¡Hola de Colombia!
I’m sorry that it’s been so long since I’ve posted a blog. It’s been a crazy 2 weeks here, let me tell ya. This blog should have gone up over a week ago, but my laptop decided to break on me (thankfully, I was able to get it fixed), and to be quite honest, the only reason I’m able to write this blog right now is because I’m stuck in bed, sick. I’m super bummed to be missing out on ministry today, but I figured if I can’t do ministry I might as well make myself useful in another way.
I want to tell you a little about our ministry partner this month. We are in the city of Medellin, Colombia working with Ciudad Refugio (City of Refuge), which basically began back in 1993 when Pastor Douglas came to Medellin from New York City to minister to the population of homeless and displaced people. This foundation is a rehabilitation program for both men and women, it’s a church, a homeless shelter, a children’s outreach program, a school, a bakery, and a home. Ciudad Refugio takes in drug addicts from the streets who are looking to turn their lives around, and they help them do just that. The men and women in the program are provided with daily meals, a safe place to sleep, jobs to occupy their minds, and lots and lots of JESUS! There are daily Bible studies that the men and women are required to attend, as well as church services on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. Christian music is always being played throughout the foundation, and if they want to watch a movie, it must be a Christian film. The men and women here are so well taken care of and they are completely surrounded by the love of the Lord 24/7, which I believe is what constitutes most of their healing. The homeless shelter in the garage is a place for men to stay every night. The only requirements of staying in the shelter are that you must be sober, and you must attend one church service per week here at the foundation. They have strategically created a service on Saturday nights, specifically for the homeless, so that they can attend church without any embarrassment. The way that this foundation is run is so brilliant, and from the first day that I got here, I knew that this place holds a special spot in God’s heart.
Now that you know a little bit about the foundation, you’re probably wondering what I’ve been up to these past couple of weeks! Our first week here, myself and 10 other girls helped host a VBS camp here at the foundation. We spent a day coming up with fun games, activities, and crafts to do with the kids, learning fun songs and dances to teach them, and we also walked through the streets in the area handing out flyers and inviting kids to come to our 3 day, fun-filled camp. We had an absolute blast with the kids. We worshipped, we did Bible story skits, we face painted, we tie-dyed, we made slime, we had a water balloon fight, we did arts and crafts, we played “pato, pato, gonso” (aka duck, duck, goose) and tiburones y pescaditos (sharks and minnows), and we just loved on each other.
Our ministry here can vary quite a bit. Some days we’re helping the women in the kitchen, some days we’re helping with the English Club at the school down the street, some days we’re visiting the nursing home in the area, and some days we’re helping out up in Manantiales. Manantiales is a community up the mountain full of people who have been displaced from their homes. Colombia has 7.7 million people who have been forced out of their homes; the world’s largest population of internally displaced people. It’s heartbreaking to see the conditions that these people are forced to live in, yet at the same time, so encouraging and inspiring to see how happy they are because they still have the one thing that can’t be taken from them: Jesus. Every Saturday, we go up to Manantiales to host a camp for the kids and a Bible study for the women. We bring food and we feed them, remind them of how much the Lord loves them, and we pour our own love into them.
The last type of ministry that we do here is called agua panela. On Wednesday nights after church, a giant group of volunteers from the foundation travels to the bad area of the city, where there’s streets just flooded with drug addicts. The foundation makes warm sugar water and some bread, we bring it to that area and hand it out to the people there, and we tell them that Jesus loves them. We don’t try to preach the Gospel to them, mostly because they’re too high to hear us anyway, but also because we just want them to know the simplest truth: that Jesus does love them, even when they’re lost. We see people smoking crack, shooting heroin, snorting cocaine, and drinking until they fall over. It’s scary. It’s heart-wrenching. It’s eye-opening. To be totally honest, I was absolutely terrified the first time we went there. I completely shut down, I couldn’t think, much less speak. I had never seen anything like this in my entire life. But I knew that being scared was useless, because God was protecting us even in that place of hell, and me being scared wasn’t going to help anyone see Jesus. So, I found just one person to talk to. I saw him sitting by himself on the side of the street, and I got down on my knees to his level and I asked him his name, and then told him mine. A friend and I started some small talk with him about soccer, turns out it’s his favorite sport and he’s actually really good at it. Eventually, I invited him to come stay in the shelter here at the foundation once he sobers up. I wish I had been brave enough to talk to more people that night, but I now know not to be scared, and I’m asking God to show me someone to talk to tonight when we go back out for agua panela.
I hope this gave you a glimpse into what life is like here in Colombia, and I hope to get back to you soon with more updates. Thanks for reading, friends.
All my love,
Hannah
P.S. I almost forgot to update you on my fundraising! I am currently at $18,354, only $846 left to go!!! I’m SO CLOSE! Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who’s donated so far. You are so special to me.
