I'm in Cartagena this week leading a small team of ten people who are here not just to watch the news, but to help make the news better for people in need.

We've been in Cartagena for only two days - but they've been so full! We met with several vulnerable women and here's what we've accomplished:

Helping a Venezuelan mother who was out selling coffee at 9pm with her 11-year-old daughter.

Helping the pastor of a tiny church buy a stack of Bibles for his congregation. We then painted the inside and outside of his church, an act of service that moved him to tears. He told us he was about to close the church down before we arrived because he felt so alone.

Our main focus, a woman named Wendy and her family: we got Wendy her first-ever bank account ( she's 35) and then got her set up with a new micro-business making and selling food in front of her house, which will allow her to keep her kids home and away from the clutches of the many perverts who roam the streets downtown looking for vulnerable kids for . It will also likely double or triple Wendy's take-home pay. Considering she was only making 3-5 dollars a night before, that's not saying a lot but it will put her on another level as far as survival goes. She also has her housing paid for for another year and a safe place for her and her children.

Wendy's roommate, Kendi, also got set up with her own micro-business selling coffee. A real life-change for these women, and a potential life-saver for the kids.

So THANK YOU to all who gave for this project. We are still looking to buy Wendy a new refrigerator (hers is almost dead) and we are going to give anything we have left over to the pastor of the church.