Hello from Colombia!
We finally made it to our ministry this morning at 4:00 AM! Luckily our host let us sleep in until lunch.
For the past week and a half I have been in Georgia preparing to come back on the field. Our racers got to Atlanta on the fifth and have been hearing different sermons and teachings on living a missional lifestyle not only over seas, but also back in the states.
“When you tell other people’s stories about the Kingdom of God, you’re just an echo… but when you make stories with the Lord and you talk about your experience with the Kingdom of God, you are a voice in the Kingdom.”
This was a quote from one of the sermons we heard over this past week and man it hit me hard. So often we talk about other’s and their experience with things. God wants to invite us all into a first hand experience with what he is doing in the Kingdom of God. However, we must accept. We must say yes to the small things that bring down the Kingdom of God to earth. Say yes to saying hello to the woman behind you in the grocery line or tossing in a bit more tip to the struggling waitress and ask what prayer request she has in her life.
Luke 16:10 talks about those who are faithful in the little things will be trusted with true riches! I don’t know about you but in this next season of my life I want to press into the little things that God has entrusted me with. As we begin to say yes we will have more and more stories about the Kingdom of God to share with people.
This Month:
Ministry this month is something I have never seen before. I am working at a place that does drug rehabilitation for men and women as well as they allow 100 homeless men to sleep on the first floor every night.
This weekend our squad will split up and half of us will be going up in the mountains to an internally displaced camp. Colombia has 7.2 million internally displaced people which makes them the highest ranking internally displaced country in the world. There are a lot of different factors that play into this, and the drug cartels and gang violence are high on that list. The teens we will be working with at this camp have already started drugs and many of the girls are already being introduced to prostitution.
The other half of our squad will be helping with a kid’s camp here in Medellin with children at risk. At both events they will be preaching and teaching a lot about who the Lord says we are and the need for Jesus as our savior.
Once a week during this month we will be going out to a street called “The Bronx.” This street is where the police designate an area in the city where there are virtually no laws against drugs, violence and prostitution. We will go out with translators and give out Agua Panella (a hot local drink) and love on the people who live on the street.
You don’t have to go overseas to do the things I am about to do these next five months. I encourage you all to ask the Lord for opportunities to make your own stories. Not for the sake of the story, but for the sake of taking part in the Kingdom of God. Our Father doesn’t want us to sit around and hear about what he is doing, he wants us to grab his hand and come along and be apart of changing the world one soul at a time.
Love you all! Can’t wait to keep you updated on this adventure.
Please pray for:
- The women and the men in the drug rehab programs. We want them to be healed and know the true character of the Lord.
- Opportunities at The Bronx to sow seeds into good soil. It can be easy for the enemy to distract us on that street and miss the people who God wants us to share with. So pray against distractions and pray for opportunities with people who are willing to hear.
- Unity and safety on our squad. It is our first few days on the field together and I want to cover this squad up in unity and I want it to be a safe place for people to open up and process through what they are going through with the Lord.
