BLOG-Colombia!!

COLOMBIA 🇨🇴

Hello friends and family! I am excited to announce we have now been in Colombia for two and a half weeks!!!! Time sure goes fast over here but there is so much that I want to share with you guys about Colombia!

Our squad is staying in the city of Medellín where there is a population of over 2 million people and we are staying at a foundation in the city that has different programs. There is a men’s program here/ a rehabilitation center, a place to shelter homeless men, and weekly outreach to the neighborhoods in Medellín that are heavily influenced with drugs and alcohol.          Our squad has been serving in different ways these past few weeks, some of these jobs consist of peeling or washing vegetables, working in kids or youth ministry and spending time with the locals, recycling in the basement, or even cleaning the floors. Whatever the job may be the Lord has been teaching me to serve others in a new way through each task that my team has been given.

Week 1 my team was given kids ministry, which happens every Saturday morning until around lunch. There are multiple classes depending on the age group and volunteers teach these classes. In the class there’s usually time for the kids to play, and then they get taught a bible story and there’s usually some art or other crafty activity afterwards relating to the Bible story. They are then provided lunch and then get walked back home later in the morning. There’s not necessarily kids getting dropped off at the foundation, so in the mornings the volunteers at the foundation go out into neighborhoods to tell parents and kids about the classes and then they allow the kids to walk with us back to the foundation to be apart of the class and then when it’s done they drop them back off at their homes. This was such a fun way to get to know more about the people in Medellín, to see and to walk through the neighborhoods just gave me more perspective on what it’s like to live as a local in the city. As I spent time with the 4-7 year old class, the Lord was really teaching me how I can love His people well even if I can’t speak their language. Maybe it’s just with a loving smile or handing a marker to a kid who’s coloring, whatever it is, the Lords love never fails and even if I’m showing it in a different way than I’m used to, that doesn’t mean he isn’t working through me or the way I’m loving someone is insignificant. He says to “Do everything in love.” 1 Corinthians 16:14

God is so good!

Week 2 my team was on vegetables!

What a blessing it was to help the kitchen out in this way! They make our meals everyday, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so getting to peel, wash, or cut up any vegetable for our meals or for the foundation to sell was a blessing in and of itself. During this time I was just super grateful for how the Lord has provided food for our squad, a lot of the vegetables are donated from the supermarket so even to know that the Lord is providing for our every need over here in Colombia is just a glimpse at how faithful He really is and how much He really wants to provide for His people.

During the 2nd week on Wednesday my team was also selected to go to The Bronx, which is a heavily populated area in the city where there’s an influence of drugs, alcohol, and homelessness. There is a group of volunteers from this foundation that goes every Wednesday to hand out bread and a drink to anyone who needs food, and there are people that also walk the streets to pray over people and to hopefully bring people back to the foundation so that they can have a place to stay for the night. When we went out Wednesday night I was chosen to stay back at the truck to hand out bread and it was devastating to see the conditions people were living in. I don’t want to give too many details but there was just a lot of physical hurt, poverty, and drug addiction in this specific area. I remember just standing by the truck and thinking that although the conditions are not great, the Lords love for his people in the Bronx is just so deep and so wide. And even though people are choosing to live in their sin, God still longs for their hearts and wants intimacy with each and every one of them. So when I was in the Bronx the Lord revealed to me the joy that he had for every single person and the longing he had to be known by His people, which I think is just so cool!!!

The next day a small group of us were able to go out into the city and evangelize and pray over people in Colombia. I don’t know what the Lord was doing in my heart but that day he just continued to break it for his people and it was really hard to go up to someone when they weren’t interested in hearing more about Jesus because he is literally the center of our lives and gives life! So it was really hard to be honest, and after this I kind of fell into a deep loneliness/depression. Until recently the other day, we had a night of worship together as a squad and the Lord restored in me a true spirit of His joy, not because of what has happened so far on the Race, but because I realized what He’s done for me and who he is is something to be truly joyful about! Like what?! He sent His one and only son to die on a cross for my sins? That’s some crazy love right there!

It hasn’t been super easy since getting here in Colombia but the Lord is faithful and he always provides a way, so thank you all for your prayers and support and I’m so stoked to share more about Colombia in the coming days!

Love you all so much and may the Lord bless you and keep you!

-Abby on the Raceee