Dear Friends:
We wanted to share some important news with you!
As you know, last November we began seeking a more traditional educational solution for our girls after many years of home-schooling. Emilio is looking at New England boarding schools for 2015 and does not factor into the equation. We also realized at the time that we would likely have to relocate since no school in Medellín would validate our girls’ home-school education.
In December, we began earnestly considering a relocation to Bogotá where our girls could enter El Camino Academy’s program and where Gustavo would be a short flight away from the Biblical Seminary of Colombia’s (BSC) Medellín campus.
However, as we prayed and consulted with our church, missions agency and ministry partner over a difficult three-month period, it became clear that our hearts were being pulled in another direction. The girls had increasingly expressed a desire to return to Boston to do life, school and church with their friends. Our family was experiencing cultural fatigue from having lived overseas for 9+ years. Rochelle was also eager to return to the place we had called home for two decades and where she could communicate in her native tongue and hopefully reenter the work force. Finally, we realized that Gustavo could perform his work from virtually any place in the world.
It is for these reasons and many others, that we have made the difficult decision to return to Boston in the summer of 2015. Our girls will hopefully be attending Boston Trinity Academy in the fall and we hope that Emilio will be entering a boarding school somewhere in New England. Rochelle will be seeking employment in the Boston area.
As for Gustavo, he will continue as a full-time supported missionary of the United World Mission and as a full-time, off-site professor at the Biblical Seminary of Colombia. Gustavo will deliver virtual courses for BSC’s undergraduate program and make periodic trips to Medellín to deliver intensive residential courses. We should mention that several U.S. professors currently have this arrangement with the BSC.
In addition, Gustavo will continue to deliver masters level courses for Gordon Conwell’s Hispanic Ministries division in different Latin American countries. Finally, upon the completion of his PhD, Gustavo will also be eligible to deliver virtual courses for BSC’s masters program to begin in February, 2016.
We are excited for this next phase of our family and ministerial life and for the joy of being able to return to Boston. While we will greatly miss living overseas, we are thankful for everything the Lord has taught us with our experience over the years of ministering in Latin America. In addition, we are heartened by the fact that Gustavo can continue to pursue the important ministry of leadership development and theological education from our home base in Boston.
We covet your prayers during this important transition. Feel free to write, text or call if you have questions or need more information.
We miss you all and hope to see many of you soon.
Blessings,
Gustavo, Rochelle, Emilio, Caroline and Natalie Karakey