~Our fun days in Medellin...Part 2~

~Last time I left y'all with pics of us riding the bus to get to the gondolas (or cable cars) to ride them with Bro. Alberto, Sis. Alba and their family.  These are very cheap to ride (less than a dollar per person), for many people of Medellin use these instead of buses to get up the mountain. 
You can see 2 cable cars...the red on your left, the blue on your right.~

~I snapped this pic of one group of us right before their door shut.  Bro. Alberto is acting like he is shutting the door. =) ~

~Elijah, Phillip, and I in our cable car.~

~And on the other side in our cable car was Sis. Alba, little Mary, and Natay.~

~A beautiful scene from our cable car.~

~Bro. Alberto, Sis. Alba, Natay, Johan, and 7 yr. old Emmanuel.~

~When I arrived in Medellin, I asked Sis. Alba to please make Mary another CUTE jean skirt and we would pay her for it.  This was our last day and I was going to let Mary wear her new skirt.  When I came out of my room in the morning, Sis. Alba handed me this ADORABLE blouse that has a belt that ties in the front...that she had quickly made for Mary to wear with her jean skirt.  She and Bro. Alberto are amazing seamstresses.~

~Adorable outfit...adorable Mary. =D ~

~For several years....Phillip would travel alone to Medellin once a month, ride the cable car up the mountain, get off and go and preach in the street, trying to touch lives for Jesus.  There are some that got saved through that Ministry.  As Phillip would return he would pass these 2 brothers selling "Guadapo" which is juice squeezed from the sugar cane.  (You can see the sugar cane in the blue bucket!)  They make it ICE cold, and add lemon and it is beyond delicious!  Phillip would often buy a cup when he passed them, and visit with them.  The last time we were in Medellin (Jan. 2009) our family got to taste Guadapo and we LOVED it.  So we all REALLY wanted some this time.  But, when we got to where they normally sell this, these 2 brothers were working on their machine.  =(  So, we didn't get any guadapo...but we did get a photo of Phillip with these brothers.~

~Kimberly and Natay~

~Bro. Alberto and his family and our family got some fresh fruit from this stand.~

~Elijah enjoying his "Salpicon" which is the tropical fruit recipe that I shared on my Fun Food Friday a while ago.~

~When we got to the top of the mountain, we saw some beautiful trees and scenery that sort of reminded us of beautiful Flagstaff, AZ!   Here's our family with Emmanuel.~

~And Bro. Alberto and Sis. Alba and their family with our family, and to the right..."who-knows-who-kid"...who wanted to be in the picture with us. =D ~

 ~Phillip and I with some pretty scenery.  Sis. Alba made the "raggy style" jean skirt I'm wearing.~

 ~Then we came back down on the gondolas and enjoyed a Colombian lunch together.  It's very common to have a fried egg served on top of your rice.  We love it!~

~Natay, Kimberly, and Sarah enjoying their delicious lunch.~

~Noah, Emmanuel, and Elijah.~

~Johan and Elijah.~

~Then we got into 2 taxis and drove back across the city of Medellin and up a mountain on the other side of the valley to their neighborhood called "Paris."  We QUICKLY threw all of our things into our suitcases to leave to catch 2 taxis...to catch a bus to catch our airplane! =) ~

~L to R: Alberto, Hugo, Phillip and Mary.  Years ago Phillip was walking through a bus station and heard a man preaching.  Phillip stopped for a little while and amen-ed him, and then afterwards talked to him.  He found out that his name was Hugo.  For the next several months when Phillip would come to Medellin, he would bring Hugo Bibles, etc. to pass out.  Then one day, Jugo told Phillip that he had a friend named Alberto that he wanted Phillip to meet!  Phillip met Alberto and in time...Alberto told Phillip that their meeting was of God.  Bro. Alberto had been praying that God would lead him to a church that would be like the early church in Acts in Holy living.  From then on Bro. Alberto has wanted to work with us.~

 ~After our 2 taxis rides down from their house, we had an hour bus ride from Medellin up to a small town/airport called "Rio Negro."   We flew out of Rio Negro to go to our other church in Cartagena. 
Isn't this a beautiful picture of the Andes Mountains?

~This is on top of the mountain looking back down into Medellin. 
Don't go away...Pics of our time in Cartagena coming up soon! =)
Have a Blessed Lord's day!~

~Our fun days in Medellin...part 1~

I'm Back! I didn't have internet for the last week, so am just now getting to update. I've missed all of y'all! =) God gave us a WONDERFUL trip!!   We got back to Bogota LATE Wednesday night, and then yesterday we rested, did laundry, and went to our mid-week service at church, so now I can start sharing the pics of our trip with y'all.  I have TONS of pics to post.  =)
~As I posted last time we got to the city of Medellin Tuesday afternoon.  On Wednesday we went as a family to a neat Science museum.  Here's the view from where we ate our lunch.  =) ~

