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Web log by J.J. McKenna of prayer requests and streams of experiences for prayer consideration.
13.9.03
Finally
Ok, so let's see if this will work. I'm working on an old as dirt 386 system that just has dos running on it. So cool, it's like living history. For some odd reason my muscles all ache in my body, but I don't have a headache at all which is pretty nice.
When I was on the airplane to Bogotá from Atlanta I sat in the front row of the plane. The plane was nearly empty on both of the plane rides, it was very bizarre it was literally only half full. On the way to Bogotá the stewardess was bugging me for eating so slowly. She said I was gonna travel to Rome and eat in some cafe because I was eating so slowly.
Mordecai was a couple seats over and saw her messing with me. When we were leaving the plane I was the only one who had actually checked the weather before travelling. A dude was trying to talk to Mordi in spanish and he didn't understand any of it. I started talking to him and within' a couple minutes I had invited him to stay with me until he figured out a better plan than staying in cold Bogotá.
His parents were born in France but moved to Israel in '48 at the creation of the Jewish state. It is only because of the dual citizenship that he has been able to travel as much as he has. It has been nearly impossible for people from the middle east to travel so he goes about with his French passport. I talked with him as we were wandering down to the baggage pickup area and he was wondering why it was so cold. It turns out that his sister visited here in '96 and she loved it, but she didn't tell him about the weather in the mountains. He asked if there were warmer places in Colombia and I told him he just had to get down out of the Andes.
A youth group delegation picked us up. It was a joyous reception with so much noise, many onlookers laughed in surprise at the happy reception. When you exit the airport there is always a giant crowd of people around the doors and it is very hard to hear much with the intense clamor of loved ones. All nine of us piled into the mustard yellow church land rover with my giant bags and Mordecai's stuff. It was pretty cool to see the shock on Mordi's face as we went along in our insanity. So fun. We went back to my apartment after repairing one of the tires we'd blown with all the weight.
We hung out and swallowed some bologna sandwiches. Andres was a little flabbergasted at my having brought a stray home from the airport, but it was all cool by morning. This all seems still a little unreal. The luxury of this century is our proximity. I don't really feel all that far away, especially with the short layover in Georgia and the extra room on the planes. The time just flew by. I was quite confused for a while because of daylight savings. Bogotá is only two hours ahead of Oregon right now because they don't do daylight savings, the earth never tilts far enough away for that to be mitigated.
Ok, I get a little lost on this spanish keyboard. Some things just ain't here or in a totally different (spell that w-r-o-n-g...jk) place. The service on Sunday was filled with much love from everyone and Mordecai actually took communion. Hung out and watched a movie with him and Mauro after church while I worked at fixin my place up a bit (of honey).
Mordi was feeling uncomfortable about putting me out in my first days in Colombia, but he really didn't have any good reason. At lunch time he blessed our meal in Hebrew. That was super cool. By evening we travelled to a hostel for Israelis, a wild looking edifice with architecture reminicent of "The Scent of Green Papayas".
This morning I took Max (tiny lookin' labrador who used to be in a gang) out for his constitutional after which Andres and I travelled to Suesca. We picked up a couple of hydraulic engineers on the way and were stopped by a cop only one block later. They stand at the side of the road all the time and pull people over randomly. The dude was unfortunately able to find a legitimate reason for towing our car away. The insurance had expired one month before and not been renewed. Upon discovering this Pastor Andres made a couple of phone calls, one of which was to a friend who works as the colonel (spell that k-e-r-n-e-l... ok don't) for that particular district.
Andres took a two mile walk to the closest insurance salesman, the hydrologists and I bickered with the cop, and the colonel with partner in tow came by. It was pretty cool cause the parter asked me 2.3 tons of questions regarding the Foundation, the church and the definition of evangelical in respect to regular unleaded christianity. The colonel's presence was the only reason Mr. traffic cop didn't call the tow truck. That'd've sucked.
Suesca is now comprised of six cells instead of the four that were present last year. Also there are three apartments and a large multipurpose area below. The work and the growth goals have changed here in the past year. The original hope for this location was for the people from town who could afford to pay for their treatment to visit here. It is very close to Bogotá and as beautiful as the best of days in Oregon. The success of the TV show has given a lot of publicity to the program, but the people who continue to show interest in the program are folks that can't pay any of the actual costs.
This has mitigated some strategizing. This land could get closer to self-sufficiency with the right program. At present the land could support enough milk cows to make this program self sufficient for 80 men here at Suesca. Viotá would become a camp center or retreat center. The distance of Viotá from Bogotá has made it difficult to have people come visit it. Also, since it's location is remote, it has been difficult to ensure the safety of the men there, especially should we try the cattle experiment there. Unfortunately, the water demands at such a high yeild of human and chattel presence would overtax the water availability. Enter the hydrologists.
They spent much of the day with us here in looking at what water might be collected and utilized. One possibility is the run-off from the road here. The main road into the property has a lot of water that collects along the side and is the sole property of the Foundation. Because of this we could collect a whole lotta water. One concern is the local potato farm. The farmers have occasion to use chemicals that leech into the soil to protect the potatos but also might run-off into this possible water source, making it unpotatble (unpotatoalbe). We will have to test the water and see what the concerns are.
