Have you ever read the book of Acts? Like really dug in, where your heart beats faster with each revelation and you can’t wait to turn the page to see what happens next. In college I heard the book of Acts described as this, “An all-out quest by a growing number of believers to risk everything to spread Jesus Christ’s message around the world.” This is currently my life.
I’ve been in Medellín, Colombia since August 7th. My team and I have been serving alongside a ministry called Ciudad de Refugio (City of Refuge-COR). The organization’s heartbeat is to point people towards Jesus. COR doubles as a rehab program for recovering drug addicts and prostitutes and opens its doors every night to the homeless. COR also facilitates various outreach programs with the homeless population in Medellín and the children in Manantiales, a barrio in the mountains.
Every ounce of me loves this place. And the story I wrote for myself never would have brought me here.
Each Saturday, our team has had the opportunity to go to Manantiales and minister to the children there. We pile in one vehicle and begin our accent up into the Andes mountains to the small barrio of Manantiales. Once we get there, a few of us jump out of the car and literally start climbing. We walk from house to house collecting children as we go. The homes are more like small shacks strategically positioned all throughout steep inclines. Once we get all the children, we take them to a compound within the barrio and facilitate an education and feeding program. The kids get to run and play, sing songs, attend a class where they learn about Jesus, and have a meal.
In Manantiales, gang violence runs high and children usually turn to drugs. Many of these children were lured by the Colombian guerrilla rebels and forced to become child soldiers at a very young age and have recently been released. Others have fled to Medellín from their own homes so that they would not have to fight. However, if you ask these kids what their favorite part of the program is — every answer is that they get to learn about Jesus. That just blows my mind. These kids have nothing. And it’s easy to think that the food, games, or even songs would be their favorite part.
I know God better because of the kids in Colombia.
This sweet child is Kaylin. Kaylin is 3 years old, my team has been in Colombia longer than he has. When i met him, he had only been in Medellín for 3 days. He and his two siblings fled their home, without their parents, so that they would not have to fight as child soldiers. They have been living with a family in Manantiales who was willing to take them in.
Let me introduce you to Rafael. Rafael is a 11 year old boy who lives in Manantiales. I first met Rafael on my first accent up the mountain into Manantiales to help collect the kids. To get to his home, we had to cross a rickety bridge that I honestly thought would not hold me. We then traveled up an unfamiliar dirt road riddled with garbage. Then, there he was, a beautiful boy with the biggest smile, standing barefoot in the doorway of his home. In an instant, he contributed to the stretch marks on my heart. The name Rafael is of Hebrew origin and actually means “God has healed.” I believe God has healed Rafael from so much already in his short life. In talking with him, I learned that he has lived in Manantiales for only one year. He was recently released as a child soldier by the Colombian guerrilla rebels. He was first coaxed into fighting at age 7 and served as a child soldier until he was 10.
On Sunday, I helped in Rafael’s Sunday school class. He was just as eager to learn about Jesus as he was the day before. At the end of Sunday school, some of the kids are given a black garbage bag. They are told it’s a “gift” for them and their families. Inside the bag is a roll of toilet paper, a small bag of rice, and a package of spaghetti noodles. I’ve never seen kids so excited to receive such a gift. Rafael held onto his bag as he overlooked Medellín and said to me, “Esta es mi ciudad. Un día voy a cambiar el mundo.” Translation: “This is my city. One day, I’m going to change the world.”
I believe him.
Rafael taught me that this path you’re on isn’t meant to make you lose the will to live. It isn’t meant to see if you can survive the subpar life and make lemonade when life hands you lemons. It’s meant to write the best ending to your story. And not the best possible ending you can get with the available resources at this point in the game. The best. Period. Better than you could’ve ever written for yourself.
Alexandre Dumas said, “Love then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart! And never forget, that until the day God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words—Wait and Hope.” That is exactly what Rafael is doing; waiting and hoping in the midst of everything he has endured.
The best stories are always still ahead of us. And the hard moments are preparing us for them. That’s the way the kingdom of God works. More than he wants us to experience the American dream, He wants us to experience perfect joy for eternity. So He’s more concerned about giving us what we need here to be able to get there and say, “In Christ, I’ve overcome the world.” He’s more concerned with our being able to say we are content in every circumstance because He is everything we need. He’s more concerned with helping us know Him better here so that we’re ready for there. Because there is worth it. He is worth it.
That’s why Jesus told the rich guy to sell everything he owned, the stuff his life was wrapped up in, and give it to the poor so that he could know God. That’s why Jesus said the kingdom of God belongs to the little children, who love with abandon and don’t hold anything back. That’s why He said to store up our treasures in heaven rather than down here. Because Jesus has seen and known the Father, the Father who will dwell with us in the place where our real lives are going to be lived out for billions and billions of years. He says it’s worth it.
The World Race is worth it. Worth every rickety bridge I cross. Worth sleeping amongst the cockroaches. Worth leaving my friends and family to serve Him. Worth living out of a backpack. Worth every cold shower. Worth sleeping in homeless shelters. It’s worth feeding His sheep, all of them, no matter their circumstances.
When we think of Him that way, it takes heaven out of the dusty box on the shelf where we’ve put it. It wakes up the sleepy concept we’ve filled in our brains as the place we’ll go one day after we get done with everything we want to do here. It makes our joy alive because we see it as a foretaste of what’s to come. It brings an eternal perspective to the moments we groan in pain because we know we are sharing in Christ’s suffering and being made more like Him.
I would have missed so much. Up in the Andes mountains, throwing sweet Kaylin into the air, He showed me more of Himself than I had ever known before. It was as if He came down and met with me there in the midst of rescued child soldiers. And I was like a sponge, just wanting more. It would take pages and pages to write down everything I saw God do in my life and in the lives of the people I’ve met in Colombia. It would also take a lot of pages to write down how much fun I’ve had.
God’s hand has been on this season in a way I’ve never experienced before. I felt like Peter when he stood on the mountaintop with Jesus and suddenly Jesus shone bright as a light, and Moses and Elijah showed up too. “Lord, it’s good that we’re here. Let me make a tent for all of us so we can just stay.”
God has brought me here, and He is bright and close, so I want to do the same thing Peter did. Stay.
God has done so much for me. It’s been humbling to be His vessel to love His children who don’t yet know His love. What a story He is writing through me. For me. For all the kids in Colombia. For His glory.
God, it’s all still yours. You can have it all. You can move me wherever you want, anytime.
I’ve pitched my tent in the land of hope. Acts 2:26
Kaylin and I
Looking into Manantiales
View of Medellín from Manantiales
Manantiales
Garbage lines streets of Manantiales
