Orphanos Foundation

Trip to La Aljaba

posted by Jennifer Ragland — April 7th, 2010

A few weeks ago I was blessed to travel with 6 others to visit our partner home La Aljaba in Colombia.  I was so excited to return and see Lucy and the children.  What a blessing I had this time!  Remembering back to my first visit I wanted this trip to be different.  Satan has a way to throw spiritual warfare at you when you are following the will of God and will bring glory to God through what you are about to do.  Both of my trips to Colombia I experienced this.  The first time my father-in-law was in the hospital and I had just found out that my sister-in-law had pancreatic cancer.    My first trip I was so worried about home and not being able to communicate back home made it even harder.  I even got sick one day which meant less time with the kids.  This trip my father-in-law fell the day before I left and broke his hip.  He had surgery an hour after my plane left Atlanta for Bogota.  I made a decision that God placed me on this team for a reason and my family here could take care of my father-in-law.   Satan was not going to take away from my glorifying God through this trip. 

We arrived late Thursday night in Bogota and settled into the bed and breakfast for the night.  The team had a short meeting and then it was off to bed.  Well for some.  I was blessed to share a room with Meredith O’Neal from Texas.  Meredith and I are a year apart and have never met so we got to know each other a little.  We did get some sleep though. 

The next day we ate an early breakfast and then did a little sightseeing around Bogota. We left Bogota about 12pm and arrive in Leticia around 2pm.  I was welcomed back by the heat of the Jungle as I stepped off the plane.  I do remember it was really hot but you won’t understand unless you travel with us there!  We took 3 taxis to our Eco hotel and then we were off to the home.  I will never forget walking onto the property and hearing the kids say my name.  They remembered me from the last trip which was a little over a year ago!  The girls of the home just clung to me the whole time.  I loved just being there and soaking up time with the children.  The first night we were there we just played with the kids.  We played several games one of which we just hit a beach ball around to each other and if you missed then you have to dance for a few second in the middle of the circle.  Another game we played was freeze tag (I think that is the correct name).  This is the game where one person is “it” and tries to tag everyone.  Once you are tagged you are frozen until someone crawls under your legs.  I can tell you it was hard for me to crawl under the kids legs to unfreeze them.  Then I was “it” and had to tag all the kids.  Let’s just say I got a good workout and finished by twisting my ankle.  It was no fun but all the kids ran up to me and made sure I was ok.  This just goes to say I am not as young as I thought I was.  Those kids can run circles around me!  : ) That night we ate dinner at a local restaurant in the Air conditioning!  Last time I was in Leticia this restaurant did not have AC.  This was such a treat! 

The next day, Saturday, we had breakfast and then headed over to La Aljaba.  That morning we started cleaning and decorating for the March Birthday party that was scheduled for later that afternoon.  Before the party Kirk, Lucy and I ran some errands to get ready for the party and also to get supplies for a project I wanted to do with the kids.  After running around for a few hours we went back to La Aljaba just in time for the party.  One of the girls on our team was able to celebrate with the kids as well which was a special treat!  The birthday party was a blast!  The cake and ice cream were so good too!  Another benefit of the party was that most of the children were at the home so I grabbed Tony and we took individual photos of all the kids so that we can update all the sponsors and update our child sponsorship book for La Aljaba!  We really need to gain more sponsors for this home!  After the party we had pizza and then I started working with some of the kids on the project I wanted to do for the home.  We started making photo boards so that the kids can put photos up in their rooms or in the main house.  A little while later the rest of the kids and team headed to the school for a soccer match… Gringo’s vs Colombians.  Let’s just say it was a quick game.  Before the team left to go to the school I wanted to make sure my group of kids did what they wanted and explained that they did not have to stay back unless they wanted.  They all wanted to stay with me.  This put a huge smile on my face!  Well shortly after the team left my staple gun was out of staples.  I tried everything but could not get the gun apart to put in more staples.  I was so mad.  Oh well… the kids that stayed with me were ok with it so we decided to walk down to the school.  We stayed there and played for a bit and then walked back to the home.  We spent the rest of the day and night with the kids except for going out to dinner.  For dinner that night we went to a local hotel and had a wonderful dinner yet again in the AC. 

