Our whole squad has been in Medellin, Colombia for a month now. We are here working with a local organization, Refugio Ciudad. The foundation serves the homeless, displaced and addicts on the streets of Medellin and surrounding areas. In addition they provide homeschooling for children, run a women’s shelter, provide drug rehabilitation, conduct children’s programs and feeding programs, and lead church services multiple times a week.
Our schedule here has been packed full and I didn’t know how to blog about my experience here, so I decided to pull it all together in one big post before we leave for Africa on Thursday.
Our weeks start on Wednesdays, as we have off Mondays and Tuesdays to rest, explore or do much needed laundry. Wednesdays are crazy busy but extremely fulfilling. Usually, we begin with breakfast at 8 am. Then our groups split: Men go work with the men in the men’s rehabilitation program, half of the women go help the women in the woman’s shelter prepare lunch and clean the kitchen and the other half go sort the food donations.
After lunch we all head to a local park known for heavy drug abuse, witchcraft and more where we sing songs of praise, hand out free juice and meet the locals. My favorite experience was meeting three Venezuelan women. We conversed in Spanish, learned a little about their stories, loved on them and even prayed over them. (For those who do not know, Venezuela is in crisis currently and thousands of residents are fleeing to the connection countries. These people need love and support)
After serving at the park we return and rest until dinner. Our meals at lunch are what we have for dinner and though the food is good, I have struggled every day due to me hundreds of restrictions/allergies. For those who do not know, I am allergic to most foods or cannot digest most foods properly. I have IBS which seems small but has drastically changed my health. (See next blog to understand more)
After dinner we have church. Guys, these church services are some of the best I have ever attended in my life. The music is in Spanish and the service in both English and Spanish. This being said, the music/worship is my favorite part. The room comes alive with dancing, screaming, jumping, lifted hands, laughter and tears. Sometimes I don’t even know the words but I know it is praising God, which makes it beautiful. I think the most beautiful part is that every man and woman in the room has been through a revival with Christ. Their testimonies cannot be fathomed and to see them praising God more purely than most people in the United States shows how real our God is.
Once we are filled with Jesus juice, we head into the trenches of spiritual warfare, Aguapanala. I cannot explain this scene but here are some of my squad mate’s blogs:
Rob Ames: https://robames.theworldrace.org/post/aquapanala-con-pan
Taylor Flickinger: https://taylorflickinger.theworldrace.org/post/aguapanela-drops-of-grace
My experience, as I processed that evening went something like this:
“I expected homelessness, I expected drugs, I expected brokenness. What I did not expect were the hundreds of men and women clumped together like cockroaches avoiding the light. Between two clusters of buildings, what should be an empty ally is a grotesque scene of undulating bodies mixed with trash and human waste. Each person consuming death through smoke, needles, drinking or any other form of consumption you can imagine. The smell of cocaine, weed and other fumes hang thick in the air. Everyone’s eyes, though they seem to look at you, gaze through you as if in another world. They sway with every step, scream, shake and move together in organized chaos. Their clothes are not even permissible to be called rags. Their homes are where they fall on the streets or a slab of cardboard. Openly, they share their drug of choice with one another, each fading into oblivion. I cannot explain what my eyes held, but my heart, my heart aligned with that of the Lords and I wept. Oh, how he loves them. Oh, how his heart breaks knowing they are far from him, but oh, how he loves them. I wanted to take each of them into my arms like a child, hold them close and whisper the words, “Jesus te amo,” over and over again until it pierced their souls. But I couldn’t. I could however, pray. God is going to save them. God will rescue his children.”
Wednesdays are packed full as you can see and extremely emotional/spiritually challenging. Thursdays are a little lighter. Some of us go to another local organization where we play with kids all day, Pa’mi Barrio, and the other women go to a local women’s bible study.
(Playing “monster” with the kiddos like my dad use to play with me as a kid.)
Friday’s we split into our Wednesday morning routines. After some of us would travel to Manatiales, a poor district in Colombia, to prepare and host a children’s event. (If you have not seen our “bible” dance on my Facebook page I highly suggest it) The other women and men work with those in the programs here, men with men and women with women.
This Friday I was blessed to host a Beauty for Ashes event for the women in the shelter. The theme was, “you are worth more than gold.” The tables were set with gold accents, candies and lights. I have never seen such big smiles on their faces as they entered the room and saw the journals, food and faces waiting for them. I preached about our worth and then they drew what their worth was in God’s eyes. There were tears, laughter, smiles and hugs galore. It was such a blessing because through blessing them, I felt spoiled.
Saturday’s are filled with children’s events. You are either at Manantiales or El Pamar, another local park. Each of these have blessings of their own. Kids are tiring and yet so filling. I had a kid throw up and had to clean him up but I also had kids simply want to hug me and be in my arms. We play games until the adults, meaning me, are exhausted and try our best to show them real, true, Godly relationships.
Sunday mornings are beautiful. For some reason the day always seems brighter on Sundays to me. I have, through the morning services here, found a new love for babies. I don’t get to really experience little ones at home often so this is new to me. It sounds terrifying to most but I spent two hours locked in a small room, closet size, with six babies and one other woman who doesn’t speak English and I LOVED it. They stared at me, laughed with me and when they cried I lifted them up, cradled them and showed them the beautiful “montañas.” (Mountains)
Our week usually ends with a small meeting over lunch and then we start again on Wednesday. I wish I could go into more detail, explain every emotion I have experiences, trial I have embraced, smell I have encountered but that would be impossible. Lets just say, God has done some serious work in me, through me and before me. It has not been an easy month but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.
