We have arrived… we are staying at a Christian foundation building called Cuidad Refugio which is in the city of Medellin, Colombia. We work here for a few days during the week where we do logistical errands for the organization which includes: cleaning our housing areas, organizing files, preparing meals for the week, and traveling to a nearby neighborhood for outreach work. Then from Thursday to Saturday afternoon we go up the mountain to the poorer area of the city called Manantiales. This is considered the refugee camp for the families that live on the mountain. On Thursdays, we work with the elderly and on Fridays and Saturdays we create camps for the children to come to as a place to go during the weekends so that they don’t have to stay at home.
On Wednesday, September 20, 2017, we were split into groups depending on what Cuidad Refugio needed us to do. I was put into a group that was going to be sent out to a nearby neighborhood to talk to the people there about their relationships with the Lord. The group was split in half, two groups of five women along with a translator were sent out. To be honest, I was a little skeptical at first about what we were about to do. I thought it would be extremely difficult to have a genuine conversation with someone if we couldn’t even speak the same language. We went up to a few people on the street and talked to them for a while, but we weren’t able to really create relationships with them because the conversation didn’t extend past, “hi, how are you?”. We planned to then start knocking on doors, but a tiny woman came out right behind us as she was walking out of a market. I started walking towards her, planning to at least say, “Como te llamas?”, in hopes to begin a discussion. From there our translator asked her if we could talk to her for a little bit. She was really funny and reminded me of people from my family because she said “Yes, we can talk but I don’t want to stand around so can we walk while we talk.” I liked that she seemed to have that need to always be moving. So, we walked a little further and realized that she was inviting us into her house. When we got there the first thing I noticed was a sunroom where she was growing a bunch of bananas, and the second thing I noticed was that she had a big picture of Jesus on the wall and a statue of St. Vincent in the corner. Among the many things she said, one thing specifically stuck with me: the photo of Jesus belonged to the house and was not hers, but she didn’t need it because Jesus is everywhere and in ALL things. She got chairs out of her closet for all of us to sit down in, and right away she offered us bananas to eat. We started asking her questions and learning about who she is, what she has gone through, and her beliefs of Jesus. We learned that she was an extremely strong woman. We listened as she told us that she had four children and two of them had died. Her son’s death was an especially tragic story, he had opened a flower shop and had named it something similar to a flower shop that was close by. The owners of the other shop took him to court for stealing the name. The case went on for seven years, but her son ended up winning it. When he finally won the men started threatening him and a few weeks later they killed him. She did not say how her other child died. She also had two daughters, both still alive: one was 36 years old and was actually in the house with us. We learned that she had down-syndrome and was partially blind; she had to have 9 surgeries on her mouth and 7 surgeries on her ears. The other daughter moved away and as she said it “never calls, never visits, and never checks in on her”. This woman’s faith was still so strong after all she had gone through and it was truly so amazing to see God living in her eyes. When we were done I was given the opportunity to pray over her and it was such a sweet moment that God gave us. Her appreciation for our prayers was so enormous that she started crying, which then brought tears to my eyes as well. Before we left we asked if we could take a picture with her to help us remember her by. Her response was, “Oh are you sure you want to take a picture because whosevers camera we use, I look so bad I am going to break it!” She truly was one of the cutest and most beautiful women I have ever seen, so we told her that she was “muy bonita” and she said “okay if you are sure”. I wanted to get a polaroid of her too because I brought my polaroid to capture the moments that mean the most to me. Once I took the polaroid, we realized that it would mean much more to her if we gave her the photo as a gift. When we gave her the picture to keep she started crying because she was so joyful. It showed me how God is not only doing wonders in my life, but he is impacting everyone every second of the day. It is incredible that such a small gift could make someone so happy. So, thank you Emilia for being such a pure spirit that your smile from a small picture could create a beautiful bright light in my heart.