On Sunday we got up, had breakfast, and then headed to Barrio Nuevo (the new neighborhood).  Barrio Nuevo is a very very poor community of the outside of Leticia.  We went for a church service and to spend time with the people there.  We arrived during service and joined the group of people already there.  After the service I helped Anna Maria hand out some clothes to the women who lived there.  All of a sudden it started raining… Amazon Jungle Rain downpour!  Everyone ran to seek shelter.  There were probably 20 people crammed into the Pastor’s house where I was.  I think we waited for at least an hour before it let up for us to leave.  Meanwhile the kids that lived there had a blast.  They were playing in the rain having so much fun.  After we left this community we had lunch along the side of the highway and then headed to a place to see some snakes (I was not excited to see the snakes though).  One thing I forgot to say was that on our outings Sunday we had several of the children from La Aljaba with us.  This was another great time with the kids.  Visiting the snakes, Damisela one of the girls from the home latched onto me because she was scared.   Let’s just say I wasn’t really at peace being there either, especially when we came to the cage where the anaconda was suppose to be.  There was a place in the fence you could see where he escaped.  At this point I was like it is time to go.  I am in the middle of the Jungle and there is an anaconda loose.  Glad to report I never saw it and we made it out safely with no snake bites.  After we left there we went back to the home and played with the kids some more and finished the photos boards.  Oh by the way remember how I could not open the staple gun to load more staples?  Well someone tried to open it with a screw driver or something and permanently broke it.  To finish the board we had to hammer in staples individually.  It took a lot longer than we would have liked.  But we finished the boards. 

On Monday our team took a ride up the Amazon River to do some sightseeing.  We went to Monkey Island, watched pink dolphins, and encouraged Kirk to catch a fish off the side of our boat.    I know this story is getting long so I will skip all the details of our sightseeing trip.  We had a great time and will probably always remember feeding the wild monkeys that day.  We got back to Leticia about 5 and headed back to take some quick showers and then say goodbye to the kids.  This was hard.  The rest of that night I spent with the girls.  I pulled up google translator and talked to the girls a little bit.  That was fun.  Then Wayne came and asked if I wanted to go eat.  I told him I would rather stay with the kids and just eat some of my snacks.  Tony and Rebecca decided to stay as well.  We had a great time and were able to put the kids to bed.  I stayed in the girl’s room while they got ready for bed and then was able to participate in their nightly prayer.  I will never forget how sad Damisela was that night.  It broke my heart to leave!  After goodbyes and goodnight I was able to eat some dinner and then it was off to the airport. 

This trip was so amazing and I can definitely see God at work at this home, in the children, and even out in the Jungle.  Lucy the home director is an amazing woman.  She is truly giving her life to the Lord and serving way beyond human abilities.  She is an example to everyone how God can use people to Glorify Him.  Each time I visit one of our partner homes I realized just how blessed I am.  I am humbled and thankful for all that the Lord has given me, I don’t deserve it.  May I return His blessing to others who need to be blessed like the children we help every day.  My work here at Orphanos is all for God and to serving Him through helping His children.  I desire to lay down my life completely to God so that my life will be of complete service to Him and His kingdom. 

Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.

Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee;
Take my voice and let me sing,
Always, only for my King.

Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee;
Take my silver and my gold,
Not a mite would I withhold.

Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in endless praise;
Take my intellect and use
Every pow’r as Thou shalt choose.

Take my will and make it Thine,
It shall be no longer mine;
Take my heart, it is Thine own,
It shall be Thy royal throne.

Take my love, my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store;
Take myself and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee.

Thank you for reading my update!  God bless! 

Jennifer

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