Children's Day in Bogota, Columbia

Alvaro Baez

The Las Arenitas preschool education center is located in one of the many violence-threatened neighborhoods in Bogota, Columbia. Most of the children who attend are from single-parent homes, and most mothers have been victims of abuse. One doesn’t need to go too far from the city to find these areas in which poverty and violence are rampant.

Two of our volunteers at Connect Vision Foundation, Sam and Maripaz, have been visiting this center weekly to conduct Bible classes and activities for the children. We wanted to do something special to celebrate Children’s National Day, which is celebrated on October 31st. Our kids practiced some upbeat songs to sing for their friends at the center, and Miguel, our talented in-house chef, volunteered to cook pizza for everyone. We applied for sponsorship from Activated Ministries and were delighted to receive Bible verse booklets, magazines, DVD’s, Bible card games, and story books to distribute at the event. There was enough to give one of each item to every child at the center.

On Children’s National Day, our kids sang and all the children and their relatives at the center enjoyed Miguel’s pizza, but the real moving moments came when they received their presents! The teachers and relatives said that it was like a dream come true! Even though most of these people are already Christians, one of the biggest needs in these neighborhoods is suitable material to study in order to grow spiritually in their relationship with Jesus.

Connect Vision volunteers in Bogota are very thankful for the vision and support from Activated Ministries in making available an effective sponsorship program such as this which enables us to deliver God’s Word to these very appreciative people. We hope we can continue to work together on similar projects in the future.