This month we worked with Ministerio Nueva Vida, an Assemblies of God church in Medellín, Colombia!
A (very) little history of the city: The city was not founded until 1616, a late start considering Spainards arrived in the 1540s beginning to colonize the area. Development slowly began, and “paisas” or locals to Medellín, came to be known as hard workers with a fierce independent streak – traits that you can still observe today
By the 1980s, the city developed a dark side. Under the violent but ingenious leadership of Pablo Escobar, Medellín became the capital of the world’s cocaine business. The jungle and vast mountain ranges encompass the majority of Colombia’s land, and people from these areas began moving into the city to escape the violence. However, the violence continued in the city. Medellín rests among a lot of mountain valleys, making it extremely difficult to police. Gun battles were common, and the city’s homicide rate was among the highest on the planet. The beginning of the end of the violence came with Escobar’s death in 1993, and today Medellín is among the safest cities in Latin America, with rates of violent crime akin to many US cities.
For the first week of the month, we worked with a church in Pajarito, a neighborhood of Medellín. During the second week, we moved a little further into the mountains to work at the AOG church in San Pedro de los Milagros. During the third week, we worked with the AOG church in Pedegral with (our favorite hosts for the month) Olga and Diego! And for the fourth week, we worked with the AOG church in San Javier, located in Medellín’s famous Comuna 13.
Ministry during each week consisted of street evangelism, marketing the youth event, and doing house visits for troubled youth in the area. We also took turns preaching each Sunday morning.
The most powerful part of this month were the house visits. A lot of youth welcomed 6 strangers into their home within the 4 weeks that we were in Medellín, and each one of them told us their testimonies. The teenagers & young adults that we met with have experienced a lot in life, and they’ve been through many difficult things. A lot of them are still currently experiencing heartbreak in different ways, yet they all remained open to speaking with us about the role the Lord plays in their life. We were very humbled and honored to meet with each one of them.
Ok… adventure days this month!
1.El Peñón de Guatapé. Basically a huge rock (656 feet tall) with stairs up the middle of it. There’s a lot of controversy regarding the truth of why & how this rock here, but we thought it was cool, so we climbed it anyway!
2. Relax at the farm day. We went to our host’s friend’s vacation home, and there was a hot tub, movies on an actual TV instead of a phone screen, and a couch to sit on!
3. Paragliding! The ride was really smooth and it felt like I was flying. Amazing!!
4. We threw a party for our hosts at the end of the month to thank them, and just to have fun! We made it American themed.. meaning we cooked spaghetti and bought napkins with an American flag on them. Yay!
That’s about all for this month. I’m headed to Ecuador tomorrow, where I’ll meet my mom (!!!!!!) and we’ll do ministry together for a week. After that, we have a 5 day debrief event, and then we’ll begin another month of ministry at an Assemblies of God church in Baños Ecuador.
Until next time! Thanks for reading!
PS- my friend Caitlyn made a video that summarizes our experience this month. Check it out here!
