Closer to water but still need help.

July in Bocachica is just as hot as it was in North Carolina. The air seems thick and sun is always present. The good thing is that doesn't slow us down. We have been busy getting ready to purchase the desalinization machine. We have raised a little more than half the funds for this project. Nate, while waiting for more funds to come in has been planning ahead getting everything ready for the day we buy this valuable machine. We have purchased land at the bottom of the hill, dug a well, dug trenches in the street all the way up the hill to put in the tubing for the water to come up our hill. Finally, last week, Nate finished the work by building a storage shed where we will store a pump in the well to have a constant feed of water to our neighborhood.

Trish and Emory McChargue came to Bocachica for 8 days to work along side us.They are missionaries from Louisiana working in Bogota.  Emory was a big help to Nate with all of his projects. It was refreshing talking to them about missionary life and encouraging one another in the Lord.
Not to mention my kids had a blast playing with this couple! We look forward to them returning for another visit.

Emory helping with the footer for the storage shed over the well.

Emory making cement.



digging up the street to lay the tubing for the water.

just keep digging.

Up the hill they go!

Inside is the well, and the pump that will drive the water up the hill for our neighborhood.


 We are fighting just to have access to water daily. If you would like to give to this project please email us or click on the donate button on this page. Thank you for joining us in praying for a solution to this problem.

Many blessings to you and your family. Have an enjoyable August!

The Ariels

~Wedding in Bucaramanga~

We went to a wedding in Bucaramanga yesterday, it has been quite a trip. Our kids have lost the ability to ride in cars on land, put them in a boat, no problem, but a car? They cried after the first time of motion sickness and throwing up, but by the time we got to Bucaramanga they were used to throwing up. Hopefully the trip home will be less eventful.
 The weather here is awesome, a relief to the continual peak summer of Bocachica. The kids loved playing outside, lots of soccer in the park. Everything is green here. The mornings here are like a fall day, and it heats up to about 80 and then starts to cool down.

 The wedding of Lina and Javier was a fun experience as well, the couple has a wonderful testimony about being faithful to the Lord to wait for the right person. Their testimony before this day is great, and the celebration of the next chapter is great to be a part of. Both parts are what I am glad that our family could be a witness of.
 One the of the things that is a privilege about a mature Christianity is to be part of the redemption and expressions of the action of matrimony. The setting was beautiful, the sermon presented Christ in marriage, the food was good, the music was top quality. This may seem common, and many people today are trying to downsize the celebration of marriage, but it is a powerful testimony to the next generation of young folks coming up. If you are investing in marriage this much, it must be important. In Bocachica, the majority see no need to get married not because of the cost but there is little value given to marriage. Christ could have picked any physical relationship to represent His relationship to the church, but He chose marriage. Christ could have chosen the relation of  a general to the army to express the relation between Christ and the Church, but He chose marriage. This is where marriage gets it high value. Part of the gospel then is honoring marriage and holding it in high esteem.
 We enjoyed being a part of the marriage yesterday, and we look forward to the future for Lina and Javier. It is a joy to see my kids look forward to such events in excitement because they enjoy it now and are looking forward to their own possibilities of the future.

Photo update for June

June is gone, it went by fast, here are some photos for the month:



Vincent helping with the filters.

stripping the mold on a new filter

 

 

 

the second floor walls are about half way, we are waiting on brick from the company to be able to finish



This is the building for storing the filter tools at Werlin's house. The Maryland team gave funds to build it.

Leni from Germany is visiting friends in Bocachica during her vacation. It is great to have her here.

Tara with the ladies at the mother's day party

Alicia, Jaiden, Kristen, and the other dancers did a thank you dance for the moms.

Though not hygienic Patrick dutifully washes the table ~ cute

The girls made a tippy tap which washes hands. thoroughly with little water 

We have lost electricity a lot this month, one day we went to the city to watch the game at the mall, there was quite a crowd there.

Boys playing with the Yeiker.
 

The family with  Julia, a visitor from Pennsylvania, celebrate Germany's victory with Leni.

That concludes the photos for this month, next month we are looking forward to getting started on the desalinization project, getting the rest of the brick for the second floor delivered, and we have more visitors stopping in. Hope you all have a good month, thank you for the prayers and support.

