I started the year with a long list of goals I had for each country, then I narrowed it down to 11 (ya know, for 11n11).
So, here are 11 things, both serious and silly, that I hope to accomplish in each country we visit these 11 months. I meant to try posting a blog at the end of each month about the 11 things and any testimonies or fun stories I have about accomplishing them. Well, it’s now the end of month 4, but still I’m going to try to catch up! I wrote this blog at the end of Colombia, but just took my time finalizing and finding the pictures for it… so hopefully there will be more coming soon for our time in Ecuador, Peru, and India!
The 11 goals I have are… *drum roll please*…
1. Leading at least one person to Christ
2. Running a 5K
3. Treasure Hunting (Holy Spirit Style)
4. Try a food I’ve never had before
5. Selfie with an animal
6. Get or wear an outfit from each country
7. Take a picture with my teddy bear (gift from my student)
8. Take a picture with my lens ball
9. Send a post card to my students from each country
10. Memorize a verse in each native language
11. Dance video in each country (combining them at the end)
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So, without further ado…
Testimony Time from Month #1 in Medellín, Colombia:
1. Leading at least one person to Christ
Among our entire squad, I’ve heard testimonies that people accepted Christ nearly every day! From the homeless people, drug dealers, Uber drivers, kids in the children’s outreaches, so many came to know the Lord this month and it was fantastic! One afternoon/evening we had a youth event where we played soccer with the teens and preteens, shared testimonies, a skit about David and Goliath (which was hilarious), played games then worship, a word, and broke up in small groups to share and discuss. The whole event was so fun and very powerful! By the end, my teammate, McKenzie opened an alter call and two of the teenagers, Sarah and Philippe, raised their hand that they wanted to receive Christ as their personal savior. I was like, “I’m not going to miss this!” and made sure to pray with them and McKenzie. They came back to church several times after before we had to leave.
2. Running a 5K
Thankfully, I have other squad friends who love to run even more than I do. So, not only have we been able to run regularly, but they have inspired me to go farther than I normally would have, especially in this elevation and hilly roads. Most mornings, we would only run 1-2 miles, however my amazing squad mentor, TT, who lives such an inspiring life, decided she wanted to run 6 miles one morning. I didn’t have anyone else to run with that day (and the area we were in, we had to run with a partner), so I decided to run with her and my squadmate, Kristen. I told them I didn’t think I could make it the whole 6 miles, but I wanted to try to go as far as I could. It was soo hard to keep pushing myself, but ya’ll, to my surprise, I made it at least 4 miles running with them before they graciously dropped me off. I was so tired, but just kept praying that God would give me His strength, and I made it farther than I originally expected.
3. Treasure Hunting (Holy Spirit Style)
First of all, if you don’t know what a treasure hunt is, basically we pray and ask Holy Spirit to give us clues to find people (it could be names, places, illnesses, what they look like, etc), then we take those clues, go out to find the people, and tell them they are God’s treasure and that we’d like to pray for them. In Colombia, I didn’t exactly go out to do a treasure hunt specifically, but we did a lot of prayer walks and outreaches to pray for the people of Medellín and we found God’s treasures for sure!
4. Try a food I’ve never had before
Traditional Colombian food includes rice, a brothy soup, chorizo (a spicy pork sausage), chicharrón (fried pork belly or pork rinds), and a type of salad. We had much of this throughout the month, along with many types of pastries from the bakery. But I’d say the one thing that was most different was when we tried Aguapanela, which is a warm infusion made made from hardened sugar cane juice. It’s basically a poor man’s tea, but it is common to drink hot in the evening, sometimes with bread. Also, this is what we gave out to the homeless during homeless ministry.
5. Selfie with an animal
We totally went to a zoo for our fist adventure day… but silly me, I did not get a selfie with any of the animals there. Instead, after we went paragliding the next week, we were eating our packed lunch up on the side of the mountain and a cow decided to come visit us! So, after we fed it some left over rice, of course I had to take a selfie. Except, he was a naughty little cow and tried to lick or bite me, so I had to be quick!
6. Get or wear an outfit from each country
The clothes people wear in Medellín were not anything different than what I normally wear at home, but all month I wanted to get a dress since I chose to drop my dress and two skirts that I was going to bring. One day, we walked into a beautiful little boutique and I fell in love with the entire selection. What I loved more though was getting to talk to the owner. We told her that we were missionaries from the USA and she was so happy when I said we were Christians. Some of her close friends came in and the conversation was so beautiful. It definitely felt like a divine appointment. I could have spent the whole day there, talking and trying on dresses. By the end, my teammate, Lauren, and I gave her our blog to keep in touch with our mission trip and we gained a new prayer warrior. I did end up getting a dress that I adore, but more than the outfit, I adored this woman of God and the connections we made.
7. Take a picture with my teddy bear (gift from my student)
For one of our adventure days, we traveled to the rock of Guadapé, climbed 707 steps to the very top, and enjoyed the scenery around. It was a tiring adventure, but so worth the view and the feeling of accomplishment with my group of girls! Of course I brought my little teddy bear so he could also see the view and I could get a picture for my students. The funny thing was, my teammate, Ashley, also had a stuffed animal Grinch that she is taking pictures with in each country too. So, we not only got a picture of our little friends together, but we reenacted their picture with ourselves and it was hilarious!
8. Take a picture with my lens ball
Unfortunately, I kept forgetting to use my lens ball when I had opportunities too. Finally, the day before we left our ministry site, the girls had the option to sleep outside on top of the terrace (5th floor). During our little sleep over I finally remembered to take a picture of the beautiful cityscape through the lens ball.
9. Send a post card to my students from each country
Sending post cards was not an easy thing to check off my list! Once I finally found some post cards, it was a struggle to find a post office, that was open, and would send my post cards for less than $30 each! I think either the ladies were confused or it wasn’t a regular post office I first went to. Finally the last couple days before leaving Medellín, we found a post office and I was able to send the post card to my students that I had been carrying around with me for most of the month. I don’t know how long it will take to get to them, but I sure hope my writing will be legible by the time it gets there!
(misplaced this picture) 🙁
10. Memorize a verse in each native language
I definitely still have a lot of growth to do in the area of memorizing scripture. Honesty, I don’t have it quite memorized yet, but one of the scriptures we used in children’s ministry multiple times as Psalms 149:13 and that is the one I am working on memorizing in Spanish. This picture is from the day we were given the opportunity to teach in a public school and I taught about the power of words. More about that story in a blog to come.
11. Dance video in each country (combining them at the end)
Last but not least, we had lots of children’s ministry opportunities and one of the last days of ministry we spent it walking around Manantiales (a city up the mountain from Medellín), and playing with the kids at la cancha (the court). I begged the kids to dance with me but only one boy would do it, though he LOVED dancing! We got a little clip of us dancing to a certain song and after getting all the clips, I’m going to try putting the dance video together that incorporates dancing with the natives in every country.
Thanks for reading! Be blessed!
