We’ve gone a few months since our last update so in order to catch everyone up with the latest, here is a month-by-month overview of what has been going on with us ever since:

NOVEMBER:

In late November, ministry directors, Jorge and Karen, headed back to the USA for some medical check-ups. Unfortunately what was intended to be a few weeks stay has turned into another year-long journey as doctor’s discovered that Karen has had  a relapse of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, which was first diagnosed when she was a young teen.  Karen is now undergoing chemotherapy and if all goes well, she and Jorge hope to be back in Colombia full-time by the beginning of 2017.  In the meantime, Erika continues to do an excellent job of leading and directing the ministry in their absence.

The Cruzate Family returned from 6 weeks in Iquitos, Peru where they were attending a YWAM school of leadership development.   After almost 13 years serving with Proyecto Libertad, Samy and Marley are considering moving to the city of Pereira to help launch a new mobile worship team with the YWAM base there.  They are still praying about this decision and about the timing but they are excited about the possibilities.

DECEMBER:

Jorge was able to travel back to Cartagena for almost a month and a half to help tie up some loose ends and to spend the holidays with our staff.

Christmas dinner.

We were happy to have Astrid with us again. Just like old times.

The Colombian beauty…Marley.

Moises, Jorge’s little helper.

JANUARY:

Just a few days after ringing in 2016 we welcomed our first volunteers for the new year.

We have been so blessed to have these three young ladies join us as volunteers.  Louise and Ida (left and right) came for three months from Denmark and Ricarda (middle), from Germany, will be with us for six months.

Shawn, from Colorado, came for a month to help us tackle our long list of mission maintenance projects!  This was a specific answer to prayer and also to the SOS we issued back in October!  We thank the Lord for Shawn and his servant heart.

Our biggest focus during the month of January was tackling an ever-growing list of maintenance projects that desperately needed attention:  deteriorating walls, rotting stairs, and termite infested paneling, just to name a few.

Scraping paint and tearing down wood ceiling paneling.

Out with the old rotting wood stairs…

…in with the new metal stairs.

Our first customer.

Scraping, repairing, and painting dorm room walls.

A fresh coat of paint in the men’s dorm.

Due to termites and water damage, we had to take out the wood paneled walls on our back porch.

Ida and Louise

Daddy’s little helper.

Almost done.

Ricarda sanding and helping to repair bed frames.

Meanwhile, Elisabeth has been working hard on all the paperwork required by the Health Department.  We are getting so close to finishing this process and having our clinic officially and legally registered! And last but not least, check out the new hand-rails installed at the clinic:

FEBRUARY:

We are so excited to welcome our newest full-time staff member!  Esther is a Colombian doctor and will be directing the clinic.  What an answer to prayer!

Goodbye get-together for Shawn!  We were so blessed by all your hard work and servant’s heart!

It was great having new friends and old with us… Mari (left), a nurse from Florida visited us for the first time and Yolanda (right), a nurse from Bogota visited us for the uh…millionth time?  We’ve lost count!  Here they are with Ricarda and Esther.

We had a great week with a short-term mission’s team from Hope Lutheran Church from Minneapolis, MN, led by our long-time friend, Ben Sollie, who is now on the pastoral staff at Hope.  This group was also an answer to prayer and a direct answer to our October SOS!

MARCH:

We started out the month by welcoming our first ever volunteer from Lithuania:

Aiste, a nurse from Lithuania volunteered with us for 2 weeks.

Early in March our staff attended a weekend city-wide YWAM staff retreat outside of Cartagena.  It was a time for all the staff of the different YWAM Cartagena ministries to come together for fellowship, worship, prayer and teachings.  Proyecto Libertad is part of a family of about 10 different ministries operating in Cartagena.

This month we also hosted a group of 13 German volunteers for 5 days.  They are volunteering in different parts of Colombia with a sending organization called «Weltwärts» and came to Bocachica  to meet together for a time of debriefing and retreat.

Jorge was able to return to spend the month of March with our staff.  He was able to work with Elisabeth on finishing up the clinic paperwork, help host the German group, and take care of a few other items of official business.  He will be returning back to the USA on March 31st as Karen prepares to start her second round of chemo.

PL Staff

Staff fun day in Turbaco.