I actually know little to nothing about the Escobar family except for the few clips of Narcos that I’ve seen….Sorry but Clickbait!
So, Month 1 has been exhilarating. We’ve done ministry in all forms, from Street Evangelism, to VBS, to sharing the Gospel to men and women as they are doing drugs, to even teaching in a school (to those of you that know me, I hope you let out a hard laugh knowing some poor teacher let me come and teach 9th graders on identity). Colombia is such a magical city and I couldn’t have imagined being anywhere else for Month 1. This month definitely has set the tone for the remainder of my Race. It has been growing, challenging at times, exhausting, but more importantly its been eye opening, and even life changing. I’ve seen the Lord work in and through my squad mates, through complete strangers, and through people that I’ve been working alongside with that don’t speak a lick of English. (nor do I speak Spanish)
We are living in a place called Cuidad de Refugio (City of Refuge). So between 8:00pm and 7:00ish am, the first floor which is also their parking lot becomes a shelter for the homeless, they provide showers and food at a very low cost. The second floor is a 12, 15, sometimes even an 18 month inpatient drug program unlike any I’ve heard of in the states. They don’t do the whole A.A thing, no yoga or massages, no therapy, just their Bible, Jesus, bible studies, and church (Jesus can and will radically change you…….IF you let him.) The 3rd story is a program for women very similar to what the men are doing. Alongside the first floor is a bakery run by the residents. So by the end of their stay, they start getting workforce training, some are trained in packing inventory for a multitude of different companies (LOTS OF SPICES, my fingers will forever be stained), to cooking and baking in the bakery. Cuidad de Refugio is teaching these men and woman how to become productive members of society by keeping Jesus first in their life. The 4th floor is where they do Sunday school for kids, they even homeschool children throughout the year because the public schools in the area are not the best (probably still better than SC public schools, considering I thought Texas was on the west coast at one point in time.) Needless to say this place is changing lives by just teaching them about Jesus, how to be more like Jesus, and how to teach others about Jesus (True Discipleship.) It’s not just changing the lives of the residents, staff, or even their community, but changing the lives of hundreds of people from all over the world who have the absolute honor of working alongside them.
What do my weeks look like you ask?
So our week officially starts on Wednesday.
Wednesday- Wednesdays are our team days: Breakfast at 8:30, Lesson or teaching from someone on our leadership from 9:00-11:00, 11:30 is Lunch, at 1:00 teachings/lessons continue until about 5:00, 5:00 is dinner time and from 6:00-8:00 we have Wednesday night church service. Let me say church gets hype (for my parents and anyone over 40 hype: when someone gets excited about something) Worship rocks, first of all its packed, all who are in attendance are singing/spitting while singing very loudly (I like to think of it as Holy water) and dancing. A little different than the Southern Methodist church that I grew up in. And from 8:00-9:30ish we do street Evangelism, words can’t describe how crazy/amazing this is. They take us to a small street filled with HUNDREDS of people that are either doing drugs, selling their bodies, sniffing glue, sleeping, and only God knows what else. It’s dirty, it stinks, some things are hard to watch, and there are some things I can’t unsee, but the beautiful thing is that they too are God’s children. We go there to share the gospel for first time, to share our stories, to just be a friend and acknowledge that they are seen and loved, to remind them about Jesus, who he is, and why he came. If they are interested we invite them to one of the 3 church services a week and 1 worship night back at Cuidad de Refugio. Quiet time between 9:00-10:00 and thankfully lights out at 10.
Thursdays- This is our first official full day of ministry. Between breakfast and lunch I get the honor or working with the men in the program… we clean, whether it be walls, stairs, floors, or closets, we clean and thank God that laughing and smiling is a universal language, even though we can’t understand each other we do crazy things, make funny faces, and laugh A LOT! After lunch the men have a study on the Proverb of the day (31 Proverbs, one for each day of the month). During the study we have a translator (praise) and share what we got out of it and how it has applied to our life at one point in time. From 1:00-4:00 we go out and play soccer with the guys, and they are good…real good. From 6:00-8:00 we go evangelize in a nearby park, where there too are people doing drugs, selling their bodies, there is even a street known as Sin Street where prostitutes and transgenders hang out. The park isn’t as much drugs as it is as alcohol so a lot of people are three sheets to the wind and are hard to reach, but Jesus left the 99 for the 1 and there are always a few who are receptive. After another long day 10:00pm lights out can’t come quick enough.
