The Kingdom of Heaven is Theirs

Greeting Family and Friends, I shared with you all my hope of blogging weekly to keep you all updated and so here I am. 

 

    My team and I are placed in Planeta Rica, Colombia this month partnered with a local church called Centro Cristiano Amor y Fe Tierra de Benedicion. We have been spending a lot of time at the church and getting to know the people within this community. We have been split into three groups for living situations. Two groups of two and one group of three. We have been living with different families from the church. One of my teammates and I have been staying with a family of four one door down from the church. They have two daughters Evaline and Annette, who are 12 and 5. They have been great. We practice Spanish and English together. They have also taught us several games. Every day we meet as a team at the church to complete the tasks the pastor has given us for that day. Planeta Rica is very hot and the pace of life is a little slower. During the day from about 12-3:30, the people do not work or do anything because of the heat. Instead, they take siestas aka naps. Also, almuerza or lunch here is the biggest meal of the day so between the heat and full bellies, fitting in a nap is not tasking for us. 

 

    Within Colombia there are districts based on the poverty or richness of an community. Six being rich and one being the poorest. This month our Ministry Host, Pastor Amour, has brought us with him to feed several children of some 1 and 2 communities. The church has had these feeding programs set up for a while. They buy land in a rural community and once a week they invite all the children from that neighborhood to show up for games, bible stories, and free dinner. We have been to three different communities so far within Planeta Rica and one within Medellin, Colombia. These low level communities struggle with malnourished children and families not being able to provide much. The children we have been in contact with have ratty, worn out clothes and some appear to be dirty. Despite their poverty and lack of possessions, these kids are the happiest kids I have ever met. They laugh so hard at the simplest things, like running and sliding on the floor, and playing “futbol” or what we call soccer. They love to laugh at our attempts to speak Spanish or beat them at games they excel at. I’m still at zero goals in my soccer games. They are just so happy and it warms my heart just being around them. We have had the opportunity to read them bible stories about Jesus but the greatest thing we get to do is show them God’s love. We roll around in the dirt without a care in the world about how dirty we are getting. We have truly taken on the way Jesus ministered by meeting people where they are and just living life with them. We also live in a 2 district, we take bucket showers and we wear the same clothes sometimes for many days in a row.

 

Loving them has been easy. Leaving them will be hard. 

 

 

 

My prayer is that while we are in Colombia that God shows up more in the lives of these kids and their families. Please be in prayer with me about this. 

  

 

Thanks for sharing in my journey and reading my blogs! 

 

For more about my Colombian travels and the World Race, please stay tuned and please remain in prayer for me as well. One way you can specifically pray for me is through funding. I have about $6,000 left to raise and I would ask that you prayerfully consider supporting me so I may remain on this mission trip. You can donate one-time or monthly until I am fully funded. Thank you again so much and God Bless.