After our two weeks in Medellin, Colombia we boarded a bus and took the windiest roads on the face of the earth to a city called Cali.
This was our first week in our individual teams. I am on Team Zeal. Team Zeal consists of yours truly, Akelea, Emily, Alex and Josh.
They’re a great group of individuals that put up with my shenanigans and encourage me daily.
Our week in Cali was very restful and we learned more about the team through sharing our testimonies and learning to live life together.
One afternoon we were walking around the community and we stopped at a group of men playing what looked like Sorry, as we introduced ourselves the owner of the house gave up his seat at the table for Joshua. His wife brought us out homemade ice cream and we watched the game. Most of them are retired and play everyday after 4. Their kindness and humor was very welcoming.
As the game concluded we began conversation with one of the younger men, Harry. He offered to take us around the city and show us around. The next day we met Harry’s mom, who warned us of the dangers of the city, and later we all piled into his car and headed up to Cristo Rey and the city overlook.
After viewing the city, he showed us a pizza place and we feasted. It was some of the best pizza I’ve had. He was pressed for time because he had a soccer game at 7:30. He invited us to come watch, so we did. Joshua and I ended playing with Harry and the excellent Colombian competition. It was awesome to see how God placed an individual with a helpful attitude and shared interests in our path. Over the next couple days we continued to build our relationship with him.
On our last day, Joshua messaged Harry to see what was up. Our plan for the day was to go into town have lunch and then give out water and bread to the people God led us to throughout the city and extended the invite to Harry. He said, “Yes.”
After lunch, we bought bread and water our group split up. Akelea, Harry and I made our way to Valle del Cauca. As we walked through the ancient streets Akelea noticed a man named Julio. We stopped and started talking with him. Julio spoke very fast and Harry helped us out a lot with slowing down the Spanish. We gave Julio some bread and water and were on our way.
Harry told Akelea and I that he’s never done anything like this before, but he really enjoyed the experience. We continued our walk to San Antonio church. We stopped and talked to a man named Enrique. Enrique shared his story with us. Harry understood it the best, and then helped us understand it later. We gave Enrique some bread and water and prayed for him and his daughter and regrouped with the other group.
Later that night Harry invited us over his house. We visited with him and his mother before we left the city. We talked about Colombia, the United States and God. Harry told us later that he only prayed when it came to his mother’s health, otherwise he just wasn’t really sure about it. His mom had been praying consistently for his relationship with Christ to deepen.
As we said our goodbyes that night he told us that he had never experienced the kind of ministry we did and that he has some thinking to do about God.
Getting to know Harry was very encouraging. It was great living life with him during our time in Cali. His knowledge of the city helped us greatly.
We built relationship with him, but never preached the gospel with words even though he knew we were missionaries. We let our actions and love point to him God.
We are now in Baños, Ecuador. We just had our first team debrief. Updates on travel to Ecuador to come soon!
“Preach the Gospel at all times, when necessary use words.”