Friday- Fridays are very similar to Thursday up until lunch. After lunch I have had the opportunity to go out, knock on doors throughout the neighborhood (considering our conversations in Spanish don’t exceed Hey, how are you? its trying and definitely out of my comfort zone, but I know you can’t grow if you stay in your comfort bubble the rest of your life) and invite people to our Friday night worship night or invited the kids to VBS from 3:00-5:00 on Fridays and the majority of the afternoon on Saturday.
Saturday- So the first weekend I had the pleasure of going to a camp called Manantials. This camp is owned by Cuidad de Refugio on the side of a mountain in a 0 neighborhood (Neighborhoods are classed from 0-6, 0 being the worst/poorest, 6 being the nicest). Here we passed out school supplies to kids, played with kids, and shared Jesus with these kids. At first, when I saw their living situations and the clothes these kids were wearing, I was saddened, in awe, and I even felt some guilt because these kids literally have nothing (so I thought) and I was taking pictures with/of them with a $1200 cell phone. Remember how I said these kids have nothing, well I was completely wrong, they had one of the most important things in life and thats joy. They had more joy than most people I know in the States (including myself). These kids laughs were so contagious, their joy was contagious, my attitude of sorrow quickly changed to an attitude of rejoicing for what the Lord was doing in this extremely poor neighbor with these people who were so daggum happy (shoutout JB). How are you happy? You have nothing (so I thought.) They had the Lord (even if they didn’t know him personally he was with them, I think it would be fair to say we all left touched knowing the Lord covered this place) and they didn’t base their happiness off of materialistic things like I so often do. Maybe this new phone will make me happy or those new pair of shoes, happiness comes and goes but joy is everlasting and joy is from the Lord. So thank you to the 50+ 3 and 4 year olds that forever changed my life for the better. As we were walking back to our gated compound with beds (guilt yet again) I was hit with two questions. What was your favorite part? I don’t remember what my answer was word for word but even when I was back in the states, I would think about these people and how I felt bad for them. Well yes, it may be unfortunate that these people don’t understand how good Chick Fil A is (or how good chick fil a sauce is) but I think we all would survive without having Chick Fil A again. I walked away with joy and a peace, knowing that these people were content because they knew no different. They are doing what we are all trying to do, trying to make the best out of our current situations (and are probably doing it a lot better than some of us). These people value family, relationships, they value themselves, and I pray one day that they will all come to know and value the Lord. On the flip side to all of this there is a heaviness and darkness that covers parts of this mountain. The second question was where will these kids be in 10 years, where will the 4 year old girl that I carried on my back and held in my arms for 3 hours be in 10 years??? Statistically a lot of the girls are pregnant by 14 (+ or – a year or two) and a lot of the boys join gangs and/or get involved with drugs by the time they are 12…12. So what happens in that 8 year span and what can I do? You know, I don’t know if I will ever be back, if I will ever see that 4 year old little girl again, but I know we can all pray and I know what the Lord can do. Needless to say this first weekend was special.
Sundays- Sundays are our church days (Sundays service is HYPE), our team time days, and our teaching days. Church is from 10:00-12:00, at 12:00 we have lunch and from 1:00-3:00 we have team time. Team time for me is healthy, sometimes dreaded (yeah I’m selfish sometimes), but more importantly its an opportunity to hear the struggles and accomplishments of the 5 guys that I get to do the next 4 months with. We answer questions from the World Race about our faith, how we want to grow, and what they can do to help us. We have the dreaded feed back, where we commend each other for the good works we see each other doing that they may not see or even know about and/or we give constructive feed back to try and help each other grow to be more like Christ. We point out things in each other where we see that they could have done better or things that may not have been honoring, there are a lot of things we (specifically me) do that could have been done differently and for the better. 3:00-5:00 and 6:00-8:00 are teachings from our leadership.
Mondays & Tuesdays- These are our off days and days of rest. I may write a blog about these in the near future.
To my family, supporters, and friends, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart, I love you all and miss you dearly. I hope this gives you a little insight on the work being done, I would not be here without your help, prayers, or encouraging words. For pictures follow me on instagram- mccolee
