My team and I only have one week left here in Medellin, Colombia. To say time is flying is an understatement. I really can’t put into words completely all that we have seen and done over the past 3 weeks, however I will try to tell you a little bit.
I absolutely love Colombia. I know, I know, I say that about every country. But I really do mean it. Colombia is amazing. The country is beautiful and the people are SO NICE. Oh, and the food is sooooooo yummy. Our ministry also has a bakery…so that doesn’t hurt. lol.
This month my team and I are serving at a ministry called Ciudad Refugio. It is a Christian organization that functions as a church, a homeless shelter for men, a men and women’s rehabilitation/transition program for various addictions, a school, and a few apartments on the top floor. This place is amazing. It is 5 stories of awesomeness. Seriously.
We are doing a variety of odd jobs here, which is pretty normal for the race. The main thing we have been a part of is taking care of the ‘donation’. Let me explain. Each week the ministry receives donations of fruits and vegetables from local markets that are deemed ‘unsellable’. So, the women in the rehabilitation program examine all the fruits, cut them up, and bag them. They then use them to make juices and various foods for the people that live on the foundation (including us). So while we’re here, we are giving the women a break and doing this almost daily.
I’ll be the first to say, this job is not easy. If you have a weak stomach and are easily grossed out, you would have a very hard time. Many times the fruits are almost completely rotten and fall apart when you pick them up. However, there are lots of fruits and veggies that are still good, they just look a little rough on the outside.
One day as we were sitting and cutting up the fruits (I always get the Papaya, which looks like human flesh…ahhhh) I thought about the significance of what we were doing. You see, all of us are like that bad fruit. We come to the Lord and we are so gross. We smell, we are dripping with nastiness, and we just don’t look appealing. But God doesn’t care. He takes us in His hand and begins to examine us, seeing what He needs to get rid of in order to use us. Then, through a sometimes intense process (just like with the fruit we are cutting up), He begins to take His knife and cut those bad parts off. This can be extremely painful. However, our Father doesn’t want to hurt us. He knows that He must remove those bad parts in order to use us and so we can be fruitful for the Kingdom. He knows that sometimes that pain will bring forth good. The Father chooses to use us, even though He saw what we once were.
Each day we take turns teaching the women in the program. There are 5 right now and they are wonderful. They are all walking out of drug, alcohol, and various other addictions. They all have families that they are away from, some even have children. They are all at the foundation because they want to get better. The day it was my turn to teach, I decided to share this story about the fruit with them. I watched as one of the women was intently listening. She was physically detoxing from a very serious drug that had taken control of her for the past 4 years. I could see the pain in her eyes as I spoke. In that moment, the Lord opened my eyes to see the the women as He sees them. They may look a little messy and need some change, but He wants them right where they are. These women are all struggling but I can see the Lord changing them and making them new. They were LOST but now, OH BUT NOW, they are completely FOUND.
It’s honestly the same with each of us. Just because you might not have an addiction or a hang up that’s on the outside for all to see, the Lord still wants to change you and make you new in Him. Just like that rotten fruit we spend every day cutting up.
Each week at the church services we sing “Break Every Chain”, in Spanish that is “Cadenas Romper”. Every service I watch the women in the program and have to fight back tears the entire time. I can literally see and feel the chains that are binding them falling off, one by one. One part of the song says “Oigo Cadenas Caer” which means “I hear the chains falling”. And, oh man, can you hear the chains falling off at Ciudad Refugio. They are slamming into the ground every moment of every day in that place. SOLI DEO GLORIA.
I know that was a lot to fit into one blog, but there you go, precious readers!
Until Next Time, Ciao!
