Another picture of a door!!??? I have made it a goal of mine to take a picture of the doorway of each place we stay. I know it seems weird but God has been speaking to me about the entryways in our lives. Do we walk through the doors placed before us with a heart that is confident and ready to change the world around us or do we walk in and become enveloped in what is already there?
So, with that being said, we have encountered many different atmosphere’s here. There have been lizards in our beds, mysterious head-to-toe bug bites, cold showers and some seriously obnoxious dogs but the main thing I have noticed is the amount of people coming and going that are traveling alone. I couldn’t help but wonder what their story is and what they are searching for. Of course, there is only one way to find out.
We heard many different stories and met many different people throughout the week but there were two people who stood out to me in this city, Harry and Martha. Martha is the cook/cleaning person for the hostel. There is a sign hanging in the kitchen that says, “Keep this area clean, your mom is not here”. This sign makes me laugh because Martha has made me feel right at home as if my momma were there with me. One morning she even helped me trick Jesse into trying the fruit of their city (he tends to stick to pizza, bread, and hamburgers). She serves so much that it’s rare to see her relaxing or even just sitting down. She will forever be the kind of person I carry with me as an example of what the love of a servant’s heart entails.(by the way if you look closely you can see Martha sweeping in the first photo)
And then there was Harry! To tell you about Harry I must first tell you what led up to meeting him. God spoke to me one night showing me that the fruit of the city is bearing brokenness. The city is in need of relationship so when we set out to build some, you can imagine the excitement within my heart.
We walked out of our hostel in search of relationship and found it! Just around the corner from us was a group of men playing what looked like Sorry. They were gambling, but as we introduced ourselves the owner of the house gave up his seat at the table for Joshua. His wife brought us out homemade ice cream and we watched as Joshua undoubtedly lost, Go USA! These men play this game constantly, we were no match for their skill set. After the game ended money was dispersed, we took a picture and said our goodbyes.
As we were leaving we began conversation with one of the men, Harry. He offered to take us around the city and show us the beauty of where he lives. The next day we met Harry’s mom, who warned us of the dangers of the city, and later we all piled into his car and headed up the mountain to an area quite beautiful.
We didn’t tell Harry about Jesus that day, we just allowed ourselves to fall into relationship with him. In the following days we spent time with his mother and even invited Harry with us as we gave water and bread to the people God led us to throughout the city. He became a part of our team that day. We did not realize it at the time but Harry was also a part of our mission. He told us later that he only prayed when it came to his mother’s health, otherwise he just wasn’t really sure about it. His mom had been praying consistently for his relationship with Christ to deepen. As we said our goodbyes that night he told us that he had never experienced the kind of ministry we did and that we had truly caused him to dig a little deeper into the God thing.
I could go on for pages about the different people we have met, the stories we have heard, the helpful Harrys and Martha’s of the area but instead I will leave you with this. God is good. He knows the needs of his people and while we may not have dug up all of the bad roots of the city, we have made a significant tug. God is already preparing the spiritual gardeners that will follow us and I cannot wait to see his work be done in Cali, Colombia.
