First full day of the race turned out to be a lot different than we expected. Our team came into Colombia hungry, ready to immerse ourselves in the program at Ciudad Refugio ; a church that also is a haven for education for children and a community of recovering interns, each with their own story of past addictions.
And so we came in with a glorified vision of serving, ready to love on the ladies who had chosen to admit themselves into this program and find better life in Jesus and away from drugs, abuse, prostitution and alcoholism.
I’m not sure what we were each expecting. The morning started dark and early at 5h30 when lights came on for the girls floor, Piso 3. Our team met on floor 5, the terrace, to start the day off with a workout to get our blood pumping to wake us up for the day ahead of us.
Around seven all of the lady Wild Abouts went up to the kitchen to help with the preparation of the day’s food for approximately 120 people. I was eager, having served in kitchens and food service, but it was soon we learned we had to gain the trust of the ladies in the program and in the kitchen – so we began to peel potatoes.
And we kept peeling potatoes. For five hours. I think at some point or another, we all had a taste in our mouth that was sour, because we were all feeling contained, trapped or caged.
I didn’t understand why that feeling would be the intent and after talking to our contact, I didn’t have much more peace. We were also asked not to go to the terrace to workout in the morning because the ladies can’t and were informed of a 9 p.m. curfew.
But in prayer, God revealed His heart for our purpose here.
Our immersion into the program, not working out, eating with the ladies on the ground and eating differently than the men, being confined to the third floor and generally cooped up – God showed me the light we could bring just by being willing to jump in wholeheartedly. We were blessed to be the first WR team to join the program with other interns ; we were willing to take the Lord’s direction and our hunger and in turn sacrifice our comfort and our idea of ministry to be on the level of the women around us.
So, while its making me stir crazy to sit and peel potatoes day after day, slowly we are working our way into these ladies hearts and they are beginning to trust us. Day two we got to wash dishes and day three Nena made us some Colombian version of a cinnamon roll and gave us leftover coffee from the meal we served to others. God is truly in all of the small things as well as the big.
I’d peel every potato in the world if it meant I was truly serving and being humbled. I’m back off to the kitchen floor, but more updates to come about the other ministries here in month one.
p.s. Medellin is beautiful, we are doing more than just peeling potatoes and Ciudad Refugio is an amazing church, ready to change the way people see community and love.
#praise #month1 #colombia #welcometheseason #Medellín #wildabouts #oneLofasquad
