A few weeks ago, just before we left for the airport, I did a vlog explaining what we might be doing in Colombia and where we will be. Soon after arriving in Medellin, we realize a lot of what we expected got completely changed!
I’d like to take this time to update you guys on what we have been really doing in Colombia. Firstly, we are not in the San Pedro north east of Cali, but we are staying in Parajito near Medellin. Although will be doing a few days of ministry in San Pedro, it is San Pedro that is near Medellin. Which is about an hour bus ride from our current location. Luckily, when we arrived at the airport of Medellin, the other host ministry that is affiliated, picked us up at the airport and let us stay at their ministry for the night.
If you’ve seen my vlog, one thing is correct. We are still with Ministerio Vida Nueva with Pastor Willy and Pastora Christina. They are a great host! We have beds that we can sleep on (hard beds, but not a problem as we just use our sleeping pads over top of them!), and they are cooking meals for us. So one thing to correct from the vlog is that we do have meals prepared for us from the host! We pay the host $5 per day per person and Mama Christina (This is what we call her from now on!) usually cooks us a meal mostly with Arepas as a base. It also turns out that we probably won’t be doing prison ministry. There is a bigger complication with getting access as foreigners into a prison then Pastor Willy expected. But Pastor Willy has many plans for us!
We’ve been doing a lot of Ministry with the church. He’s explained that within this month, we will be doing anything that comes up, whatever the Holy Spirit calls us to do. Each day is filled with different agendas. We spent a few days learning Skits and Dances that we can use for youth ministry. We learnt 4 different dances (that are pretty hardcore hip hop dances! At least level 2 from my experience in taking classes), and 3 different skits that explains the Gospel in a tangible visual way. We also lead worship for the first time tonight! Many of us have never lead worship, so it was cool to see teammates stepping up and filling in this role. Also, we’ve been called to do preaching as well. We have had two service of preaching, and another 2 more scheduled up ahead.
The biggest ministry we’ve been doing is praying for the people of Colombia. First in the congregation of the church, but also in people’s homes as we walk around in neighborhoods knocking on doors. We also prayed for the church building itself as it has a strong spiritual battle currently going on (more about this in another blog). We’ve prayed over the pastors from the different churches and for the ministry we do. We’ve also done chores to help out, such as mopping the floors and wiping the windows of churches, helping cook and clean around the house, and building relationships.
What I’ve learnt so far is that the biggest thing we can do to impact the community here is through prayer and building relationships. I’ve seen that the people here recognize that we have come from a long ways away, and they take asking for prayers from us very seriously. I’ve seen the impact it made to those who asks for prayer and how they are so touched when we lay hands on the, even praying in a foreign language.
We have two more weeks left in Colombia, so please pray for us as we continue to build relationship in the communities and be used well to share the good news to those around us!
Thank you friends and family!