“The Lord bless you and keep you;
 The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
 The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.”
Numbers 6:24-26

Water costs

Being poor cost more. You may think that if you are poor only cheap things are available since that is all you can afford. Quality wise that is true, the quality of tools, building material, electronics, food are worse. Yet, basic food prices are higher, people buy the necessities for the day, and a result a single tomato costs more than if you were to buy by the  kilo. All this adds up to the poor paying sometimes double what middle income person would pay for any particular item.
  The greatest disparity is water here in Bocachica. Some people can't get their head around the difference. Normally a desalinization machine would be economically crazy to buy to clean water because water is so cheap, but that is not the case here.
 I will give a comparison of Burlington, NC to Bocachica, Colombia:
 Burlington, NC base rate for water in the city is per 1000 gallons:
                1000 gallons = $2.92 USD
 Bocachica, Colombia rate per 1000 gallons:
                 1000 gallons = $22.32 USD
This is the price if you have a cistern available to store water in bulk

The price for water delivered to your door in Bocachica costs a minimum of:
                 1000 gallons = $44.64 USD
if you live farther and have to pay transportation the cost can go as high as
$88.00 dollars per 1000 gallons.

  As a result this affects every part of the people's lives. We have visitors who come and ask why people don't have gardens. The lack of the basic needs increases the poverty. A hand up isn't possible if there is nowhere up to go. After an extended period of poverty to this degree, a new normal is established. People here don't see this as great need, they have adopted to the lifestyle of living off of 30 gallons of water a day for a family of four. A price that is affordable to their wage. Try and live a day off of 30 gallons for your family, and you will quickly see how limiting it is for you. The world today has the technology to make the water cheaper. The problem here is what is the acceptable norm as well as the corruption of the government won't allow for the ability to obtain clean water. When I say government I realize that it is made up of people, and that is who are corrupt. The people steal and cheat their own people.
 As Christians we are called to preach the gospel, and part of that is the works that accompanies the good news. We are trying to ease the burden and a way we can do that is finding a way to meet the immediate needs here. We can do that through water, a tangible way to help the people.

 We are looking at purchasing a desalinization machine which will extract the salt from the ocean, and give the people here clean water. The cost may seem high but it will pay for itself quickly, and provide a greater quantity of water at a better price. If we were to sell the water exclusively at the rate they sell here we could regain the whole investment in a year. This technology will actually allow the cost of water to be lowered which will open doors for higher water usage and the ability for new projects like gardening.
  The water project presents the possibility to provide water for the least of these (Matthew 25:40)
We would love for you to join in with us to make this happen soon.
Please consider this opportunity, and thank you for your support.

 We need about $15,000.00 dollars to buy a machine and install it here in Bocachica, right now we have about 4,000 dollars. Invest in the people here, and bring the gospel to them in a real way!

We have videos from Snoot photography about the water here as well, if you would like to see the context of what we are taking about, click here There are others on the main channel here as well

 You can give by sending checks to:
Antioch Community Church
1600 Power Line Rd
Elon NC 27244
 Write pure water in the memo

Or on the left hand side of the above bar click on the "partner with us" logo and give via paypal.








                 

Pure water project happening now!

Urgent~
We have a problem here in Bocachica. As many of you know there is no fresh water on the island, as a result the water is shipped in from Cartagena.Many of you know we also live up on a hill. It isn't to high, but it adds to the problem.
 Our neighbors have a cistern, and for the past year have been kind enough to share it with us. Recently, they have been expanding the project there, and wanted us to get our own cistern. The cost of a cistern is high.
 Another problem now is the ships that bring the water to us don't want to do it because the hill is too high for the pump. So it is hard to get someone to bring us water,  we have no water service to our neighborhood. The folks around us have to walk about a half mile to get water everyday now. (the other local cistern is closed) That means a family of four, which uses about 30 gallons of water a day,  needs to make three trips to carry two 5 gallon jugs, or pay someone to bring it by donkey.

 There are a lot of solutions to these problems, but the most cost efficient long term and best answer is to use a reverse osmosis machine. It takes the salt water from the ocean, and removes the salt giving us pure water.

this is a sample of what the machine may look like

 This cost a bit more in the beginning, but pays back very fast.
 The biggest benefits of the system are:

Water on demand
No more waiting and fighting with the water ships.
More water at a cheaper price in the long run.
It will provide water for about 30 + families in our neighborhood, a total of about 135+ people.
This will give the missionaries that live behind us a salary by selling the water. (The system needs very exact maintenance.)

 We are researching the best system, right now the best price for a system that we need here is going to cost about $15,000.00 USD. This will give us enough water for us and enough to provide the neighbors with water also.

 We have about $3000.00 allotted for water purification. The church mission behind is going to put money in, but we need more money to be able to buy this machine.
 
