working with Alma, a wonderfully organized person. (She also was the head cook in the Elders camp.) We were put in charge of nine 6-9 year olds who were wonderful! The theme for this camp was the Fear of the Lord. Something we as Christians have lost in our walk with God. Our main memory verse for the week was Deuteronomy 10:12 which in spanish is "Ahora pues Israel, que pide Jehová tu Dios de ti, sino que temas a Jehová tu Dios y andes en todos su caminos, y que le ames y sirvas a Jehová tu Dios con toda tu corazon, y con toda tu alma. (Sorry didn't memorize it in english.) Anyway I was able to pay attention to a lot of what the the speakers (one being David Easter) had to say.
I have to go now as i am getting ready to make the "almuerzo"
I will tell you about youth camp and what i learned later  on
thanks for your prayers,
Christina

First Week at Camp

Hi Everyone,

This week was my first week at camp and it was a good one. Monday I got going by fixing a chainlink fence that was smashed by a fallen tree. Tuesday I cut grass and cleaned up the fallen tree. Then Wednesday and Thursday I painted lines on the Basketball court and cleaned some overspray paint of window sills and light fixtures in the dinning hall. Fin

ally Friday I cleaned the camp (with the family that takes care of the facility) so that it would be ready for the camps this weekend and next week. Everything is going well so far there.

This next week is going to probably be the most interesting for me. I am attending a leader's camp that is going to be a lot o

f teaching. Then Tuesday through Friday I am counseling at a kid's camp. Finally, Satruday through Monday I

am counseling at a teen camp. I would really appreciate prayer for an open heart during this time and that God would use me for His glory this week. (I am a little nervous about conseling having never done it before and then adding in a little bit of a language

barrier too. ) Thanks for all the prayer. :)

Samuel.

Lunch or supper??????

So this is a short post to share something that i thought was funny. we had breakfast at 9:30 or so, and at around 11 we had a small snack. the we had half a hot dog and half an arepa (corn flower and water mixed together then fried it in a little butter (sometimes they put cheese and sausage in it... at least that´s what we made)). so i thought that was lunch but to my surprise at 5 we were called for lunch. haha oh you gotta love colombians.
well thanks for putting up with my weird humor,
love you all for reading this,
christina

The view!

Well, today is my 17th birthday and I´m having a blast! I´m staying with a family from one of the churches here and they are so nice. The wife is 7 months pregnant and they have a three year old daughter. (I think little Sophia Easter has competion of cuteness). (BTW you have to forgive my spelling, I´m on a spanish keyboard and am lost without spell check). Anyway, this family lives on the 6th floor of an apartment building and have an incredible view of the city and mountains. Tomorrow I start working at ECS and hope to go to camp on friday. Pictures will come when I can use my own computer. So for now I wish you all a great day, may God bless you.

Oh ok so if you ever come to visit don´t be alarmed by the driving.
Also I was reading in the book of Ezekiel chapter 3 where God is telling to go to the house of Israel and preach. He said not to worry about speaking because He wasn´t sending him to a place with a strange language and that He would give him the words to say. I found this really comforting as camp is comming up and I´m not sure that I can be effective in teaching the kids what they need to know.
Well that´s all for now,
Thanks for keeping up,
Christina

Hi from the Easter's House

Well, I am here at the Easter's House. Plans have come together for me to be going down to Villa de Leyva Sunday afternoon. I will start working on Monday. As of right now the first job has not been settled, but it will be something smaller because next weekend there will is an elders and deacons camp coming down. As I go out for work this next week I would appreciate prayer for safety in travel as well as in my work. On top of that I have some work to do in preparation for counseling at the kids camp in a week, so I would appreciate prayer for that.

Thanks,

Samuel

Get ready.... get set.....

Ok, so we finally made it. We traveled all day yesterday from Dubuque to Bogota, and arrived around 11:30 last night. Praise the Lord that immigration didn't give us any trouble as we were entering on two different passports. (I had to come in as a Colombian, and Samuel as an American.) Right now we are staying with the Dubberlies (spelling?) and are adjusting to the altitude. On Monday I head off to my first full week of work at Emmaus Correspondence School and will be there till Friday when I head off to camp.
We praise God that we got here safely and now are excited to see His plans for the two of us.
That's all I have to say,
Christina

15 days and counting

So we have 15 days left till we leave and they are  really starting to fill up. Next weekend we will visit little Anna again (Ah-nn-ah) and this will be the last time before we come back in August. But school is out, the days are beautiful, and we are simply enjoying Gods creation. Last weekend the Iron Sharpens Iron conference was on at Emmaus Bible College and this year's theme was missions. So it was a good send off message for me.
Basically this is so that you guys have another chance to follow us as we tell you about what we've been doing in the summer and how God is working in our lives.
It would be great if you could pray for the two of us as we go. Thank you so much,
Chrissy

BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi all,
This blog is to let you all know where Samuel and I are and what we're doing. We will be going to Colombia to work for 7 weeks. Samuel will be staying at a camp called Villa Peniel. There he will be doing labor work for most the time we're down there. I, on the other hand, will be floating from house to house, getting discipled,  I think that's how you spell it, working in kids camps, working at Emmaus Correspondence Courses, Bogota Colombia, and also staying with some old friends of ours.
But for now we are celebrating the newest generation of the Fleming family! Sharon Anna Fleming was born the 20th of May at 3:02 P.M. We will call her Anna. So here we are SUPER excited!
So now we will keep you updated through the summer.
Please keep us in mind and in your prayers

Chrissy