We have all heard the stories of Colombia- Pablo Escobar, the cocaine, the violence. When I found out that our first ministry site was in the outskirts of Pablo Escobar’s home of Medellin I was preparing for that, and preparing in prayer and asking the Lord how I can lead this team well in a place of hurt and chaos.
Our travel day(s) consisted of meeting in the hotel conference room at 2:30am, a layover in Fort Lauderdale a few days after the shooting, and then a delayed international flight which landed us in Medellin around 2:30am the following morning. By the time we got the whole squad to the site in Medellin, our bags in, and a small meeting- it was about 6am. We were given time for a small nap, and then breakfast at 9am. With everybody getting in so late, it was decided that everyone would wait an additional day until they headed out to their ministry site. However, our site was only about an hour away so we headed out at 11:30am.
Two men named Checho and Jon Mario picked us up from our site and neither of them spoke any English. Using some broken Spanish, we put everything we own into the back of a couple strangers’ truck!
We arrived to a wonderfully prepared lunch and warm showers (something I thought we would not see for the next year). We were given about an hour nap, and then we sat down with our ministry host, Marcos, the director of COSDECOL.
Marcos has developed an evangelical ministry through the game of soccer. My team and I are currently working together with the coaches and director on a blog telling the stories of the ministry here, and how it started in the midst of chaos- so I do not want to give away too much now. Be on the lookout!
I have absolutely loved the team that the Lord has put together, and I am constantly learning from each of them. Whether we are climbing waterfalls on our off days, using broken Spanish to get across town, playing telephone pictionary, or wheelbarrowing rocks up hills we are consistently truly enjoying each other’s company.
I have also loved the ministry and work that we have gotten to do while we are here. In the states I evangelize by meeting kids where they are through YoungLife, work construction, teach preschool, and coach sports.
Here I have met kids where they are through soccer, welded beams for the construction of their church, partnered alongside the coaches, and this week I will be getting to help in the preschool!
For our first time leaving the soccer stadium since arriving, we went to a soccer stadium in Medellin to lead a Bible study before practice with the kids and then to play soccer with them. On our way to the field, Marcos told us a bit about this place. It was a field known as “the dump” and it was nothing more than a place where people would dump their trash, and it was a good place to hide a dead body. The field was located right on the line between where the guerrillas, police, and gangs had divided the streets for years.
Now, the ministry and community have taken the area back, and this poor neighborhood of Medellin seems to have a sense of hope.
We arrived to this small, fenced dirt lot and kids laughing and running around. Normally, I would not have seen it as anything other than a low budget dirt soccer field, but the Lord opened my eyes that there is always a story of redemption that is always waiting to be written. The Lord is writing a story of redemption in Colombia through Marcos and the community, and I am so humbled to get to witness it first-hand in this time of transition.
Praying with the kids before practice
Making Plates for the beams to sit on
Welding the corner anchors onto the beams
Moving over one ton of rocks to the top of the stadium
I am so thankful for all of the support that I have been shown and I am so close to being fully funded! I have been trusting the Lord that the money will come in, and it has been. I am about $1000 from my next deadline that is due the end of February, and $4500 from being fully funded!
Thank you everyone for your donations, prayer, and for the ways you have all prepared me for this journey!
