Hola Amigos de Colombia!
It’s crazy that I am able to say that.I’ll give you guys a little day to day since we arrived in Colombia. We left Atlanta on Wednesday at 2:30 a.m. We flew from Atlanta with no problems into Ft Lauderdale, Florida. In Fort Lauderdale, we had a 12 hour layover. They wouldn’t allow us to check through the airport until it was way closer to our flight. We ended up setting up camp in the baggage claim where we picked up our packs. Now image 57 21-35 year olds hanging out in baggage claim for hours and hours. We got a lot of looks. Something cool that came from our baggage claim campout was that we as a squad were able to pray over the baggage claim one step over where multiple people lost their lives last week. It was a sobering thought to know that had happened behind the curtain separating the us and the only other Delta baggage claim. There was even a news crew present at one point while we were there. Eventually we were asked to move our camp so we switched to outside the baggage claim.
Part of our wait was because our airline wouldn’t let us fly into a Colombia without an exit plan. Since we will be bussing into Ecuador at the end of the month it looked to them like we had no plans for returning. Our awesome logistics person had to then book return flights for all of us into JFK for March. It was an unforeseen complication but our awesome people dealt with it patiently and amazingly. After checking through security and finding our gate, the bathroom on our plane broke. We ended up having multiple delays we finally arrived at the Medellin airport. From there we took a bus. The bus was about an hour long ride. We split into 2 busses. Everyone had seats and our packs were piled between us almost to the ceiling. It was pretty comical and very cozy. We arrived at Ciudad Refugio around 5 am.
From Ciudad Refugio, our squad split into teams and departed to our individual ministry sights over the next few days. My team, Kindred Bow ended up staying at Ciudad Refugio until Sunday. Our ministry host in Planeta Rica was on vacation so we couldn’t come to Planeta Rica until they were home from their vacation. We definitely enjoyed our time in Medellin at Ciudad Refugio. The work they are doing there is incredible and hearing their story was really amazing. Ciudad Refugio is a “baby” of teen challenge and Times Square church in New York, They have many functions including being a drug rehabilitation facility, a homeless shelter, a church, apartments, feeding programs, and hosting an internship program partnered with a church in Germany. There are many German students volunteering throughout Colombia with Ciudad Refugio. Medellin is very beautiful nestled in the valley between Las Montanas (the mountains). Ciudad Refugio is 6 floors so the view is very beautiful. We took a little excursion while in the city to visit their Botanical Gardens, The Gardens were beautiful. They promised sloths, however, and there were none. I guess their Mariposas (butterflies) made up for the lack of sloths but we still want to see sloths.
We got to do a little VBS while in the city, which was really fun. The kids love “gringas and gringos,” It was really fun and very high energy as you can imagine.
WWe arrived in Planeta Rica this morning around 7am. We left from Medellin around 11:15 last night. The bus ride was pretty nice. It was air-conditioned and we got to sleep most of the night. Planeta Rica is a small town near the coast. It is “mucho calor” or very hot here. During the day, Colombians here don’t do anything between the hours of 12-3:30 because the temperatures soar and it becomes too hot to venture very far. We have only been here for 1 day so I will have more for you guys on Planeta Rica the next time I post.Tomorrow we are taking a van to the beach about 2 hours away for our free day activity. We are pretty excited about that. The next day ministry will begin for us in Planeta Rica. Talk to you guys again soon!
Prayer Requests:
+Funding for all of us on Kindred Bow. Currently only Olivia is fully funded
+Home sickness is hitting some of us hard. We are all excited to be here but the reality of 11 months away has hit some of the team pretty hard and attacks on that front are already hitting.
+Heath in general for our team. Dehydration has already hit a few of us, myself included. We realize pretty quickly one the side effects hit but then we get pretty miserable for a few hours.
+Steadfastness in our spiritual lives and for our eyes to be open to opportunities while here.
Pictures from the top:
the Streets of Medellin.
Q squad in front of Ciudad Refugio
rooftop of Cuidad Refudio view of Medellin
baggage claim campout in Ft. Lauderdale
my team: Kindred Bow
