Update from Adrienne Mickler

"¡Buenas! I apologize for the delay, but here is another update on some of the ministry taking place here in Colombia.

The Other Way closed for the holidays until February, leaving me with too much time to wish that I was with my family for Christmas. However, through an extensive series of coincidences that I can only attribute to God, I had the opportunity to be a translator for a mission team that spent a month in the Amazon. My responsibilities included interpreting for meetings, sermons, skits, leading children songs in Spanish, and essentially any interpreting needed between an English speaker and a Spanish speaker. To be completely honest, my motive for going was to experience adventure in a region of the world that I have always wanted to visit. After my first week in the heart of the jungle, I realized that my purpose for going was not solely to translate or to be hiking in the Amazon. God had a more important agenda. He had some hard lessons that He wanted me to learn. God was not going to let me leave the jungle before I agreed to die to my own desires.

I began learning what it meant to love; to really love with the love of God. This should not be written off as an easy task because in order to truly love we are required to put ourselves second to everyone else. Our instincts must be deliberately changed so that we begin to naturally think of others before ourselves. When we learn to love with this kind of love we can begin to do all things with heart. Our hearts should fuel our actions. God can work through every minute of our time if we are living and breathing with His heart. He can use one hug, one word, one glance to begin impacting someone's life forever.

This team that I worked with in the Amazon is now spending some time working with the different street children programs here in Bogotá until the Other Way and the Light and Life school re-open for the year. When working directly with the kids, they use Bible stories and perform them as interactive skits, they teach them songs, play games and essentially give them more personal individualized attention. My job is to continue to translate for them until they leave in mid-February. I will return to work with my 5-6 year old kids at the Other Way on the 5th. I am excited and ready for what God has in store for this year.

I cannot thank you all enough for your prayers and support. I know I have said it a thousand times but THANK YOU! ¡GRACIAS! With love,

Adrienne

p.s. I am super excited about seeing some of you guys in March. Whoo!"