Shailoh Foundation

Biking in Bogota Since we have our Dutch bikes here, we truly follow our Dutch identity by biking a lot!! With a big thank you to a Dutch bike shop who donated a mountain bike to Jordi. We cycle to work, our every day shopping and the so called cyclo via, the closed roads on Sundays especially for bikes and skaters. You should see the faces of the Colombians; those little blond boys on Ria’s bike and Ria with a big pregnant belly! A very uncommon sight here. (more…)

Comming back in Colombia

Greetings from Holland and Colombia! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, It has been a while since our last English newsletter. My fault, because I forgot to translate one. So now you will receive 2 in one. Holland Praise to God that we were able to go on leave for two whole months after 2 years in Bogota! It was sooo good to see everybody back again: friends, family and the familiar environment where we grew up in. We enjoyed using our bikes, speaking Dutch and eating everything what we don’t have here in Bogota.

Sadness and anger

A minor thing was that we, in the first week in Holland, experienced what we lived through in Colombia and how we had suffered from so many different things. It created sadness and anger, which we had to go through and still are working through the area of forgiveness.

Jordi

God was very clear to Jordi in the 3th or 4th week that we had to go through a similar process as Joseph, when he, through all the suffering was made ready to reign Egypt and save Israel. We have been blessed so abundantly that we hardly can find words for it. We tried to save money for our trip, but appeared that people were so generous and we were never without car. And even in the last weekend Jordi was donated a mountain bike to take to Bogota. (more…)

Latest news from the Bosches Cow(s) With thanks to the reformed community church of Ottoland, we now are blessed with a cow walking on the

One of the cows

 premisis of the farm. This pregnant ‘lady’ was soon not alone. Thanks to an ex volunteer from New Zealand, we were able to buy two pregnant cows more. Latest news is that our cow has been labored from a white little bull. Xtra member in our family Since a month now we have an extra family member in casa Bosch. Doris, a 20 year old girl. Doris will be the first of 3 generations graduating from high school. She lives with us, because of her risky home situations (her brother just got shot ‘accidently’), which was affecting more and more in her own life. It’s for the first time of her life that she lives in a ‘normal’ family. Beautiful to see God at work and use us as living tools in His ministry; just to be there for her and share our lives with her. She has lots of things to learn and is totally dependent from us (very good for our Spanish though). She hopes to do a DTS next year. Our treasures Joah walks! Salutes everybody and says ‘gracias’ to about anything. Timo: Proud: ‘I am the fat (in stead of big) brother’ when comes of the slide with Joah. It took a while but… Timo finally enjoys himself at preschool. Treasures stories (more…)

Eating, eating, eating…. Every Wednesday there’s lots of food to be eaten in our house. Since a few months, Jordi cooks every Wensday for

On wensday Jordi cooks for people from the street

 people we met in the streets; people who’re hungry, poor, disabled etc. Some of them come to our house to eat a mountain of food from their plate; others get it served in the street. They’re not only eating here…. Also sharing their problems and sorrows and Jordi always shares something encouraging from the Bible and often may pray for them.

Timo to ‘school’ and Joah 1 year!! It’s really truth; Since grandpa and grandma left is Timo going to ‘school’; a kind of kinder garden for 3 mornings a week. He cries a lot when he has to go; he prefers to stay home with his mum. Not nice… Praise God his face is different when Ria comes to pick him up. What he likes the most is the music class. For us, it’s more like a school than a kinder garden; they’re having classes and he even had once homework! Joah is enjoying life a lot! 16th of February he turned 1. It was a nice day with visitors and cake. For a while he tries to talk and had 2 molders. All his energy seems to go there, besides this he’s not doing lots of physical stuff. Just sitting. Visitors Jordi’s parents came to visit us for a month. This was a great time. We miss them now they’re away. They also took 2 suitcases full of Dutch items for us. The guestroom is free now, so, welcome! Toys and Bibles We collected money for children’s Bibles and toys. This has been a great success; we collected more than 2000 euro’s. We could make the children of Otro Camino so happy with new toys and every family received a study Bible for families as well. Almost all the toys were broken in Otro Camino. We could throw those away. (more…)

Dear friends ans suporters, News from us! Right now we’re living in Bogota for almost 3 months now… in some ways we’re at home here and in some ways…. We’re not. We’ll tell you. Visit www.shailoh.org (we have an English button on the website!)

Living in Bogota We’re quite at home here; travelling by buses to work, church etc. While I’m writing this we’re living in the house which we could rent for 4 months. Within 2 weeks we have to move out. We found another house but….. still we don’t know when we can move in. In Colombia it works like this; once they’ve found someone for the house, they take it easy. So Jordi called the estate agent a couple of time a day sometimes to keep it going…. The language; that’s a point of frustration, especially when we have to arrange things. Luckily it’s getting better. Timo is talking a bit Spanish as well; counting from one to 6 in Spanish for example. Work We are very blessed to do great work here! We’re glad that we can be useful here, sometimes in the little things as bringing a cup of coffee to the security-man. One day a week Ria works in the drop in centre, which is a welcoming change. Jordi keeps himself busy with some projects in the area of family ministry. During the weekends we often receive a child from a problematic family staying with us, or we take care of the children who’re staying at ‘the farm’. We believe that God has given us a burden for the need of families in Bogota. We’re privileged to be a chain in this whole process.

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