Greetings from Medellin, Colombia!
After one week of leadership training and two weeks of training my new squad in Gainesville, GA we finally made it to our ministry site, Ciudad Refugio, where we have spent the last ten days.
This has been a difficult month for me. The Lord has thrown me in several situations that have felt very confining. (Any enneagram 7s relate??)
During training camp, our leadership was taking every precaution possible to prevent the spread of Covid and to ensure we would all be able to launch together. A few days after our squad arrived, my coleader and I found out we had been exposed to Covid during our leadership training so we had to quarantine for 6 days in separate rooms, while continuing to train and connect with our squad through FaceTime, notes, and the occasional dance party outside our windows. After a very challenging week, we ended up testing negative and had the sweetest reunion with our squad before flying to Colombia.
Training camp consisted of a lot of window chats while I was in quarantine.
Then, we arrived in Medellin and hit the ground running with ministry. 6am kitchen duty, English classes, afternoon kids club, women’s Bibles studies – we were able to partner with Ciudad Refugio and build so many sweet connections right off the bat. (I encourage you to check out some of the blogs my squad has written about this multifaceted ministry!) The people person/extrovert in me was thriving. However, this nonlinear, scatterbrain in charge of scheduling our squad for all these ministry roles was feeling a little overwhelmed. I found myself missing the unscripted way of ministry that I was comfortable with on my first race: allowing the Holy Spirit to guide our steps rather than adhering to the expectations of a host and their schedule.
The ministry gets vegetable donations and we get to help unload them, sort them, and cook them!
Just when I felt like I was getting the hang of this scripted ministry life and truly seeing the Lord move, I was hit with another curve ball. I noticed my sense of smell was gone and I had a cough. Yup, I got Covid, and almost as quickly as I had entered this structured ministry, I was taken out of it to start yet another quarantine. I was thankful this time I had three people to join me because they had also I tested positive. Unfortunately, between the four of us, we had virtually exposed our entire squad and everyone else had to quarantine and also get a test.
Getting tested :/
And just like that I was feeling my sense of freedom dwindling yet again. People who know me well know I have an especially hard time feeling “tied down” even in everyday life in the States. Here I am living on the 5th floor of a vast and Spirit-filled ministry in the center of Medellin, Colombia and not able to leave my room or engage with others in person. Not to mention, having Covid is no joke physically. This might be the most “tied down” I have ever felt. My energy is shot, and my spirit has felt as drained as my body.
The past few days the Lord has been speaking some sweet things to me, though. My squad (even the healthy ones) have handled the mandatory quarantine very well and are using this time to intercede in prayer for this ministry and the city of Medellin. We have decided to create a 24/7 prayer rotation on the balcony; we have at least two people praying at all times for the remainder of quarantine and continuing on as the Lord leads.
The view from our balcony, where we pray over the city.
I am learning to seek Christ as my freedom. And it’s hitting me that He has not put me in any of these situations by accident. The moment that I feel like my physical freedom is being stripped away is the moment that my eyes seek the Lord for what my real freedom is: Him and Him alone. And He has been showing up… I could tell you dozens of ways the Lord is speaking freedom over me (I feel another blog brewing), but for now I will leave you to with a verse that sums it up nicely:
“For the one who was called in the Lord as a slave, is the Lord’s freed person; likewise the one who was called as free, is Christ’s slave.” 1 Corinthians? ?7:22?
Thanks for reading! Please keep my squad in your prayers!
