Hello all! So today is one of 2 days off after an amazing week of ministry here in Medellin, Colombia, so I figured now would be a good time to let you guys know what’s going on here! I am planning on writing some more in depth blogs, but for now, here is an overview of what has happened since we left Atlanta, Georgia:
Monday: TRAVEL DAY!!
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Flew out of Atlanta at 6am for Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
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Arrived in Ft. Lauderdale around 9:30am. Squadmate lost a bag 🙁
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Bus from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami
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Arrived at Miami airport at 11am. Flight for Bogota did not leave until 3am, soooo….
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WE EXPLORED MIAMI!!! https://jensummy.theworldrace.org/post/a-day-in-miami
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FUN FACT: Only 40% of people in Miami claim to be religious, and 22% of those people are Catholic, and of the other 18%, only about half of those people are Christian.
Tuesday: TRAVEL DAY!! (Part 2)
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Arrived in Bogota around 6am and we had a 4 hour layover to Medellin
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Flight to Medellin left at 11am (delayed by an hour) and arrived in Medellin, Colombia at about 2pm.
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Took a bus from airport to ministry site and arrived there at about 4pm. 4 more squad mates lost bags 🙁 🙁
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Our host was a saint and she let us rest from our travel for the rest of Tuesday and the first part of Wednesday!
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WHAT IS OUR MINISTRY!?
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Recovery program for men and women who are addicted to drugs
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Homeless shelter
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Children’s VBS programs
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Street ministry to homeless population in the city
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Prayer walks for the city
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Ministry at an off-site displacement camp
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Ministry off-site at a local school
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Leading worship/sharing testimonies at the church services for locals and for the men and women in the programs
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Coffee shop and bakery for locals as a way to raise funds to run the program
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AND it’s ALL SQUAD MONTH!!
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In other words, we are all very busy!
Wednesday: Ministry Day 1
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Ate breakfast and explored the neighborhood a little bit until lunch at 1pm
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Church service in the evening led by volunteers and staff
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Street ministry to the homeless population https://jensummy.theworldrace.org/post/god-is-bigger-than-the-boogie-man
Thursday: Ministry Day 2
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Women’s ministry! https://jensummy.theworldrace.org/post/we-have-so-much-to-learn
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In the evening, another group went out to minister to the homeless and the remaining people stayed back and intercessed.
- Got missing bags back!!
Friday: Ministry Day 3
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Our group was split in half. 20 people went to the off-site displacement camp and the rest of us stayed to do ministry locally
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More women’s ministry, but only in the am
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In the afternoon, groups went out and handed out fliers for a coffee shop concert that evening that a group of us was leading along with some Colombians who live at the ministry site.
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5 of us practiced for the coffee shop worship session as an attempt to bring locals in at tell them about the ministry. It was very successful (Blog on this will be posted later)
Saturday: Ministry Day 4
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Prayer walk in the morning. Prayed over the local university and for the displaced Venezuelans in Colombia.
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Met a man named Carlos and we got him enrolled in the program! (Blog on this to be posted later)
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VBS in the afternoon. Tons of kids came and we all had a ton of fun!
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Church in the evening. Whitney and Lauren B of our squad were asked to share a message and a testimony about having a strong foundation in Christ (Matthew 7:24-27)
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During the service, on of the volunteers asked our group to pray over anyone who was having suicidal thoughts, and some of our friends we invited went up to be prayed for, and we were asked to sing “Break Every Chain” in Spanish for them. It was a powerful night and God was moving so much in that service.
Sunday: Ministry Day 5
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Church in the morning. Lots of energetic worship!
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Team time in the afternoon, along with some debriefing about ministry
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FIRST ALL SQUAD WORSHIP IN THE EVENING!!
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A group played some songs and John Sanchez gave a message for the group about fear of man vs fear of God (Exodus 3)
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After our planned worship was over, we were still feeling the Holy Spirit, so we had some impromptu worship for another 2 hours! The squad really needed that time to worship together and to be unified in worship. It was a great night.
Monday: Day Off (TODAY!)
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There is no scheduled ministry today, so I decided to take this time to update you guys on everything and rest up before another 5 days of ministry. God is doing incredible things with this ministry here in Medellin, so thank you so much to everyone out there supporting me and this ministry. I’m still $4,000 away from being fully funded, so please, if you feel lead, give what you can to help us help these amazing ministries around the world. God is working so much through our team in this place. Most of the things we are doing here are brand new, so because of your support, we are helping to spread the gospel in new ways here in the city! How awesome is that!? So help us to keep moving forward and spreading this hope and truth in other place this year as well. Thank you so much! More blogs are on the way soon!!
