Calle 5 #14-32
La Mesa, Colombia
aaronlaurak@gmail.com
Ready for Vacation
Hello all,
It's a beautiful sunny day in La Mesa, and the Colegio students and teachers are wrapping things up before the summer break begins next week. Aaron is currently down in his final English class for the teachers ( having a pizza party!) and Abby is napping peacefully. It's a good time to send out an update.
I think the title of our last big email was "Life in High Gear". Well, things haven't changed much and we are excitedly looking forward to this month away from school activities. Two weekends ago was huge for us. Aaron taught his Saturday morning World Religions class on "Islam". That afternoon I traveled to Anapoima to visit the marginalized communities there and do a preliminary survey of community needs. After that, I traveled back to La Mesa, where the youth group meeting was underway and Aaron was helping lead the music and discussion. Then, on Sunday, Aaron preached for an hour in the morning and the evening services. The sermon went well, but by the end we were both very tired!
We both promptly got nailed with a viral cold last week, which has made us feel more run down. BUT - we've got some very excited visits coming up soon! Next week at this time Virginia Showalter will be here with us in La Mesa! We're looking forward to seeing a good Zion/EMU/Harrisonburg friend again, and will enjoy introducing her to the people and local beauty of La Mesa. Then on July 3rd, Aaron's parents fly down for a two week visit. We'll spend the first week in Bogota and La Mesa, and the last week in the coastal city of Cartagena. We're counting down the days!
After living here for nine months, I'm feeling pretty adjusted. But I think the language and cultural differences still make activities a LOT more exhausting for me than they would be in the States. When I think about our lifestyle in the States, with two full-time jobs, many evening church committee meetings, Sons of the Day rehearsals, small group meetings, staff meetings, volunteering, call-time, etc., I'm amazed at how much we juggled quite effortlessly in our home environment. Here, our threshold for those types of activities is much lower. We need more down time together in the house as a family to mentally and physically recharge.
Abby's new words in Spanish are "pinta" when she wants to draw, and "vamos" when she's in the stroller and we're out the door. It's so interesting for us to watch her learn English and Spanish. At this point she says more understandable words in English, but she's picking up both languages effortlessly. She loves going down to Elsie's for childcare, which is such a blessing for us. We are grateful that Abby has such a loving relationship with Elsie and the rest of the Gonzalez family.
Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we recover from these pretty powerful colds and prepare for our wonderful guests. Also check out our website www.kauffmanhome.net for the latest photos from La Mesa! With much love from Colombia,
Laura, Aaron and Abigail Kauffman