I can't believe we are in Colombia!

Those were the words Jackie and I said to each other about half way through the day. Some hours of the day if feels like we never left home and other times, like today, everything feels so surreal. One reason we had that feeling today was because we drove through more of downtown Bogota, experienced our first church service and drove through the mountains. Needless to say it was a full day.

We went to the Pinzon's church, where they did worship for 40 minutes without stopping, then we took communion and prayed and ended with the sermon (all in all the service took 2 hours). Yesid (Mr. Pinzon) introduced us as his guests in front of the church. After church we went to a BBQ chicken place which was pretty good and we had a traditional desert from Colombia (a plantain with cheese in the middle and some sauce from a Colombian fruit...after we were done we wish we took a picture because it was like a foot long!

After lunch we went to the house of one of the church members, Mercedes, who is battling cancer. She was a sweet older woman and Yesid led us in another communion. After that we stood around this lady and put our hands on her and prayed.

*** A couple of interesting things about the church and being at Mercedes house ***
1. Jackie and I thought our church prayed a lot...but the Colombian people love to pray and pray for a long time.
2. The church was extremely emotional and the ushers had to start handing out kleenex during the first song. The emotions didn't just end after the music, they carried over into the prayers.
3. When the pastors or other leaders pray all you can hear are people in the congregation also praying.
4. At one point someone in the congregation shouted "Cristo vive" and the rest of the congregation also broke out into repeating this.
5. Needless to say the Colombian church is something everyone should experience because it really makes you realize how important their faith is to them...we could all learn a lot from them.
6. I am really going to have to study Spanish hard so that I can understand more of the sermon (Jackie was trying to translate for me, which helped a lot)

Once we left Mercedes house we started our drive up the Andes mountains (I included some pictures below). The drive totaled about 2 hours and it was amazing! We got to see most of Bogota from one look out point and then saw different towns and such as we drove through the mountains. After that we went through the town of Chia where we stopped at a mall and got some ice cream at a place called Crepes and Waffles (which according to the family is one of the American teachers favorite spots to eat).

Now we are home and getting ready for the second week of orientation...enjoy the pics!

Jackie and I with Bogota behind us
Jackie and I with the Pinzon family
Mountains!
Mountains and lots of cows...they are everywhere!