~Medellin is a BEAUTIFUL city that is called, "The city of Eternal Spring" for it has spring-like weather all year around.  I think it pretty much stays in the 70's or 80's.   It is also called the "Tea cup city," for it is down in a valley surrounded by mountains.
Medellin is a fun mixture of tropics and mountains.  
Often throughout the city you will find these neat "Fountains of water."  They are just slits in the ground and the water under the ground is on a timer.  Quite often water will shoot out of one slit and land in another.  If you aren't careful and are standing near one of the slits you could get soaked.  They create a lot of FUN for kids to play in and get wet.
Here's Elijah (the last little boy in the picture to your right) getting SoAkEd!  He L.O.V.E.D. this fountain!  =D~

~Sarah, Noah, and Elijah inside the mouth of a dinosaur.~

~This as a type of Merry-go-round that had 3 seats with pedals.  The 3 people had to WORK and pedal together to make this go around.  Here Kimberly, Sarah, and Phillip are trying it.  They got it going pretty fast...but Phillip said it's not as easy as it looks.  =) ~

~Elijah loved the dinosaurs there.  They had REAL-feeling skin.~

~This was sort of a swing, and on the right someone else could hang, and make those that were swinging go up and down too.  Phillip was hanging on the other side (out of the picture).~

~Sarah and little Mary.  The last time we were in Medellin as a family, Elijah was a little less than 8 months old.~

~Here's 4-year-old Elijah climbing a climbing wall. ~

~There was also a fun aquarium in this museum.  We took lots of neat pictures of beautiful colorful fish, but I'll just post one.  Isn't our God amazing?  How in the world could He think of all the colors and types of fish...not to mention the rest of His creation? ~

~Phillip and I in the aquarium.~

~We asked someone to take this picture of our family outside the museum. ~

~Near those neat water fountains that the kids love to play in...is also a long water misting pipe for people to walk under and cool themselves off.  Here we are standing in the mist.  It was so fun and refreshing and made us miss Phoenix, AZ...where Phillip was a pastor for 5 years.  These are common there in Phoenix outside of restaurants. =) ~

~I simply stand amazed at ALL the houses going up the mountains here in Medellin, and in Bogota too.  Thousands and thousands of souls that NEED JESUS!
Dear Jesus please help us all to be faithful to show YOUR LOVE to those around us!  (For getting to Heaven is really all that Matters in this life!)~

~Gorgeous mountains in Medellin.~

~Then we hurried back home in the evening, and ate a quick delicious supper that Sis. Alba had prepared for us, then we all went to a house service.  Here we are before service.~

~There was a good group...around 30-35 in that house service.  Bro. Alberto asked that we lead the singing, and that Phillip preach.  The Lord gave us a good service.~

~On Thursday Bro. Alberto and family took us a neat new park nearby.   On the way, this truck selling LOTS of things...passed us.  I thought you would enjoy seeing this picture.
 I guess his motto would be...if you can't get to the store...the store can COME to you!  =)~

~This was a very fun park, and had a pretty view too.  We had a really nice time letting the kids play, while we visited.  Here's Natay and little Mary.~

~Natay, Bro. Alberto, Sis. Alba, and Kimberly enjoying the yummy pop-cycles that Phillip bought for each of us to enjoy.  They cost around 20 cents each. ~

~Bro. Alberto, Sis. Alba and yours truly visiting.  This park is so new that they still hadn't put the table top on the table where we were sitting.  (Later on that morning some guys came and put the table top on.)~

~Our family as we were leaving the park.    (The shirt Phillip is wearing Bro. Alberto and Sis. Alba made.)
Thursday night was their mid-week service.  Phillip led the singing, and Bro. Alberto preached.  God gave us a good service with a good attendance.~

While I was there I NEEDED to do some laundry.  Sis. Alba apologized to me when she told me that she Didn't have a washer.   I told her that I could wash our clothes by hand.  But when she saw the amount of clothes I needed to wash, she was afraid that if we tried to hand wash them, they wouldn't dry in enough time for us to pack them up to leave to go to Cartagana the next day.   (For a washer can WRING the water out lots better than we can.)  So, the lady where we had the house service offered to loan me her washer and I did a couple loads.
Sis. Alba told me that she REALLY needs a washer.  For as she washes clothes for her family of 5, her arms ACHE.  We'd love to buy her a washer, but with all the Colombian residency expenses for our family, the classes coming up in July, and our move to Argentina coming up, we aren't able to.
Will you please Join me in PRAYING that God will supply a washer for Sis. Alba in His time?
Nothing is impossible with God! ~
~Sis. Alba and I making homemade french fries in her kitchen.~

~Kimberly's games of Bop-it (Thanks again, Anna P. for giving that to Kimberly =), and Uno were BIG hits with both families we visited.  Here they are playing Uno.  If you can see...behind Noah ...is the sewing room where Bro. Alberto and Sis. Alba sew TONS of clothes to make their living.  While we were there they had STACKS of new hoodies that zipped up the front.  They had just made all of them, and then they will pack them in bags, and put tags on them and they are ready to go to the stores.
They both are amazing seamstresses.~

~On Saturday, our last day in Medellin, we took their family up the mountain on gondolas.  Here we are waiting for the bus to come and pick up all 12 of us to take us to where the gondolas are.~

~Here's my sweetheart and I on the bus to go to ride the gondolas.  (He's holding a bag of drinking water.  It's very typical to buy water in bags here.)
Stay tuned... Part 2 of Medellin coming up with lots more pics. =)~