An Interview with Warren (Part 2)
The Cross Cultural Missions Team (CCMT) will be featuring one of our mission partners each month on a rotating basis. We want to foster stronger relationships with our mission partners. We invite you to learn, pray and give to the important work they are doing to advance the Great Commission both locally and globally.
This past month, I sat down with Warren Van Sydenborgh to hear about what he has been up to in Colombia. Over the past year he has been working as an English and Math teacher in Bogota, Colombia. Read more about what he has been up to and how you can support him below. If you missed our interview with him last year and want to learn more about the work he is doing, please read the previous interview here.
Q: What is your current living situation like?
A: I live with two Christian brothers, Sam and Drew, who also teach at the El Camino school. They are both sold out for the Lord. Sam and I are really similar and bond over our extrovertedness and love for making guitar music together. Drew is the calm steady companion that keeps the home grounded. He is super handy and we love working on projects around the apartment. It has been a huge blessing living with both of them. Also, there's nothing like living with two coworkers to help one remember upcoming deadlines!
Q: How have you found being a teacher in a foreign country?
A: Frankly being a teacher is exhausting and I never feel like I am prepared enough. I don’t mean to complain though. I truly do love it and feel like I'm fulfilling what God has for me. However, the amount of dedication needed to be a good teacher is a whole new level compared to any other job I've worked in, even compared to being a project manager in robotics.
I do feel like I've improved a lot since starting but balancing the relationships, the preparation, the grading, and the actual giving of classes still keeps me busy most Saturdays trying to stay caught up. We are currently about to enter our last month of school and I’m thankful for that albeit it's bittersweet. I have grown to love all my students so much and am excited to think that I’ll be back soon for the next year as I have already accepted a contract for next year.
Recently I got to go on a field trip with the grade six class to “La Quinta de Simón Bolívar”. This is the home that Colombia gifted to their liberator from the Spanish, Simón Bolívar. A native born Venezuelan, Simón Bolívar, was the main leader in the war of independence of Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia (his namesake) in the early 1800s. The house and property is located in the old city center backed against the mountain. It was really fun to go there and learn more about the formation of Colombia with the kids. Riding in the bus was a great opportunity to get into some really deep conversations with some of them concerning faith, futures, and perspectives. I love that I work in a Christian school and the whole purpose is to bring the kids closer to Christ.
Q: Can you tell us more about the mission trip you recently came back from?
A: I was able to co lead a mission trip with a group of high school students to La Guajira. This is on the north-east corner of Columbia and is all desert with cactus and thorns. The team consisted of 7 kids and 3 teachers and we spent a week meeting with a local mission team that is focused on evangelizing to children and youth that live all over La Guajira. The settlements are very spread out with the average people living there surviving off their goats and whatever other work they might find. The mission team there is run by local Wayu people. The Wayu people are the indigenous people who live in La Guajira. The local team is connected to a church organization from the region that focuses on spreading the gospel in the Wayuunaiki language all across La Guajira. The language has only in living history become written and uses the latin alphabet. The Bible was finally fully translated into the Wayuunaiki language in 2024.
During our time, we stayed at “ranch” where there was a cluster of stick-mud homes enclosed by a cactus fence, a couple of wooden sun shades, and a stick-mud church with a tin roof. We slept under the sun shades in hammocks with the bathroom being the thorny scrub around. It was pretty primitive. The church had electricity that came in on a bare wire hung from short posts that came from who knows where. The current was very finicky and the couple little light bulbs at night would fade in and out. Charging anything with the outlets was a nightmare.
Our purpose was to teach evangelistic methods that the high schoolers learned at their churches in Bogota to the local mission team. The local mission team would adapt them to the Wayu culture and Wayuunaiki language and share them to the groups of kids that would come to the church after school in the afternoon/evening. Our routine was to do the training in the morning, take a break in the heat of the day, and then help with the kids and outreach in the afternoon. In the late evening we would do devos, debriefs, and planning for the next day. This schedule got very messed up with different things that came up as the week went on but each day was full, exhausting, and very satisfying. We built great connections with the local team and on the last day went to the beach on the Caribbean Sea with them. It was amazing seeing what they did with so little and the passion they had to share the gospel with their own people. They in turn told us how encouraged they were by us coming to connect and share ideas as they had been feeling burnt out and isolated. I think the high schoolers also learned a lot about getting tougher and realizing how good we have it in Bogota.
Q: As you think about finishing this school year and returning next year, what are you excited about and what are you nervous about?
A: I am excited about being a more experienced teacher next year and to be able to make what I am teaching my own. Currently, I am using materials that I received from previous teachers that I adapt for myself. The thing I'm most excited for next year is that the current plan is for me to teach social studies (geography and history) in grade 6 and 7 along with one math class in place of another math and english class that I currently teach. These classes are more aligned with my interests and could be really fun!
Q: As you return to Canada this summer, what are some ways we can support you as a church?
A: I’d love to be invited over! I know I haven't done a great job staying in contact with people back home but I do miss you all a lot! I would love to make it work and I would feel like I can open up more and share about what ministry is like in Colombia. Another great way to support me is through prayer. Please pray for me to be able to finish the school year well. I feel like I am on the verge of burnout sometimes. Please pray I will be able to stay focused.
Thank you, Warren, for sharing with us! Please consider the ways you can be praying and supporting Warren in his work in Colombia.