Hey, ask me about cows later on. Alright, enough for now. I gotta write to Lana and figure out a car here soon.
ttfn.
When I was on the airplane to Bogotá from Atlanta I sat in the front row of the plane. The plane was nearly empty on both of the plane rides, it was very bizarre it was literally only half full. On the way to Bogotá the stewardess was bugging me for eating so slowly. She said I was gonna travel to Rome and eat in some cafe because I was eating so slowly.
Mordecai was a couple seats over and saw her messing with me. When we were leaving the plane I was the only one who had actually checked the weather before travelling. A dude was trying to talk to Mordi in spanish and he didn't understand any of it. I started talking to him and within' a couple minutes I had invited him to stay with me until he figured out a better plan than staying in cold Bogotá.
His parents were born in France but moved to Israel in '48 at the creation of the Jewish state. It is only because of the dual citizenship that he has been able to travel as much as he has. It has been nearly impossible for people from the middle east to travel so he goes about with his French passport. I talked with him as we were wandering down to the baggage pickup area and he was wondering why it was so cold. It turns out that his sister visited here in '96 and she loved it, but she didn't tell him about the weather in the mountains. He asked if there were warmer places in Colombia and I told him he just had to get down out of the Andes.
A youth group delegation picked us up. It was a joyous reception with so much noise, many onlookers laughed in surprise at the happy reception. When you exit the airport there is always a giant crowd of people around the doors and it is very hard to hear much with the intense clamor of loved ones. All nine of us piled into the mustard yellow church land rover with my giant bags and Mordecai's stuff. It was pretty cool to see the shock on Mordi's face as we went along in our insanity. So fun. We went back to my apartment after repairing one of the tires we'd blown with all the weight.
We hung out and swallowed some bologna sandwiches. Andres was a little flabbergasted at my having brought a stray home from the airport, but it was all cool by morning. This all seems still a little unreal. The luxury of this century is our proximity. I don't really feel all that far away, especially with the short layover in Georgia and the extra room on the planes. The time just flew by. I was quite confused for a while because of daylight savings. Bogotá is only two hours ahead of Oregon right now because they don't do daylight savings, the earth never tilts far enough away for that to be mitigated.
Ok, I get a little lost on this spanish keyboard. Some things just ain't here or in a totally different (spell that w-r-o-n-g...jk) place. The service on Sunday was filled with much love from everyone and Mordecai actually took communion. Hung out and watched a movie with him and Mauro after church while I worked at fixin my place up a bit (of honey).
Mordi was feeling uncomfortable about putting me out in my first days in Colombia, but he really didn't have any good reason. At lunch time he blessed our meal in Hebrew. That was super cool. By evening we travelled to a hostel for Israelis, a wild looking edifice with architecture reminicent of "The Scent of Green Papayas".
This morning I took Max (tiny lookin' labrador who used to be in a gang) out for his constitutional after which Andres and I travelled to Suesca. We picked up a couple of hydraulic engineers on the way and were stopped by a cop only one block later. They stand at the side of the road all the time and pull people over randomly. The dude was unfortunately able to find a legitimate reason for towing our car away. The insurance had expired one month before and not been renewed. Upon discovering this Pastor Andres made a couple of phone calls, one of which was to a friend who works as the colonel (spell that k-e-r-n-e-l... ok don't) for that particular district.
Andres took a two mile walk to the closest insurance salesman, the hydrologists and I bickered with the cop, and the colonel with partner in tow came by. It was pretty cool cause the parter asked me 2.3 tons of questions regarding the Foundation, the church and the definition of evangelical in respect to regular unleaded christianity. The colonel's presence was the only reason Mr. traffic cop didn't call the tow truck. That'd've sucked.
Suesca is now comprised of six cells instead of the four that were present last year. Also there are three apartments and a large multipurpose area below. The work and the growth goals have changed here in the past year. The original hope for this location was for the people from town who could afford to pay for their treatment to visit here. It is very close to Bogotá and as beautiful as the best of days in Oregon. The success of the TV show has given a lot of publicity to the program, but the people who continue to show interest in the program are folks that can't pay any of the actual costs.
This has mitigated some strategizing. This land could get closer to self-sufficiency with the right program. At present the land could support enough milk cows to make this program self sufficient for 80 men here at Suesca. Viotá would become a camp center or retreat center. The distance of Viotá from Bogotá has made it difficult to have people come visit it. Also, since it's location is remote, it has been difficult to ensure the safety of the men there, especially should we try the cattle experiment there. Unfortunately, the water demands at such a high yeild of human and chattel presence would overtax the water availability. Enter the hydrologists.
They spent much of the day with us here in looking at what water might be collected and utilized. One possibility is the run-off from the road here. The main road into the property has a lot of water that collects along the side and is the sole property of the Foundation. Because of this we could collect a whole lotta water. One concern is the local potato farm. The farmers have occasion to use chemicals that leech into the soil to protect the potatos but also might run-off into this possible water source, making it unpotatble (unpotatoalbe). We will have to test the water and see what the concerns are.
Hey, ask me about cows later on. Alright, enough for now. I gotta write to Lana and figure out a car here soon.
ttfn.
