Seeds Planted
Woah. The past couple weeks have been a new experience and different kind of lifestyle here in Medellin and Manaitales, Colombia. We’ve spent our days adapting to a life that is so much different than that of the states. I’ve been here for almost 2 weeks and it feels as if I’ve been here for months. The days are longer, the showers are cold, the beds are smaller, the food is very different (and y’all know how picky I am), and so my point…it’s been a challenge. But where you press through the challenges, the results and the reward is so much greater than the risk or the reasons we tell ourselves not to face the challenge. And as a squad, we’ve pressed through the challenges and the reasons not to do what we’ve done and are doing…To go on the world race…to step out and serve the community with no promise of any return…to do silly skits that might not be received but on the other hand could communicate the message of the gospel to the one person who’s heart needs more in life…to lead worship in as a group in both English and Spanish to show our Spanish speaking community that we love to worship the living God…to step out and spend time with the children. All this to say, it’s been a blast and God’s been doing a lot of work. The Seeds have been and are continually being planted in the hearts of those surrounding us on top of the seeds God’s planting in our own hearts…
The Storm
The weather is very weird here…At night it storms and during the day it’s often flips around completely and is sunny. I’ve had some good sleep and some not-so-much good sleep to the thunder clapping at night and the rain pounding. With that being said about the weather, the people of Colombia love to grow plants and flowers on their small yet sizable personal porches. They love to put pots of these beautiful flowers on their window sills for all to see, and this process of weather with the storms and the rain rotating with the sunshine might not feel so amazing to me, but it’s very much necessary for the plants to go on with their life. This picture resonates with my mind so well because this is the perfect picture that paints our ministry. For me, the serving and spending days upon days with children seem sometimes challenging. As do preparing the skits and getting a flow ready for youth groups and local services. To be honest, it’s been a lot. Not to mention sharing my testimony to roughly fifty homeless men with not much time to prepare, to have God take over and speak freedom over these men’s lives. My point is that at times it seems our ministry has been unfruitful in the moment and challenging and pressing and sometimes even seems to drain the last portion of my physical strength that remains…yet, I press on… It’s only because I’ve concluded and seen the why behind the reason to which I press on. The challenges and the hard times seeming to be thrown at me from all different directions are so necessary for the process of the watering of the seeds that we’re planting in these people. As I’ve seen the good weather, the bad weather, the storms and the shine, the feel-good, the blazing hot, and even the chill down my spine cold, just as it’s for a purpose for the plants growth all throughout the city, so it is necessary for me to press through when it seems unfruitful for the spiritual lives of all those around us. As the storms and the sun might seem unbeneficial to my life, they matter more than I could ever know for the plants and flowers’ lives. As the ministry challenges and opportunities and the daily lie from the enemy saying that what I’m doing is making no difference, pressing through still matters more than I know to the spiritual lives of these children, these homeless men, these women, and all those that God has been using us to minister to. As the storm has purpose to the life of the flower, so does the pressing through the physical exhaustion that I might instead of resting, spend some more time bringing a smile to a 6-year-old boy’s face. Even when the storm seems to have no purpose, the storm might just be what brings the fruit to the planted seeds. Pressing through the challenges in life to show Christ might just be what gives life to a person who doesn’t realize they are not truly alive. Maybe God gives us challenges to show those around us that it is not a strength of our that we rely on. Maybe…we’ll all know the answers one day.
“I’ll Take a Banana Please” / It’s the Little Things
“I’ll take a banana please.” And so if you know me, you know this isn’t the first thing that’d come out of my mouth when it comes to my meal of choice. But, one morning, feeling physically tired and needing energy in my body I decided to eat a banana (which was actually very good…maybe my taste buds are changing) but not because I wanted to, but so that I might have more energy in my body to spend so that I can hang out with kids in the hopes that I might shine Christ and point them in His direction. I mentioned earlier that the storm might be what brings the fruit, and on this day in this case, it was indeed the storm that brought fruit. And by a storm, I don’t necessarily mean a full-fledged head on challenge that I’m not sure if I could handle, but this day was just eating a banana to receive energy. And then even when I still feel tired, pressing through to spend time and my seemingly last reserve of energy on a 6-year-old boy named Edward. With no guarantee that my pressing through would produce any fruit. In turn, as I spent more time with this child, my body became a jungle gym to which brought a smile to his face. As I swung his small body in circles around, his smile became contagious to mine. I found more energy. This was during free time before the ministry. As I bonded with this random six year old boy from Colombia, he began to listen. And as he began to listen, it was time to go to the children’s ministry time so off we went. But it was what this relationship did in ministry that caught my heart…as the time went on I began to see that he might doze off and I could easily use three of a small yet sizable Spanish word bank that I have. I could say “Atencion por favor.” And his attention would immediately come back to the leader, and not only this but the children that were around him also took note of my Spanish attempt and their attention was drawn back to the leader as well. It’s the little things that can produce fruit like building a relationship to in turn seeing them want to pay attention because I asked. To then also seeing others pay attention and be curious what the leader has to say about Christ because it seemed as if I was curious as well. This is just one of the many examples of the many times that our team and squad have pressed through what-ever the storm or challenge or small yet sizable difficulty might be to go on to see the fruit. There might be times we don’t see the fruit, but we can still rest in the assurance that seeds are being planted, and seeds are being watered. Not even only in our one on one encounters with people but as it spreads to those around us like the other children in Edward’s class. We’re constantly seeing the fruit and the growth. At first, I felt like I wasn’t seeing any fruit or growth but then in a reality check and revelation from the Lord, my perspective was brought to the realization that I didn’t know what the “fruit” or “growth” I was looking for even looked like. I can now say with full assurance that as a squad, we are constantly seeing growth and the fruit which goes on to propel us to strive forward when our perspective might not show us the fruit that’s yielded. While our perspective is not the Lord’s, we know that He is working. Constantly bringing those around us and ourselves closer to Him. He truly is constantly at work. In our squad. In our teams. In our community. In the local ministry. In the local children. And most of all, in my heart.
Meet Edward (a 6 year old boy from Manatiales, Colombia)
The small hand of the 6 year old boy next to mine before our Sunday church service.
