Let’s talk a little about month 1 of this crazy adventure called the World Race. Colombia…
In Colombia everything almost seemed totally brand new. Though I’ve been on tons of different mission trips over the years, this was a whole new experience. This was not your average 10-day journey with a few friends from church who you’ve known for years. This was a new adventure that would last several weeks in each country, 11 to be exact, over the course of nearly a year. I was sleeping in a bed next to a stranger who was also my teammate – someone I was expected to work with, but had no idea how to work with since I didn’t know her or any of the other team members at the time. Our host was quite protective in a fatherly way. We weren’t allowed to go anywhere alone, not even to the street corner, for fear that something could happen to us. Back then with everything being so new we didn’t think much of it… at least I didn’t. Today, at the end of this thing I would probably freak out feeling so confined. Lol. But this confinement forced our team to get to know each other. Some of my favorite memories from Colombia revolve around our nightly times together as a team – talking, playing games, getting to know each other, etc. It was intentional time that we set aside to be sure we were engaging with one other.
Our hosts fed us like goats they were trying to fatten before a big feast. Ha! It was soooo much food! They tried so hard to cater to our American tastes, though. We had their attempts at burgers and pizza and chicken. Oh! And these monstrous hotdog things that were seriously gi-normous! There was this one time when we had the gigantic hotdog thingys, and as we were all coming together at the table to eat, Shae was grabbing the plates and passing them out to people, yelling with every one that she passed “A hotdog for YOU! A hotdog for YOU!…”. As she went to pass another one out and yell the same phrase, she stuck her arm right out in front of our host-grandma, Aurora, and scared the flippers out of her! She jumped and nearly had a heart attack right then and there, and all everyone who saw it could do was laugh hysterically! It became a team joke that you can still hear some of us talk about years… I mean months later.
Our travel was on public transportation. We took buses everywhere we went, usually stuffed like sardines in a massive can. Me being as short as I am, I had the privilege of admiring a great many armpits as I stood in the aisles of the metro, hanging on to the posts in front of me or sometimes the railings above me. Ministry? That was straight up street evangelism. We worked with like seven or eight different churches that month, spending 2-3 days with each church, walking the streets with them and finding people to share the Gospel with. The first person I led to Christ on the Race was in that month. His name is Juan Eduardo, and I’m confident our encounter was a divine one. I wrote a blog post back in January about the experience and how awesome it was. If you havent read it yet, definitely do that!
Probably the most difficult thing about Colombia was the ministry and the legalisms we found to be involved in what we did. While I’m aware that God can use everything to His good, the entrapment of legalism was a real thing in most of our experienced that month. Don’t get me wrong… our ministry hosts were great. They were very loving and caring, and I believe their hearts truly want to share the Gospel – however there was not a lot of love involved in what we did. We were not allowed to talk to any person for more than 5 minutes because that would waste time. We had a set guideline to follow for how to present the Gospel – any other means of presentation was not really acceptable. We were not given rest days because sharing the Gospel is a job that we should never take rest from (while that sounds like a good thing, even Jesus took time to rest). Dancing was considered an evil… and most of my team members love to dance, so it was definitely an interesting month to say the least. A lot of good came from it, though, and even some awesome and great stories.
Another funny memory revolves around this legalistic side of things that we encountered. We were stuffed inside a cab at one point, I can’t remember where we were heading, and the driver had some pretty bumpin’ music going. Our host was sitting in the passenger seat up front and at one point lifted his hands in the air and kinda wiggled his upper body for a moment. He quickly yelled out, “Oh no! I’ve been contaminated!” Referring to his dancing to the jams. It was hilarious, but this also speaks to the boxed-in nature that I’m talking about.
As the Race continued, my eyes began to be opened to the real nature of evangelism. How Jesus did it. And that was relationally. He spent time with people, and they felt important when He was around – because hey are/were important to Him. Evangelism is more than just numbers – how quickly I can share the message and how many people I can share it with. Evangelism is about love. Loving people and God so much that we take the time to share the truth.
