The Pastor
The girls help celebrate Libni's birthday
Libni has led the first Free Methodist Church, el Movimiento de Plenitud Cristiana, in Bogotá, Colombia for more than 10 years. As a trained psychologist, he also meets with patients during the week. His call is to focus on planting churches and training leaders with the goal of reaching the new generation. Read more about how the church got started under About: Beginnings.
Since its beginning, the church has worked to implement prevention programs to help abandoned children who are at high risk of abuse. With this goal in mind the we founded the organization Children’s Outreach Ministries which works alongside the church in developing its social outreach programs.
The Coordinator
Jacob Grady came to Bogotá in October of 2006 after graduating from Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash. His plans were to stay for two years and help the church start an orphanage. “I left home thinking that I had some good ideas to help start the orphanage, but was worried about finding community there,” says Jacob. After arriving in Bogotá he found that these two assumptions were reversed. “I was immediately accepted and loved by the people at the church, but when I saw the budget for the orphanage I was absolutely shocked. I started to ask questions like, ‘do the girls need to eat that much?’ and ‘can’t we just have running water every other day?’”
Two and a half years later The Beehive is a testament to how faithful God has been in answering prayers and providing for the ministry. “It has been a life-changing and life-giving experience to be a part of something that God has used radically to change the lives of these little girls,” says Jacob.
The Missionary
Keila Alejandra Orozco Pineda was born into an evangelical Christian home; her father pastored a church for a number of years and she was involved in ministry alongside her mother. 
Since she was a girl, she wanted to be a teacher because she enjoyed sunday school, so when she reached adolescence, she began to teach classes to young children.
A year ago, God called her to serve in missions, specifically with children. “God put a passion in my heart for children that come from broken families,” Keila says. Only a few months before she moved to Bogota, she had attended a missionary conference with the Free Methodist Church, which took place in Mexico. It was there that God confirmed her calling to serve children, when she heard Jacob Grady speak about Children’s Outreach Ministries and the Beehive Orphanage for Girls. She fell in love with this project: “I believe that it is a beautiful ministry where one can give all the love we’ve received from God and at the same time receieve so much love.”
It was a long process before she finally arrived in Bogota, but God opened every door for her. Now she says that it is a blessing to be there with the girls; getting to know them has been a wonderful experience, as each day she witnesses how God is doing great things in their lives. She knows that God has put her in the right place at the right time.
The “Mother”
Ruth Ramirez, an involved member of Libni’s congregation, is a key person in the success of The Beehive. For this position of primary caretaker, we searched for someone with a strong faith, a big heart, and enough energy to keep up with 13 little girls all at once. Thankfully, we found Ruth up to the challenge.
Living in an apartment adjacent to the home with her daughter Johanna, she is continuously attentive to the various needs and wants that the girls have. Every morning, she bathes and dresses them, serves them breakfast, and sets up the living room for study time. Usually, she ushers them, like a mother duck leading her ducklings, to the community kitchen for lunch and returns to pick them up from school after a brief afternoon alone. During the evening, she reads the bible and prays with them before putting them to bed. In addition, she helps with the laundry, the house-cleaning, and food preparation. No wonder it’s difficult to recruit someone for this position!