 If you would like to help with this project we would really appreciate it.
This is very important to daily life, and this is an investment that will produce a living as well as give water to people who need it. It is a small price in relation to all the benefits that will result from the technology.

If you would like to contact us directly you can do so by emailing us at: ariel.family.mission@gmail.com
 If you want to give there are various ways:

You can send checks to:

Antioch Community Church
P.O. Box 40
Elon, NC. 27244

or click on "partner with us" in the left hand side bar above


Thank you for all you do already!
With love,
The Ariels

How do you measure progress?

I have a confession; I thought being a missionary would be easy. You share the word of the Lord with others, they listen and change their life for the better. An easy recipe. However, after living a missionary life for the last 2.5 years, I have found it's just not that "easy."

You see there is a young man whom we have built a relationship with here on the island. He has worked along side my husband, played with my kids in the back yard, helped us with teams and enjoyed many meals with our family. He would come almost daily to spend time with us.

This young man is known in Bocachica as being a trouble maker. His mom is deaf but that doesn't stop her from having a loud personality here on the island. She spends many hours working in another village and doesn't come back to Bocachica until around 6:30 p.m.  His father left the island years ago. The young man pretty much raises himself. He goes to school and then spends the rest of his time in the streets until bedtime.

When he's at our house he is polite, helpful, and for the most part calm. He always has manners, and interacts with us on many topics. We have shared numerous times about the Lord with him. Neighbors would talk to us when he wasn't going to school regularly, because we could talk to him about it and what was expected of him. We made it a rule, if you don't go to school you can't come here afterwards. He respectfully listened and knew we'd check up on him. It seemed as if he wanted to be part of a family so much.

Then one day in November while our family was in Cartagena,  he tried breaking into our house. We pay someone to guard our house while we are gone, but that didn't stop him. He knew we had laptops and said he wanted one. He tried forcing his way into our window to break the lock so he could get our computer. Thankfully the lady watching our house saw him doing this. When we arrived we went right to his house to find him, of course he was not be home knowing he would be caught. Later that week I saw him sitting in his house. I talked firmly to him in the presence of his mom, with his mom being deaf I couldn't explain the whole situation to her, but knowing he would have to explain himself to her when I left.   During the conversation I shared how the Lord doesn't like this behavior, and told him he has changed our relationship because he tried to steal from us.

You see this is when I tend to get frustrated. I spend this time investing in someones life. I open my house and my heart to people, and then when this happens I ask, "Am I making a difference?".  A good friend shared some wisdom with me. She encouraged me saying to think of the first few years of doing mission work the same way a farmer does about his crops. His best yield almost never comes the first year. Usually, it takes many years of preparing the soil, removing the weeds, and planting the right seeds before really seeing the fruit.


It has been months since the attempted break in took place. This past weekend he was walking and hanging around our house. Nate went outside and told him to come talk to him. Nate asked him what he was doing,and he said he was coming up to ask forgiveness. We asked him forgiveness for what? He said for trying to break in and take the computer. He was obviously embarrassed by it, but he wanted to make things right.  Nate and I took this time to explain to him what the Lord likes, and that it was good that he wanted to do the right thing. That he was young and if he choose the wrong path now it could affect the rest of his life. If he chose to do bad things he can't expect God's blessing.

I know this had to be hard for him. It is evident seeing how it's been 6 months since he has come to our house. This spoke to me, he could have left our relationship broken. He humbled himself and repented. The next day he came up and asked if he could come some days after school and help my husband work on the second floor. 

I pray he can see the Lord in this. I know the Lord has shown me a lot through this experience.  I can feel my heart have forgiveness for him, and giving grace knowing he doesn't come from a strong family.  I have thankfulness because he chose to do something hard and ask to repair something I thought we both enjoyed. Please pray for him. Pray that he gives his heart to the Lord. Pray for the seeds that are planted would grow into fruit.

While doing the work of a missionary is harder than I thought, it is more rewarding than I could have ever imagined. As I think about my frustrations, joys and thanksgivings, I am thankful to Lord that He gives me grace when I don't deserve it. That He is willing to forgive my many sins. I use these times to reflect and give Him the glory.

Lamentations 3:22-23

English Standard Version (ESV)

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;[a]
    his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

A shared post from one of the team members that came last month

http://misiones.igleico.org/que-es-normal

 Go to the site above to see the post written by Kerin Amir. There is also a sample of the music from the concert by Risen.

Press the "English" button to change language...

 They came with Snoot Photography from Medellin this past month, it was great to have them.