Holiday Greetings from Colombia!

The neighborhood kids!

  When I came to Bocachica I thought. "The only thing I can offer the people here is my time." Before I could even do that, I had to learn the language (I am still learning!) I spent some time during my days simply talking to those in the community. I enjoy the people here. I love hearing stories of life here on the island. They love to hear stories of what life was like in the states. I am fond of the children who come here day in and out to play with my kids. This past month spoke to me as they gave back to us!

  This past November was a month full of sickness for our family. Nate, some of the kids, and I had a virus that included fevers. The kids' and mine lasted a couple of days...but Nate, had fever for 20 days. He ended up in the hospital for 6 days. They never came to the conclusion of what caused the fever. One doctor thought it was a tropical illness contracted from a mosquito that they may not have testing for. Whatever caused it, I am thankful it has run it's course, and I am grateful that he is healthy again.

  Most of all I am thankful for relationships. I have been blessed by the island people here while my husband was sick. Whenever I was on the boat people would ask about my husband. On my walk from the boat to the house, neighbors would come out of their houses and offer to help around the house, keep the children, and pray for us. When Nate came home we had days where the house was full of visitors from the community. Our year of getting to know the people here has turned into something that feels familiar to home. Those who love you check on you, help you, and pray for you in a time of need. They take the time out of their day as much as Nate and I have done with them to have a "relationship".

Nate taking the water filter out of the mold.

Prayer requests:
Please pray with us as we work on finishing our first water filter. Nate's sickness has prolonged this process, but we are excited to get this ministry up and running. Please also join us in praying for funding of this project. It is our desire to help those in this community of 12,000 by making clean water available to them.

Please pray for the youth here in the community. As our relationships grow stronger it is hitting closer to our hearts when the young women we know are getting pregnant. We know a 13 year old girl who is 3 months pregnant, a 15 year old having her second child, and a 17 year old who has dropped out of school to have a baby. Please pray the Lord would do a work in this community and help them see this is a cycle that needs to be broken.

Pray that God would be glorified in all we do here!

Thank you all who support us monthly. We could not be here in Bocachica with out your help!
We are currently only at 60% of our funding. If you would like to help support us monthly please contact us by email at Ariel.family.mission@gmail.com. Support checks can be mailed to:
Antioch Community Church
Elon, NC. 27244
Please write Colombia in the memo line
(remember all donations are tax deductible!)

We pray you and your families have a blessed Christmas!

With Love,
The Ariels

January

As we turn to a new calendar year, I reflect back on all that God has done in 2011. I never would have imagined that 13 years into marriage, 7 kids later, 2 business to close down, houses to have rented out that we would move out of the United States and move to Bocachica, Colombia. A friend of ours from church sent a link from 9 years ago, He and Nate took their first mission trip down here, and they built an apartment on the mission site and today.....9 years later we now call this home. I can look back over the 13 years of marriage and see how God placed certain things in our path to bring us to this point. From moving away from our family to a new state as we began marriage. My husband owning his own construction company. Having the desire to show others how to construct things properly and well. From homeschooling our children to placing us in a church that believes and supports us in what we are doing. How great is our God! It is nice to see how many years the Lord had this in his plan and we can see it come together.

  Life here has been busy! Nate works daily on the medical clinic that the mission hopes to open this spring. He is working with individuals in the community and teaching them how to do concrete and working with them on fixing the roof. I still teach the children their studies, and we have Spanish classes 3 days a week. I can see the kids use more and more of the language and must confess my 10 year old corrects me on my sentence structure.

 We have enjoyed making new friends here on the island. We have many people now whom we visit. We have enjoyed 'Than's 4th birthday and Christmas here with our new friends. We are busying helping with needs they may have and my kids now have the desire to bake for families they come in contact with. We are rubbing American food off on them. I have been asked by many women here on the island to have cooking classes for them.

Here is a family we have become close with. Guillermo and his wife Mary Lendi, and their three kids. Nate had known Guillermo from his mission trips here prior to us moving. He works with Nate on projects and any thing we need Guillermo is there to help us. His wife and I have become friends and she has started coming to Bible study here. Please pray for them, that they would all come to know the Lord.

Thank you for your prayers and support for us! We have been blessed to see Him working here in Bocachica. Please pray that a Doctor or Nurse would come to work here at the mission. That the construction on the medical clinic would be finished on time and pray that our presence here on the Island would show Christ's love!

Blessings to you and your families,
With love,
Nate and Tara and all the kids :)

My how the time has flown by

Philippians 1:3 I thank God upon every remembrance of you.

Time is a funny thing. I remember time as a child being idle. One year to the next just seemed to creep by. From Thanksgiving to Christmas seemed to be the longest month ever. Even as an adult, when I have something to look forward to; time still seemed to slowly pass. I have had seven children and waiting to meet each one of them, time stood still. 

On April 3rd we started our process to move to Bocachica. From that point on time seemed to accelerate! The process to pack up everything we owned, to sell everything we were not going to take with us, and to finish the jobs we had before us made the time fly by. On October 30th our time came to say good bye to the only house my children have ever known and to board our plane for our new home awaiting us in Colombia. 

Saying our goodbyes was harder than I had thought they would be. Our friends in NC had become family to us. Our neighbors had loved our children more than I ever could have imagined. We had been blessed to have wonderful Godly friends help mold our family. 

When we left our house on Oct 30th it was 36 degrees and when we arrived in Bocachica to a tropical dream. The plants are a hearty green and the weather is typically 80+ degrees for this season. We have been welcomed with open arms from the staff that we now have communal living. 

Life here on the island is very different than what we are used to in the states. No more calm days on my street where our kids made the most noise in the neighborhood. Now we exchange that for music being played from house to house day in and night. It’s amazing how fast your get used to the sound and recognize the songs even if you don’t know the language. Here they are not custom to picking up after themselves as we are in America. The streets here a lined with trash and the animals roam freely. Most children here play with out parental guidance. They flock to us and desire attention. My kids play with them with no hesitation and the barrier of language has not become an issue. In fact we have many new friends for the kids. We now have worked out a schedule and we have daily visitors. All girls have playmates whom we see regularly.  One girl Kelly who is 16 has helped us with our insect bites. Her Grandmother makes this liquid called “cocolina” It is made from a root of a plant and mixed with rubbing alcohol and water. When we first arrived we looked like we had the chicken pox, and with our pale skin it was very noticeable. We put this medicine on every night and the bugs seem to leave us alone. 

The evenings here are so comfortable as the temperature drops with the sun going down. The boats in the water are beautiful to look at as the city of Cartagena starts to light up behind them in the distance. Most of all it’s my favorite time as we take a walk before dinner and visit families here who we are getting to know. It seems like a lot of attention can go to the kids as they are excited to see us, but the adults tend to stay in the back ground. Nate and I would like to establish some good relationships with the families here on the island. 

Stay tuned as in the next couple of months we will share what the Lord is doing in our lives. Please also look at the pictures Nate posted on our blog of the work being done on the clinic. We can’t wait for the first wing to open up and the difference it will make here for the locals to get medical attention. 

Thank you for your love, support and prayers for our family!

Blessings,

Nate, Tara and kids ;)

our first newsletter