What was your life like when you were 15 years old? Maybe you were spending your summer riding bikes to the ice cream shop everyday or complaining about finishing drivers ed so you could finally get behind the wheel. Maybe you were even trying to seek out a job to begin saving up for the college of your dreams!
What if you lived in a village where no one had ever left before? Where you had the weight of the world on your shoulders to choose between what God was calling you into and what was comfortable and expected of you from your culture.
Sofia was faced with the toughest choice of her life, stuck in the middle of two worlds. Struggling between moving away from her family and friends forever to pursue her own dreams and beginning a family of her own.
Sofia comes from a small village named Palenque. It’s about 2 hours by bus from where we are in Cartagena, but it couldn’t be more different. The population of about 3,500 people are all descendants from Ghana, Africa.
In the late 17th century this people group fled Africa to seek freedom and acceptance in the Americas, however when they arrived, they were not welcomed with open arms. They were immediately sold into slavery and were treated as animals. People actually believed they didn’t have the capacity to read, write, or learn at all.
Don’t worry, there is hope at the end of this story.
The Palanquin people were actually the first freed people in all of the Americas in the late 17th century. I was shocked to hear this because I’ve never even heard of Palenque before visiting. The difficult part is that no one has tried to leave their settlement since then because of the fear in their hearts. Fast forward to now and we find a young girl with a newfound faith and never ending dreams that would carry her out of Palenque.
Sofia and her mother took the largest leap of faith I’ve ever imagined and sent her to YWAM here in Cartagena. That is the kind of faith I seem to only dream of. It almost seems like a story from a book or a tall tale from my childhood to teach me about dreaming big.
Well, it’s real and we lived it for the past week.
We spent the last 7 days in Palenque, as the only missionaries currently there and man, did we feel the responsibility of that truth. Many people starred with confused looks and hesitant hearts towards us since we were the only light skinned people in the entire community.
However, through ministry in the high school every morning, prayer walks every afternoon, and simple conversation over meals with some influential people in the community, we were able to gain their trust.
There is no comparison to the unseen adventure, the deep love of the Lord, and the trust it took at times in some seriously uncomfortable situations. The stories are endless, but I felt it most important to share Sofia’s story because it is one filled with hope, dreams, and trust in the Lord.
After sitting down and speaking in complete broken Spanish (the growing pains in learning a new language are real) to many of the students in high school, the mothers and fathers of different areas of the community and many more, I felt the Lord say that they all run together. The past and present history of this community is the future.
And it only took one young girl to change it all.
The reaction of the people in Palenque when they saw Sofia for the first time in a long time said it all. Some people cried, some ran to her for an embrace, others sat down with her for hours to hear about her new life. The people in Palenque don’t dream, they don’t have hope, they don’t have desires. It was heartbreaking and frustrating at times, but we were able to speak light and truth into the young people and break some very deep bonds and beliefs that they don’t have power to change the future, just like Sofia has.
I have spent many hours with Sofia over the past week and a half and I will continue to keep up with her in the future. She is now 16 and has become a leader here at YWAM (that’s a BIG deal for a 16 year old). She has the biggest smile, along with the biggest heart, always showing love to others through acts of service. She is slow to speak and quick to laugh. There are few people that have such a deep effect on me and she is definitely one of them. My hope and prayer is that you would see a glimpse into my personal journey with the Lord, the journey that other people I meet along the way are on, as well as what the truths in either of these are teaching you.
Please continue to pray for my team, the other team that is with us and especially Sofia. She plans to continue ministry here at YWAM, raising money to continue leading and attending school here until she is sent out on a long term mission.
