Welcome to the Race, my mom and I flew from Lafayette LA to Atlanta Georgia on January 3rd. We get to the hotel and see a couple people from my squad. I am assigned the “story teller” position for my team, which is to take pictures and videos and encourage everyone that they do have a story to help them blog about it. So hopefully that will make me be a better writer and blog more often. We get our rooms and have a budget to eat. So the rational thing to do is get ramen noodle and rotisserie chicken, we end up the last night eating cold pizza and warm coke.
Fast-forward after 36 hours of traveling, I’m in Colombia now! We are currently in Medellin, which is home to about 3 million people and is where Pablo Escobar’s cartel ruled. Our partner this month is a ministry called Cuidad de Refugio (City of Refuge) they have an amazing story with their pastor coming from Time Square Church out of New York. It is about a 6 story building where all of the levels can look down to the bottom floor. There is a bakery on the street level where we have breakfast every morning at 8:30. In the back of the bakery is the church. It is kind of like a nice big garage with a sound system and a big sliding door that opens to the street. But the main use of the church isn’t to park cars; it turns into a homeless shelter every night. About 40-60 men line up at 7:00 to be taken in for the night. I have been helping with the security, checking bags for and doing pat downs for weapons to keep everyone safe. I am able to talk with and get to know a few of the regular guys that come in each night. The Wednesday night service is dedicated to the homeless and they have to come to either the Wednesday night or Sunday service if they stay at the shelter regularly.
I’m just scratching the surface of what this ministry does. On the second floor of the building is a rehab discipleship program. It is a one-year program where addicts can come and live; they work in the bakery so it runs itself. I find myself many nights on the second floor with the 15 guys after taking in the homeless. We share stories, drink agua panella (sweet water), and pray before quiet hour at 9:00. Agua Panella is what this ministry started on. Pastor Douglas would go to the city parks and streets where they did drugs and pass out the sweet water and pan (bread). These Wednesday and Thursday night have been some of my favorite nights. We go to the town center and sing, handing out the sweet water, the girls prayed with the transvestites and the guys for the drunk and stoned (and sober). I was praying for a man while being translated, a guy walked up behind us and it seemed like he needed something. I asked him what he needed and the translator starts to talk to him and tells him about the homeless shelter and he says he wants to come so I walked over to the director and he said we could admit him for the night so he hopped in the truck and waited till we were done. The Thursday night is a lot different and we went to one of the worst streets I have ever seen. It was about 100 yards filled with about 300 people. Almost everyone was doing drugs. Out in the open, smoking stuff, snorting stuff, huffing glue, or drinking. I was overwhelmed at first but followed our squad leader Teressa who is awesome at evangelizing and learned from her. She went and spoke to a vendor who was selling cigarettes individually. She was busy so then we talked to a man who said he believed but had been doing drugs for 40 years. The street had a very dark feeling and I could see the drug dealers taking money and handing out little bags. I felt like I had to be constantly looking over my shoulder but there was no violence… It was like there was an unspoken rule/ a safe place for drug addicts that the police don’t mess with. I am excited for the coming up Wednesday and actually talking to some people.
Manatiales is a community at on the side of the mountain we went to and spent the night. The part of their ministry is call Ciudad de los ninos (City of Children) which we prepared bag of notebooks, rulers, crayons, and markers. The neighborhoods are rated 0-6. 6 being the nicest and 0 being the worst. This city was a 0, but the kids were a 10. They loved getting on our backs or shoulders and playing soccer. They pick up the kids and bring them to church every Sunday.
Por Mi Barrio (For My Neighborhood) is a school in a community called Buenos Aires outside of town. We have been going there for the last three Wednesdays meeting with the director, cleaning, and organizing the building for the kids. The last time we went they opened the door and I noticed some red spots on the steps I thought it was paint or something. As we walked up the teacher said something and my Spanish-speaking friend John said “Don’t step in the blood”. Turns out they have been having some spiritual warfare and people are throwing blood on the neighborhood doors. This week we will have 100-120 kids of all ages from 10-4PM, playing games, singing songs, teaching them about the power of words and identity, and doing bible skits.
Editing some videos and more amazing things the Lord is doing! Thank you for the continuous prayers and support!!!!
Ephesians 6:13-17
With Love,
Will
