Hi everyone!
Welcome to my first blog post! I wanted to make this first post about the mission trip I will be going on in January so anybody who is interested in learning more about it can get kind of an overview. All the information I am sharing is all the information I have been provided with and I will update my blog with more information on each ministry and what specifically we will be doing in each country as I receive it.
I will leave for this trip on January 23, have a 3 day training camp in Gainesville, Georgia at the World Race Headquarters, then fly out of Atlanta for Columbia on January 26. My team and I will spend the first two months in Medellin, Columbia partnering with the Cuidad Refugio ministry. Through this ministry we will be serving different groups of people such as people recovering from addiction, people who are homeless as well as participating in different children’s ministries. On our days off we will do lots of hiking to El Penon de Guatape, a big rock formation on top of a mountain, and we will get the opportunity to hike the Andes Mountains (It’s highly doubtful that I will survive hiking the Andes mountains so PLEASE pray for supernatural strength and endurance for me). This is similar to ministry I have done in the past but I am still super pumped up about it and I can’t wait to meet all the kiddos and love on them!
https://tscmissions.tscnyc.org/projects/colombia-ciudad-refugio/
After 2 months in Columbia we will then travel to Ecuador where we will spend the next 2 months serving alongside Inca Link ministry in Quito, Ecuador. Through this ministry there are different potential ministry opportunities such as serving in a home for people with special needs and serving with a feeding program that assists and feeds refugee families. This ministry also has a home for survivors of human trafficking which we may have an opportunity to serve in as well. There are also different youth and children’s ministry opportunities in the community and at the local schools. I am really excited about the different ministry opportunities here because there are different groups of people at different stages in life that I haven’t had the opportunity to serve or get to know in the past so I am really excited about getting to love on them and share the gospel with them!
http://www.incalink.org/about-inca-link/locations/ecuador/
Our last 2 months will be spent in Peru! We will have a short debrief in Lima, Peru at the start of these two months to get some soul rest before diving into serving there. One ministry we will be partnering with in Peru is Youth With a Mission in Iquitos where we will get to boat down the Amazon River to a more secluded village where we will get to spread the gospel with the people there as well as serve in that community. This makes me so excited and filled with joy knowing I get to talk about Jesus with people who may not know him or have a relationship with him. How exciting is that that God has already arranged for us to go love on those people and share the gospel with them months before it happens! Another ministry we will be partnering with in Peru is the Josephine House which is a ministry for people with special needs. This is a ministry I am particularly excited about because serving people with special needs is extra close to my heart! My team will then return to the states on August 1.
https://www.josephinehouse.org/
Writing about all these cool ministries I will get to serve alongside makes me feel like I am reading about them the first time again! I am so filled with joy and excitement about the things I know about and even more excited for the things only God knows about that he will sovereignly carry out on this trip!
I hope you all are doing well!
Lots of love,
Gabby Strickler
