As the end of the year draws near we tend to look back and ruminate over all that has come to pass. I have had the fullest year of, let’s face it, probably my whole life on the World Race. Was I on the mission field or in ministry each month…
Month 1 – Cajamarca & Negritos-Lo, Peru
Team Starling
Our first month on the Race we worked with the church, Monte Sion. We lived in the home of an incredible church family. We shared our testimonies in google-translated broken Spanish in their home church and their church-plants throughout the rural mountainsides and outskirts of Cajamarca. We sang songs, shared devotionals, led bible studies and youth group.
Playing games transcends any language barrier, everyone understands fun.
Our second week we were privileged to be taken by rickety pick-up truck high into the mountains where our things were loaded onto horseback and we were led on foot down mud trails into the Negritos-Lo village. We got to hand out Operation Christmas Child (www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child ) shoeboxes to the children there and spend 5 days sleeping on the handmade wooden pews listening to the rain on the tin roof of the church every night. Participating in church services, listening to their unique and incredible worship, running a VBS, and visiting homes there was a life changing experience.
See my previous blog-post : “Negritos-Lo, Not very Low at all”
http://maryheflin.theworldrace.org/post/in-negritoslo
Month 2 – Quito & Caspigasi, Ecuador
Team Monarch
A month unlike any other this was our “All Squad” month. Where all 35 of us stayed in one house and a cabana together, while our seperate teams split to different ministries each day. We spent time together, getting to know the dynamics of our Squad and pouring into each other as one big group becoming family. Our specific team’s ministry was with a church, “Iglesia Evangelio Eterno”. We painted a mural telling the story of creation in their playground and murals depicting bible stories and butterflies in their classrooms. These creative additions will brighten their children’s ministry space and create a warm and inviting atmosphere encouraging more of the community to bring their kids to be involved. We also visited one of their rural church-plants in Caspigasi, where we did some landscaping and planted a garden to enliven the outdoor space of the church, creating a peaceful and inviting place to draw the community as well.
It was a month where we probably won’t get to see the fruit of the seeds which we planted. Some very literally!
Just weeks after we left the devastating earthquake hit Quito, fortunately no one we had come to know and love was hurt.
Month 3 – Medellin & San Pedro, Colombia
Team Monarch
In San Pedro we worked with “Fundacion Brazos Abiertos” ( https://brazosabiertos.wordpress.com) a home for boys removed from abusive circumstances or family situations. The home was on a dairy farm in the hills. We lived in cabins on the farm’s property. On the weekends we joined their church service in Medellin, leading worship and Sunday school. During the week we had the best time at the farm loving and playing with the boys who lived there ranging from ages 5 to 13. While they were in school we worked around the farm helping to keep it up to code by painting and clearing the grounds. When they got home we helped them finish their chores and homework, then did some structured activities and bible studies with them. We took them on a few outings, to the park, to the lake. And then of course just played! A lot of “horseback races” happened, ask me to show you how, the little kids in your life will love you and your muscles will never be the same. Sometimes it was hard as these boys have seen and been through a lot. There were some difficult disciplinary and teaching moments that ended up teaching us a lot. Many moments and stories broke my heart.
I prayed each month that God would break my heart for what breaks His.
Their social workers and psychologists taught us how to see beyond their behavior into their childhood and how to love them well.
Those boys have stolen our hearts and our prayers forever.
See some of our time with the boys here :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjR_g26zjj4&t=78s
Month 4 – Lesvos, Greece
Team Monarch
In month 2 we were told our “route” would be changed and instead of going to Bulgaria as a Squad we would be traveling to Greece to aid in the refugee crisis. Our team along with Team Willing Wanderers traveled for 5 days to reach the island of Lesvos. An island 6 miles off the coast of Turkey. To work in a prison, turned military base, turned refugee camp smack-dab in the middle of this once tourism-driven community. We lived in a hostel on the opposite side of the island. We arrived just 1 day after Turkey and the E.U. signed the infamous “deal” that changed the course of the refugee’s movements to Greece. This camp called “Moria” was built to hold maybe 1,000 people and was currently holding 3,000 when we arrived. I have written a couple of blogs about a few of the overwhelming emotional experiences we had in this environment and I will write a couple more. In a ministry sense we aided in the daily operations of the camp. This included food and clothing distribution, cleaning and maintenance like picking up trash and cleaning bathrooms. We would also pause to assist people with questions, walk them to find the doctor or where to stand in line for paperwork. We would help process new arrivals and assign or reassign housing (mainly tents). Though mostly Syrian this often became a delicate process with so many other people groups and cultures. We took shifts working in different positions with different assignments, like the “command center” where individuals could come to ask questions and mothers could come to receive diapers, formula, etc. Some of our shifts were overnight, tending the locked gates of the family compounds. We would sit on the pavement and play Uno until the wee hours of the morning.
Because ultimately beyond all of our assigned duties we did everything we could to love the people in this camp well. We held hands, listened, heard stories, gave a caring ear and kind words, encouraged, made friends, made fun, and brought some peace and love into the lives of people feeling wrecked and lost by unimaginable circumstance.
See my previous blog-posts : “They drowned and it is Not Well” & “Moria, a Prison for Truth”
http://maryheflin.theworldrace.org/post/moria-a-prison-for-truth
http://maryheflin.theworldrace.org/post/they-drowned-and-it-is-not-well
A video of our reaction from Pope Francis’ visit to Moria :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wOpSRfYfLY
Us cleaning up the beaches on the island :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVY9EKN5hkQ
Month 5 – Bar, Montenegro
Team Oneders
After a heavy and emotion laden month 4 we were so blessed to have our next month be the one we had. Our hosts wanted us to rest and be refreshed while engaging in their ministry and partnering with them to establish it in the town of Bar. The husband of our host couple felt called from South Africa to Montenegro, a relatively newly independent country with a population less than 1% Christian. He poured into us every day in a mighty way with bible study and devotionals. He wanted us to break away from legalism into authentic relationship with Christ, to refresh and equip us to minister well throughout the rest of our Race. He taught us about God’s word, which impacted each of us powerfully and reignited the fire within us to seek the lost and broken. Bringing us new found freedom in Jesus’ love.
All of our hosts throughout the year did that in a different way.
But this was a vital month of recharge after an intense month prior. He baptized me along with several other squad-mates this month.
He established and is the head of a church in the community of Bar with a mainly Russian congregation. We aided him in his ministry by forming relationships throughout the town, frequenting businesses and making friends. We held a small-group once a week at the home in which we stayed and invited new friends to join.
* Half way through the Race! Please continue to the following blog to complete the look-back :
“Mission Field or Ministry”
