Just wanted to share with you some of what’s been going on over the past week!
Getting to Colombia
On September 11th, we were supposed to launch at 3AM to Colombia directly from Atlanta but Hurricane Irma did not like that idea. And so, on September 10th at night we left for a local church that offered us a place to stay. We stayed there until the storm passed and on September 12th we embarked for Washington D.C. for connecting flights to Colombia. At 11:00 AM we left for the Greyhound bus to take to D.C. Our charter bus left from Atlanta to D.C. with scheduled departure on 4:00PM on Sep 12 with scheduled arrival of 10:30 AM on Sep 13. Our flight was scheduled for departure at 4:15. We had to make it from the bus station from central to D.C. to the AID Airport in D.C. This seemed fine with scheduling until during our bus exchange in Richmond, VA was delayed about 3 hours. After spending 24 hours about in bus travel, we then arrived in D.C. about 2:15 and had to book it to the airport with our 50-80 pound bags through the metro and the local Washington Flyer. We arrived with less than a few minutes to spare to our flight before it left only thanks to God. We then arrived in Colombia Thursday morning Sept 14 at the place we were staying at 2 AM after having a connecting flight in San Salvador. We then went straight to bed. After about 2 days of travel we then spent Thursday resting and catching up and giving our bodies time to recuperate. We were so excited to jump straight into ministry the next day, which is just what we did.
Ministry Begins
Day 1 (Friday, September 15th, 2017)
Focus: Service
Today we began by having breakfast and then leaving for a nearby town about 15-20 minutes away called Manaitales. We will be rotating ministry every halfway point of the week between ministry in Medellin and Manaitales. Medellin is a city area and Manaitales is a village. After we arrived to the local compound in the village, we were put to service in different places. There’s 39 people on our squad and we were all put to work in different areas. Me and about 5 guys left the compound to help a local family build a new roof. This was no brick roof with cement..this roof was an upgrade from a couple wooden boards barely covering the house to a new tin roof foundationalized by only a few more wood boards that would cover the entire hut of about 2 small rooms in size. My job was painting the tin roofs so that the beating sun would not reflect on the top and shine. After me and a couple guys finished painting the 13 or so tin roof sheets (about 5×12 feet in size), we began to see where we could assist in the laying of the foundation of the roof. We then did what we could in continuing this job for most of the day. After spending most of the day assisting with the building of this roof, we were tired and returned to the compound for a late lunch and rest. Others had finished their job earlier of preparing the compound in different areas of cleaning and making sure everything was in place for the kids and the ministry that was soon to take place throughout the month in this place. This place is used for schooling during the schoolyear for local children as a Christian school that welcomes any local students. We returned to some of the kids playing soccer on the court so we joined in and began some relationship building in our half English half Spanish conversations. Later that night after dinner, we came together as a squad with our leaders for a time of worship and time with the Lord. This time was very refreshing and special. After a long day of building the roof and spending some time playing sports with some of the kids, my body was exhausted so I went to bed.
Day 2 (Saturday, September 16th, 2017)
Focus: Kids Ministry and Relationship Building
The next day started off with a nice cold shower early in the morning and it did a very nice job of waking me up. After the shower, we had breakfast as a squad, and then began preparing our bags to return to the city in which we were staying. We would return to the city after the kids ministry was finished. After we had prepared the compound, our squad was split into groups to help in different areas. 6 guys returned to help complete the roof that was not finished for the local village family. One of my passions in ministry is kids ministry so I stayed for this. My age group for the day was 9-11 and I can say that it’s something special when you know that what you’re doing is impacting the kingdom and when you’re having an absolute blast doing it. I spent time communicating the ministry message of the day of the worth of these children through pictures that we were given and a translator. This was most of our ministry during the day and so after the focused ministry we began to have time to just spend with the kids and build relationships them. It’s reassuring knowing that I will be here for a month as well to continually invest in these kids and show them the love of the gospel. We spent time playing soccer with the kids and just doing what they love and building relationships little by little. Slowly the kids started to head back to their village homes and we had no children left. Our squad then ate lunch and headed back to the city. Having been exhausted and tired from waking up early and playing with the kids, I took a nap and then spent some time with the Lord to prepare to share my testimony. Earlier in the day, I was asked to share my testimony with 50-60 homeless men later that night. And then later in the day, after dinner, it was time to share. I shared about the freedom that Christ brought me into and how He had changed my life to so many men that were struggling with or seeking freedom from alcohol or drug addiction and the hope that Christ brought me to some that had none. At first, I was nervous but as I prayed about it, the Lord’s peace took over and I just went out there and had fun. It was a blast and as I shared through a translator to these Colombian homeless men, I know the Lord used my story to impact theirs.
Day 3 (Sunday, September 17th, 2017)
Focus: Serving in Church
Beginning with an early breakfast, we prepared for church and received our serve areas. Mine was 8-10 year-old kids and so I was filled with joy as I headed to my serve area. It was a blast during the times when I had nothing going on and being able to have conversations in Spanish with some of these kids. I got to play Goliath in the story of David and Goliath which was a blast as well. It brought the biggest grin to my face as one of the children playing David shot me with air in a slingshot and I dropped dead like Goliath did in the story and I hear the children burst into laughter. That was the highlight of the day. We spent the rest of day going to ATMs and getting personal money and spending time with our personal team and getting to share some of what’s been happening up to this point. A.K.A. what I’m doing right now!!
On my Facebook page are some pictures of the community (at https://www.facebook.com/brenton.bicknell.5/media_set?set=a.1271299389637689.1073741833.100002729205118&type=3)
, some pictures taken from the place I’m staying at, and some of the city and village. There’s a couple towards the end of just a glimpse of these. So glad to have this time to write and share with y’all. It’s only day 3 of ministry and I wish I could just give you the experience that I’ve had. The things I’ve seen. The children I’ve met. The poverty I’ve experienced first-hand. The lifestyle that’s the norm here. It’s all something that I could never put into words. I can only thank you from the bottom of my heart that you’ve brought me here and that we’re on this journey together.
The area of people that we’re doing village ministry to.
The view from the rooftop of where I’m staying and also the location of where we’re doing city ministry; also the location of the church.
More pictures from the journey:
https://www.facebook.com/brenton.bicknell.5/media_set?set=a.1271299389637689.1073741833.100002729205118&type=3
