E-mail us

LARRY and BARBARA KOEHN
WBF Missionaries to
COLOMBIA

WBF Home

About Us

July 2002

Dear Friends and Family    

It is wonderful to be back home again and settled in after our furlough time. In our last letter, I shared with you about our welcoming committee of termites that we fought for several weeks. Just when we thought we had taken care of that problem, Surprise! they changed direction from the kitchen and got into my office bookcase. Fortunately I discovered them before they had time to do much damage since they just ate on a few books. It has been over a month since we have seen any sign of them. This is great, but at the same time a little scary. I have dropped my guard against them for the time being. Will they come back, and if so, where?

After dealing with these critters, a tremendous Bible principle that we all deal with daily became even more real. It's the fact that Satan has his demonic forces all around us waiting to attack when we least expect it and in areas where we think we are in total control. I see this happening in numerous families in the church. Many of our key families in leadership have recently begun to experience great financial problems. Some are having to make very difficult decisions to choose between employers that are demanding 12+ hours daily including weekends, and their church attendance, as well as continuing or not in their particular ministries. Others have not had employment for months much less any other type of income. Others are being attacked by way of health and some with serious marital problems.  I told them that I am excited about what is happening although it saddens me to see so much suffering, but at the same time we know where the problems are coming from and why. The group of leaders (25) without exception have openly committed themselves to focus their lives toward their personal spiritual edification as well as taking the church to- ward reaching the goal of  Colombia for Christ". Satan does not like this and has sent his  termites" to destroy the human foundation of this church.

Many of you saw their faces last year so please pray for the following people:

In spite of these problems, I believe God is going to do some great things in this church.

The situation in Colombia has gotten increasingly tense. The new President will take office on Aug. 7. All governors, mayors and other civic leaders in the country have received death threats against them and their families to force them to resign their posts. Several hundred cities and towns are now without leaders because of threats. Pray for Colombia and its new President.

Larry & Barbara Koehn
A.A. 023
Santa Marta, Colombia
lkoehn@compunet.net.co

Top of page

May 2002

Dear Co-Laborers, 

Barbara and I are back in Santa Marta, but not without a few complications. We missed our morning flight from DFW to Miami on April 11 due to security delays in the checking of our luggage. We were able to catch a late flight that evening and arrived in Miami after midnight. After spending an extremely uncomfortable night trying to sleep in the airport, our morning flight to Bogotá was delayed and finally canceled. We were then changed to a Colombian airline which got us into Bogotá  just before noon on the 12th.

We stayed a few days in Bogotá and were able to take advantage of a national book fair that had just begun. We were able to buy a large number of Bibles and other study books for our institute and resource center at a very good discounted price. Our sincere thanks to the churches that gave towards this project.

When we finally arrived to our home, the first thing that welcomed us when we walked into the kitchen was an incredible amount of termite trails under the cabinets and going up the wall to a picture that served as a banquet for them. They got into a number of books and totally ate a part of the kitchen cabinet (which I labored over for 6 months when we first moved into this house!)

Several days after the exterminator fumigated the effected areas, those little rascals began popping out all over the house; out of walls and woodwork, upstairs and down. At present time we seem to be just about free of termites. (Leaving a house unlived in for a year in a tropical climate is not a good thing.)

I preached our first Sunday back. There were 210 in the service with 9 adults making a profession of faith in Christ for salvation. It is so exciting to see how God has worked in the church through the leadership this past year while we were on furlough. It is so evident that the Lord is building this church and not the missionary. There are so many new people in the church that we did not know.

Colombia is gearing up for the presidential election on the 26th of May. Already, since we have been back, there has been a bomb attack against the most popular candidate. The second candidate was forced to cancel a speaking engagement because of plans discovered of an attempt against him also. The situation here in Santa Marta at this time remains calm and seemingly under control for which we are very thankful. Please continue praying for Colombia and the safety of the missionaries serving here.

Colombia For Christ,

Larry & Barbara Koehn