Sometimes it still hits me that I’m on the World Race.
I’m living and working with 6 other people in Cartagena, Colombia.
8 months ago, I didn’t even know these people existed, and now they’re my family.
9 months ago, I didn’t even know there was a thing called the World Race, and now I’m living it.
Time is going fast, and before I could even blink, I’m in month 3!
54 hours of travel time, and bus after bus, we found ourselves in Cartagena, Colombia. We arrived at our hosts home, climbed up a ladder to our living quarters and plopped our belongings on a concrete floor. We were given a few minutes to collect our thoughts and start unpacking our few belongings. We met our ministry hosts, Alex and Mercy Rocha and their 6 children, and the second we met them, I instantly felt like family! They are indescribable! They run an after school kids program, showing them the love and grace of Jesus. We started ministry which involves teaching English classes, prayer walks and mostly just playing with the neighborhood kids when the sun goes down.
Everything is great, albeit one small thing.
The neighborhood in which we are living and working in isn’t the safest. Gunshots, fighting and very loud Colombian music can be heard almost every night. One side of the town is fighting with the other side, gangsters going after families. 12 year old kids are selling and using drugs. Parties and drinking every night. And you know what? I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
To think that God has been leading the trajectory of my life to this exact moment is overwhelming. God has not called us to safety.He hasn’t asked us to live a comfortable and cushy life.
He says: “If you wanna be a follower of me, you have to put aside your own selfish desires, shoulder your cross daily & follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it, but if you give up your life for me, you will find true life. What do you benefit if you gain the whole world, but lose your own soul in the process?Luke 9:23-25
My selfish desire had always been dreams filled with things, comfort, safety, a husband, children and a home.
And I am freaking thankful that I am nowhere near those things. I am thankful that I’m in a place filled with danger and what some people would see as squalor. Because I get the divine privilege to see the world and the way Jesus is moving in it.
I see His love in the beautiful smiles of each Colombian child that I get the privilege to play with. I see Him in the dirty little hands and feet I get to hold and tickle. I see the Holy Spirit moving as we walk the streets of a broken city riddled with garbage and gang violence. As I hear gun shots and fighting at night, I know that He. Is. Here. He is in the midst of Colombia and He is moving. Though there be violence and oftentimes, death, I am not afraid. He is actively at work in this city and alive in the men and women of peace.
Though danger is on every side, I know a couple things:
He is here.
His grace is abounding.
His love is exploding.
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10
