For anyone that is having trouble powering through the wordiness of my updates, this one is for you.
City of Refuge partners with a mountain outreach called Manantiales (well, or spring, in English). Our team has gotten the chance to go there to work twice, and we are going again tomorrow. To give you some context about what this area is like, you need to understand how neighborhoods are structured in Colombia. Every neighborhood is ranked on a scale from zero to six, with zero being the poorest of the poor, and six being extremely wealthy. This social ranking bleeds into every aspect of peoples’ lives here, as they have to put down these numbers when applying for jobs and loans, among other things. Where we are staying is ranked a two, and Manantiales a zero.
During our two-day visits to this ministry, we have the opportunity to deliver food and school supplies to the families there, as well as invite the children of the neighborhood to a weekly event at the compound located close to where they live. The first day was spent going door to door passing out the food packages. Some families had been in the program for a while, but many others we talked to for the first time, and needed to sign up to keep the deliveries coming.
We were along for this experience to see the process first-hand, to carry the food in our packs, and to interact with the children as we went. The kids there were wonderful, and they loved following us around, even if most of us couldn’t understand what they were saying. At one point, a couple of them even wanted to carry our packs, and we weren’t going to say no!
While we went, we also invited them to the children’s program we were helping with the next morning. It would be two hours of music, games, and Bible stories led by us and our translators. We saw plenty of kids during our walk that first day, but I wasn’t prepared for the nearly three hundred that poured through the gates the next morning.
We spent all morning getting absolutely exhausted by their endless energy, and I loved every minute of it. Children’s ministry is where I thrive, and events like this are my absolute favorite. After spending the first hour of the morning trying to tire them out enough to sit still and pay attention, we did a lesson on the feeding of the five thousand. They all drew bread and fish to symbolize the miracle of multiplication.
I will only have the chance to go up here once – last Saturday. Several people from our team will be going up again tomorrow, though, just for the morning to help out with the program again. I’m excited to hear more stories and see more pictures from their time there. This weekend will probably go down as my favorite experience of this month.
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Something else came out of this experience, as well. When we were going door to door passing out food we were told not to bring anything of value with us, as it was a dangerous area. Me being who I am, I decided to take my camera anyway. I wanted documentation, and I’m so glad I did. The organizer of this outreach effort asked for my photos, when I got the chance to sort through them.
I was excited that the ministry had a use for them, so I went through the sorting and editing process as soon as I got the chance. I passed them through one of the directors at City of Refuge, who looked through them and immediately asked for more, as they were in need of photos for their website, blog, and social media. I had photos from church services, the VBS program, and café concerts we had put on, which I happily passed on as well.
We still have a week left here for me to capture more content for them, so this is turning into what my ministry looks like for much of that time. I’m excited to have this opportunity, and I plan on offering this to any of our hosts this year that have similar needs. Photography has been a hobby of mine for a long time, and if I can use that as a ministry opportunity all year, nothing would make me happier.
