7/3/25
Summer has started for the Dishman kids, even though RUF at the National University will continue in session until July 26 due to the latest strike. Pray for the changing routines and the school semester activities to finish well.

5/19/25
This past Saturday, we celebrated the wedding of two former RUF students, Niccol and Juan Pablo. We met Niccol as a student and then enjoyed having her around for another two years as an intern. Juan Pablo was a student in the group and is part of the Resurrection church plant team and will soon be a candidate for pastoral ministry. We have had the privilege of walking with them very closely over the years as they process their own pasts, struggles, and joys. Seeing God join their two lives together and celebrating his faithfulness in the community just a few days ago was a blessing and encouragement in so many ways. 

One whole long table in the reception was filled with RUF students, interns, and staff, both past and present. Watching them chat, laugh, eat, and dance together was a walk down memory lane and a privileged glimpse into how God is still working in their lives.
 
Several of those students came to faith in the ministry. A few of them have graduated and are now seeking a path to full time ministry themselves. More than one seated at that table has recently confessed to Peter or me (Lauren) that they are scared of getting married themselves because they haven’t seen a single healthy marriage in their own family (either their parents never married or it was/is a rough relationship). I’m thankful that each of them could be there and see a wedding that so clearly bore witness to the testimony of God’s grace and hope for the new couple and for our larger community. 

4/1/25
For the second semester in a row we have been assigned a room in spite of the constitutional court ruling that any use of university facilities by a religious group is tantamount to an unconstitutional financial contribution! We are grateful to the Lord for this provision.

3/25/25
Pray for lots of new students to get connected - they have waited two extra months to start with the strike adjustments.

3/20/25 
Pray for continued growth and connection. We have launched a women’s small group and hope to launch a men’s small group starting with a lunch this Sunday. 

Pray for our new service team members and our efforts to reach 3000 freshmen next week! We will hand out a total of 6000 academic calendars and hope the Lord uses them to connect with at least a dozen new students that stick.

Praise God for an effective spring retreat with the help of a visiting RUF group from the New Mexico State University and their Colombian campus minister! Pray for much fruit among the 30 students that joined us to lean about Nuestra Gran Historia.

Our sons Isaac and Sam are taking their first soccer class on Saturdays. Pray that they will make many Colombian friends! 

Our son Isaac and Peter are the rookie team in a fantasy baseball league at the invitation of encouraging local missionaries. Pray for good father-son bonding as we come in last but enjoy the process! 

RUF – English club resumed in January with a good group of students, one of whom joined our basics of Christianity Bible study afterward for the first time and wanted to know how to overcome her “ignorance” of the Bible and develop a vibrant, stabilizing faith like some of her friends. Pray for T as she read s the Bible with us, that Jesus would be believable and beautiful to her and that she would receive and rest on him as offered in the gospel.

Resurrection - Please pray that the Lord continues to protect and grow Peter and John’s relationship. Pray for wisdom and stamina as we continue weekly worship services and move towards particularization. Praise God that they are set to celebrate the Lord’s Supper together for the first time just prior to Christmas. Pray for good relationships between all the reformed presbyterian pastors in the city and that they can intentionally develop stronger gospel relationships for mutual encouragement in ministry and care for candidates and students.

Classical Conversations - Praise God for the growth of this ministry and how it seems to be meeting a deep hunger in the city and in the country. Pray that God helps us continue to transition smoothly into the new location that he has provided this semester and that we can be united in love even as new families continue to join and one key family moves to a new city.

Family - Pray that the Lord protects our rhythms of family time together as we do our first year of homeschooling with all three kids and that deep connections and patterns of joy and delight are established together this year. Pray that the Lord continues to sustain our marriage and that we can continue to operate as a team as we figure out how to wisely manage a lot of ministry dynamics. Pray that we can shepherd our kids’ hearts well as they begin asking deeper questions about life, their excitements and fears, and the Lord.

RUF at the National University. The fall semester is now over, and students are resting with family and friends over Christmas break. Christian students enjoyed learning how to lead Bible studies and create warm, hospitable spaces for believers and unbelievers alike to gather around the word of God. Several students who do not yet know Jesus came consistently to small group and large group Bible studies and are learning more about his love for them.

Resurrection Church Plant. We hosted our first preview service for Resurrection Bogota on November 26 with over 70 people in attendance! Lord willing, we will continue to host regular services (one this Sunday and then every other week starting in January) leading up to launching weekly services starting on Easter Sunday.

Bogota Presbyterians. As we continue to launch Resurrection, the Lord is providing more opportunities to connect with other like'minded Spanish speaking churches in the city. We were able to host a joint Reformation Day worship service for local Presbyterian churches and are planning a women’s conference that will take place in February. The Lord is faithfully strengthening connections between the churches in the city as we seek to work together to see his kingdom come in Bogota.

Classical Conversations School. With several new families joining in January, we will be starting the second semester of our home school group with at least 21 enrolled students. It has been encouraging to see the families in this group work together to make a creative and fun learning environment as we learn about Colombian history and geography alongside many other subjects this year. We continue to grow in our understanding of God’s world together.

Family Updates. We are so thankful that Peter seems to be fully recovered from his health scare last December. At this point, it seems most likely that he suffered a complex migraine and not a stroke (or that God did something miraculous!). We are thankful for God’s provision and care for him and the rest of our family. His improved health has meant that he can continue to lead the RUF student ministry and plant  alongside national pastor John Sandoval.

Lauren loves being a home school mom with all the sweet opportunities for family connection that it brings. She is thankful for the families homeschooling with us in the Classical Conversations community she directs. She has also enjoyed her continued work on internships, both with two-year interns serving with us in Bogota and with the broader network of MTW investment model internship sites scattered across the globe.

Isaac (6) is thriving as a homeschooled first grader. His favorite classes this semester have been geography and swimming lessons. Always the STEM kid, he received the Isaac Newton science award in Classical Conversations for the second time this semester. Calvin and Hobbes has turned him into an avid reader, and he will tell you that his favorite way to spend a day is snuggled up in bed with a book.

Sam (4) is wrapping up his year in a Spanish speaking neighborhood preschool this week and will start homeschooling with us in January. His teachers told us recently that his class began a joke time after lunch each day because Sam always has one to share. They noted that the way he tells jokes seems to indicate that he is both empathetic and gifted with languages, and encouraged us to expose him to even more learning opportunities (he asks about Japanese a lot these days).

Sophie (2) continues to be a spunky and passionate little person who has no trouble keeping up with her big brothers. She loves school, especially singing history songs and doing art projects, and continues to share with us what she learned in “ABC Things” (her self-titled school). She also loves taking care of her baby dolls and kitty cats, all of which are named Christina.