Cawthon Update - Week 3

It's Sunday morning.  We are up and getting ready to attend our third church in Bogotá.  Tomorrow will mark 3 weeks that we have been in Bogotá.  It's been an adjustment but overall, we are doing well.  We are still in the mission guest house.  The first apartment we found did not work out, but we found another one this week.

We will start to move in on Tuesday. I say "start" because initially we will just have mattresses and appliances and our personal belongings.  We have ordered furniture directly from the furniture makers.  This is a little stressful and a little exciting as they will be custom making the furniture for us.  It was also a great savings for us as we realized that in going to the furniture stores, they then go to the furniture makers and it still takes 3 weeks to get the furniture.  They said we will have the furniture in 3 weeks.  Hopefully, we will love it!  But in the meantime we will be living in a basically empty apartment.

Last Sunday we attended Central Baptist Church.  It was in the central part of the city and seemed to be a strong church.  They welcomed us with open arms, and we had several members offer any assistance we might need in our ministry.  We also met the pastor after the service and plan to meet again with him at a later time.

We had two other great meetings this week.  One was with a friend of ours whom we met several years ago through another mutual friend.  His name is Mauricio Rozo.  He is a pastor in another city - Cali - and also Vice President of the Colombian Baptist Convention.  We met for lunch and shared with him our plan for church planting in Bogotá.  He was excited and offered to help, mentioning that the convention is also emphasizing church planting to reach this massive city and country.

The next day Mauricio set up a meeting with the leadership of the Baptist Convention.  We again shared our strategy in reaching this city.  They too seemed excited and wanted to be a part of what we are doing.

God is orchestrating some great meetings and also is giving us random opportunities to share.  Some people are just curious as to why we are here.  When they ask, it gives us a great opportunity to witness to them and share that we are here because we are following Jesus in our lives.

Thank you for continuing to pray for us.  We are still in the midst of so many transitions.  We all need your prayers everyday and need to be reminded of our calling. We were in a large store this week and heard the song "Sweet Home Alabama" on the sound system.  At times like these (and others) we miss our "sweet home Alabama," but have to remember the reason we are here:  God has brought us here and He desires to have a personal relationship with the people here.