Greetings from Cartagena, Colombia! (this may be a lot, but its worth it) I am so excited to finally sit down and invite you all in on what the Lord is doing in and through us in Colombia! We have been at our ministry home for officially alittle over a week now. Our flights, layovers, long bus rides through mountains and little sleep have all paid off. We arrived to Cartagena after driving all through the night 12 hours on a bus that they depicted to be a lot more stable than it was…sleep was minimal, but we made it. We are working with a local youth center called “The Alex Rocha Youth Center”. Alex is an individual who used to involved in the gangs in the area growing up, but the Lord captured his heart and now he has a heart to reach the same community and show there is so much more to life the exact same way he was freed from it. We are helping him reach out to the kids in the community and share the love of Jesus and that there is a life outside of the violence, drugs and lost way of life. We have been able to go play soccer at the local “court” and the past few days have been playing baseball with the children. Alex told us that the past two days as we were playing baseball there were to incidents where the children wanted to fight but since we were there having fun playing sports it did not escalate. Cartagena and specifically the area we are located in the town of “San Francisco” it is a very dangerous neighborhood and we are limited on what we can and cannot do, along with who we can go out with. We understand that and appreciate that and at the same time have voiced there is a difference in being aware of your surroundings and just having a healthy mindset versus living in fear and letting that fear control you- “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7) That doesn’t mean the world around is still isn’t broken and we shouldn’t be smart about our surroundings. There have been two fatal shootings just around our housing in the short time we have been here, and that all the more motivates us to bring light to this community. Outside of working with the kids through sports and teaching English classes as well as Sunday school, we have been doing construction around the house/ministry. This has consisted of digging 8 holes about 4 feet deep and maybe 4 feet wide- its been HOT and demanding. This has been a snapshot of the first week we have been here and again no wifi has been freeing, but also limiting in the since of when we blog it may consist of a larger amount of stuff so bear with us. Me and Faith are blogging separately as well for this fact. Moving on from the physical side of things I want to invite you all into what the Lord has been placing on my heart since arriving- AND CRAZY ENOUGH right before I sat down to write this a word was spoken to me and it said “When you are in a NEW environment, you cant keep an OLD mindset.” I love that because of the truth- please join me in praying for me to receive a new mindset as I move into more of what the Lord is calling me to!
Our first full day in Cartagena we woke up to “MARENGAE” music- literally shaking the house from about 830 am Saturday through about half the day on Sunday. It is INSANE how loud it was coming from some of the broken down houses in the area. I don’t say this arrogantly, but just as a fact that some of the house are held up with boards and dirt floors, BUT THEY HAVE SUBWOOFERS covered. Through the constant “thud, thud, thud” of bass I sought for my Americanized “quiet time” I realized it may be impossible…so I put my headphones on and THE LORD SPOKE. The Lord brought me to Isaiah 61- “The Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted.” It has been challenging at times but our God is faithful. I read a poem in a devotional I am going through and it says “I walked a mile with Pleasure; she chattered all the way; but left me none the wiser for all she had to say. I walked a mile with Sorrow, and never a word said she, BUT OH! The things I learnt from her when Sorrow walked with me.” We have opportunities to grow in our hardships and I am learning about this as I take this to the Lord and seek His guidance.
An insert from my journaling on 1/16/17 in the morning. This was our first day off so we went and decided to explore the city outside of where we stay- it is beautiful. That morning I found myself in Matthew 11:28-30 and I simply asked for those mentioned in the passage to be provided for us to minister to. We arrived to the city and I cannot make up how many “disabled” individuals we saw- it was supernatural. The first few steps in there was a beautiful girl with “Downs” and her older parents. We continued and saw a blind tourist and no lie about 4 people that were missing limbs. We were able to pray for one individual as we felt the Spirit lead. I remember distinctly hearing “ask and you will receive” PRAISE GOD- now I want to get better at believing TRULY if I see a man with no leg OUR GOD IS A GOD WHO CAN HEAL THAT PERSON! Whether its with a new leg or bringing his soul to life! Pray for me in that for me to have that faith of if I see a blind man NOT TO HESITATE but to pray healing over that man for the glory of God! As the day slowly came to an end we found a coffee shop to catch up on emails and what not and as we got settled in I made eye contact with the manager who spoke something in Spanish but I could tell she was flustered. I asked “que pasa” (whats up?) and she just said she was worn out and right then and there that was our “weary” individual who needed to be brought to Jesus. As we began to leave I wrote down the passage I studied that morning and gave it to her and told her Jesus wants her to come to Him. I could see the tears in her eyes and she promised me she was going to read the passage later and she came around and gave me a hug. I told her we would pray for her. Her name is Danielle and as I am typing we are actually at the same coffee shop so stay tuned and pray for her as we are going to follow up with her!
I know this is a lot and I am trying my best to clearly portray all the Lord is doing, but overall He is faithful. Our squad and team has been supernaturally flexible and has had incredible attitudes- pray this continues. Pray for my team as I lead that I will lead from a servant leadership position and that my vision comes to fruition- to see more of the Spirit and to be Spirit lead in all things for the glory of God! Pray for Alex Rocha, our host, and his family that we would be a blessing to them for the remainder of our time. Pray for his ministry for the community and kids we come in contact with- pray they see the light of Jesus and life to the full Jesus offers. Pray for Danielle and a man we ran into named “Leeland” who said he doesn’t fit the “criteria” of our faith. PRAY THAT WE FIND GOOD SOIL (Matthew 13:1-23) and that our message of the Gospel of Jesus be multiplied!
Thank you all so much for taking the time to read- we look forward to bring you all more and more of Gods goodness and invite you all in on this journey!!
Austin
