Monday (October 7): My first travel day! We left Atlanta, Georgia and flew the Ft Lauderale Florida where we had a 5 hour lay over. Those 5 hours went by super fast and then we are on our flight to Medellin Colombia! On the flight I sat between a man a woman and both were from Medellin. I talked to the woman (I can’t remember her name) and turns out she lives in New Jersey now and every year she goes to Italy with her church to work with an orphanage there. I shared with her what I was embarking on and what we were doing in Medellin. She then told me how beautiful Medellin was and she was right and how friendly the people were. Later in the flight her and the guy beside me actually realized they were neighbors and had never met before! It was really cool to experience their excitement. We finally landed in Medellin and took a bus ride to Ciudad de Refugio where we are spending this month working.
Tuesday (October 8): We had a rest day since we arrived to the Foundation at 1:45 in the morning. I slept in and got settled into my new home. In the evening we went over the rules and had an option of what ministry we wanted to participate in for the remainder of the week. Our choices were a VBS at Ciudad de Refugio or to go up to Manantiales and work with teens, teaching about identity and forgiveness. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I decided to go to Manantiales. Manantiales is a community of inner displaced people from Colombia that live in very harsh conditions. A lot of them have a very small living space with dirt floors. They don’t have a lot in the way of food and they see a lot of things at a young age that I didn’t even learn about until I was much older.
Wednesday-Saturday (October 9 – 12): Twelve people from my squad volunteered to go to Manantiales Friday-Saturday. We worked on preparing worship songs in Spanish and English. We were also asked to do a skit. I didn’t participate in the skit but we did the lifehouse skit. Look it up on YouTube! It is life changing. On Friday we headed up to Manantiales. I worked in the kitchen all of of Friday and it was a lot of fun being able to help prepare meals for the kids! I was also taught how to make orange juice by two of the little girls. They were so excited to be able to help do something. At their age I would have complained about having to do anything in the kitchen. It was a mini lesson to be willing and excited to do work like make orange juice! My second day at Manantiales I sat in on the lessons that morning. A testimony was shared and then they were taught about forgiveness. Our team also performed the lifehouse skit which is about Jesus protecting us from temptations such has greed, lust, comparison, partying, and self-harm. After the skit and lesson The teens were asked to write down a list of people that they needed to forgive. Y’all! God was moving in that room. These preteens/teens opened up around me sharing who they needed to forgive and many of them even found hope in Jesus that day! It was exciting to see but it was also heartbreaking because you have to wonder what they all went through to be so broken at such a young age. Later that day we had another session and the activity focused on their futures and their dreams. It was so fun hearing their dreams of being a professional fútbol player and even one of the boys said he dreamed of going on the world race! I had so much fun seeing that even though they had very little they were still able to dream big and have hope in Jesus Christ. The last day was a little bit different. We brought in over 100 kids for a half day of VBS. We got to sing and dance to vbs music and then split into small groups. I had been asked to teach on Lazarus for the older kids. I was very nervous about teaching because it was my first time and I didn’t think I was prepared at all. Lazarus is a cool story that I had heard a lesson on years ago but I never went back and read it on my own. 3 things stuck out to me. 1) the conversation between Martha and Jesus points to end-time resurrection. When we make the decision to ask Jesus Christ to be our Lord and Savior we get to live eternally in heaven with him! 2) Jesus wept. Even though Jesus knew that he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead he was able to have compassion and feel the emotions of Martha, Mary and the Jews that were with them. And 3) at the end when He resurrects Lazarus he allows the community to partake in this miracle. He allows them to take off the cloth and linens binding his hands and covering his face instead of just speaking them off of Lazarus. How cool is this story?! Jesus wants us to follow Him and live with Him eternally, he feels our grief and our joy and he wants community! I shared the story with the kids and what God had taught me while I studied the story. Then my friend Hannah shared her testimony and our squad leader Adria closed us in prayer. I wasn’t sure about teaching but God taught me so much about who he was through preparing that lesson and I am excited to continue to learn more about God and also be able to share it!
Sunday (October 13): Typically on a Sunday our squad attends church at 10 am and then gets the rest of the day off. However, in complete honesty I was sick and could not make it. It was rough. I didn’t feel good, I missed all the comforts of home and I just wanted to be in the presence of my family. I sat alone the whole morning and did church on my own by watching a service back home. When I started to feel good I decided to join my squad after lunch and participate. We had team time going over Kingdom Journey Markers. The easiest way to explain what Kingdom Journey Markers are is to call it a bible study. I was really tired from being sick and emotionally I did not want to be there. However, in the moment God softened my heart and by the time bible study ended and we got to share feedback I was able to be vulnerable with my team and tell them I was not okay. Being vulnerable is hard and having to be vulnerable with people you haven’t done life with for very long is even more difficult.
Monday (October 14): I experienced my first Adventure day! Each week while in Colombia we get to have one day to go do something fun. That can anything from exploring the town to hiking up 740 steps up a rock for a gorgeous view. I chose to go to Guatape. The town was gorgeous. While we were there I hiked up 740 steps to see a gorgeous view of the town and the Lakes surrounding the rock. The hike was worth it! Afterwards we at dinner at a small Venezuelan restaurant. It was sweet to be able support them with everything going on in Venezuela right now. In Colombia there are a lot of Venezuelan refugees. Many of them are professionals that now have to work and live on the streets because they cannot get a job here. One the way home we saw a man come on the bus asking people to give him pesos because his Venezuelan money is no good here. Just people watching can be a really humbling experience.
Tuesday (October 15): Yesterday was my first sabbath on the race! We are given a sabbath to spend the day in the presence of the Lord either alone or with community. You get the freedom to do what you want on your sabbath as long as it is not something that feels like work to you. It was a great day! I spent over 3 hours sitting in the word studying Isaiah Chapter 1. It was really neat because Isaiah 1:18 reminded me of how God wipes away our sin-stained hearts and makes them clean when we walk in relationship with Him. The night before I had just shared with a friend how occasionally I still feel the shame of my past and let it get to me despite knowing that God forgave me when I made the decision to become a Christian. God has reminded of a lot just in the first week and I am excited to experience more personal growth as well as have more opportunities to talk about Jesus and even teach a small group again in the future!
Playing games at Manantiales
Adventure Day at Guatape (My excitement about making it to the top!)
