Back in the USA

We landed in Houston. It seems odd that everyone speaks English. Soon we will arrive in Grand Rapids. There are Many stories to tell, so many gifts that God gave us!

The Refuge

Singing, laughing, giggling voices could be heard all over the community of Torices, Colombia today. Every Friday the Organization, El Refugio has children's church in both the morning and afternoon. Those that attend walk up to 25 minutes to be a part of this high energy, loving environment. Our Hosts Martin and Rosa have prayerfully thought through every detail. Serving with them is an amazing team that assists with many aspects of the day to day ministries and the services.

8:15 after a slightly crazy taxi ride our team arrived, just in time for the morning prayer time. The students from Corinth are quite amazing at jumping right into prayer with anyone! It was discussed that every kind word spoken to these children was important.

After assigning us jobs for the 2 hour program, the children began to arrive. Today's theme is

Tu eres valiente. (You are courageous) This is repeated to every child as they enter the room. They are excited to see Americans and quickly try to speak English. One little boy asked, "Do you have fay boo?" After a few moments, I realized that he was asking about face book.

9:00 and the children have arrived, the music is blaring and the service, more like a party has begun. Breakfast is rice and beans and the children devour it.

 

Rosa takes the microphone and we are off!  I am delighted by the classroom management that Rosa uses. There are clear directions about behaviour posted and reviewed. The steps to knowing Jesus are also posted. The children repeat the significance to these icons. God loves me, I am a sinner, Jesus died on the cross for my sins, I will live to serve him.

Skits, videos, dancing worship, testimonies, offering and bible reading are all apart of this time. What an amazing time of loving these Children in Jesus name. As the children leave they are reminded that tu eres valiente, porques Jesus contigo. (You are courageouse, because Jesus is with you.) I love that the theme is weaved throughout the program.

We pray for continued blessing on this ministry of love.

Thursday

 

Today was our “Sabbath Day” so we got to sleep in a little (7:45 a.m.)  After a breakfast of pancakes and fruit, we headed to the monastery, La Popa, to pray over Cartagena and to do our devotions.  La Popa is located on one of the highest points in Cartagena so you can see the entire city below.  On our way up, we passed through Stratus 1, the poorest division of the city.  There was trash everywhere, graffiti on the walls, and the houses were run-down and very small.  When we arrived, we were able to look out and see the unfortunate juxtaposition of the rich and poor areas of Cartagena.

 

 

 

 

Inside, there were many rooms full of different Catholic artifacts explaining the history of Colombia’s dominant religion.  After exploring the monastery for a little while, we split up into groups of three or four and prayed over Cartagena, specific to the different areas of the city.  We prayed for the protection of the poor people of the city, who live in fear of their homes flooding due to the near-by river.  We also prayed for the richest people of the city that they would realize the extreme need of their neighbors in stratus 1, and that they would be compassionate towards them.

When we finished praying in groups, we had alone time in La Popa to do our daily devotion.  It was great to do devotions in a quiet place where we could really focus on God.  Our Sabbath day proved to be a much needed rest for all of us.  When our group gathered to discuss our devotions together, we also prayed for Aubrey, who had not been feeling well.   

Our team then traveled back to our apartment to have lunch.  We made sandwiches! Nothing was planned for our afternoon so we could choose what we wanted to do.  Justin, Tyler, and Bob went to develop some photos.  Many of the leaders took a nap, and most of us girls went to the pool.  Let’s just say we should have put more sunscreen on.  It was nice to a day of relaxing after two days of painting.  At around 3:00 p.m., us students split into equal groups to rehearse the skits we would be giving at El Refugio tomorrow.  The skits depict how you can be courageous and stand up against sin with Jesus.

We had a quick dinner and then at 7:00 p.m. we all left to meet Erin and her friends to serve food to the homeless in the middle of town.  Erin calls them “the homies.” Some of us served food and drinks, others walked around with trash bags, and others yet just mingled and conversed with the people.  We gave out candy to the children, and passed out hats to all.  Before the meal, a brief message about God was given and everyone there circled up and prayed.  It was a very powerful experience to assist these people in such a crucial way.  The homies of Cartagena count on this meal every Thursday.  After food was given, many members of the team were able to get to know the people a little bit and got to pray for them and their specific needs.  We visited with them late into the evening, but we still managed to stop by Burger King afterwards for ice cream!  

When we got back to the apartment, we met to share our highs and lows, give testimonies, and to worship.  Mackenzie and Corrie shared their testimonies tonight.  From our peaceful alone time at La Popa, to the feeding of the homeless, our Sabbath day proved to be an overall great day.  We were brought closer to Him at La Popa and He made us even more aware of the need in Cartagena through our time spent with the homies.

 

 

-Brooklyn and Corrie

Wednesday

This morning, several of us woke up early and ran along the beach.  We could tell already that it was going to be a hot day.  For breakfast, we ate eggs and arepa made by Mari. Arepa is like a cornbread pancake for those who want to know.  After devotions, we headed to El Refugio.  El Refugio is a foundation that serves poor, at risk kids.  This organization is run by Martin Morales.  Since we have gotten to know Martin, we realized that he has a tremendous heart for this mission.  Martin also lives at this location. 

Pastor Kevin and Bob went to look at a project on a nearby island.  We arrived at El Rufugio at 9:00.  At El Refugio, we welcomed the kids as they would make their long hike into the foundation.  Some kids walked as long as 30 minutes to get there. 

Our mission at El Refugio was to help with arts and crafts.  We were each given a task to complete.  Justin, Whitney, and Brooklyn were responsible for cutting out shapes to put on cards.  Hailey and Aubrey painted a wall.  Lissa Cobb helped make posters.  Mackenzie made attendance charts.  Bonnie and Tyler decorated cards.  Corrie, Rachel, and Brooklyn cut out hearts for Children’s day cards.  Children’s day celebrates all the children in the country.  Elyssa made a sign to welcome the kids.  Then we designed crafts for the theme of courage.  Corrie makes sling shots to represent David and Goliath.  We completed this around 12:30.

We were treated to a fantastic meal that consisted of cheesy rice, chicken, plantations, and vegetables.  We were also given a gift of coffee, candy, and a personalized bookmark.  It was great to sit and talk to Martin and his wife, Rosie.  We each had to tell them a little bit about ourselves in Spanish.  Because our vans did not show up, we decided to take taxis to the school.  Taking a Taxi in Cartagena is a remarkable experience.  The taxi driver with the most guts will get there first. 

At Cristiano de Cartagena, again we painted classrooms.  Upon arrival we had to wait 30 minutes, but used that time to interact with the children.    Some enjoyed playing soccer with them.  A 5:00, we returned to the hotel.  We took this time to relax as we waited for the hot dogs and hamburgers to get done cooking for dinner.  Dinner was delicious.  Soon after, Dan and Baret came to the hotel to join our nightly devotions.  They discussed the culture and how God was acting in their lives.  Erin later joined us for our praise time.  She also gave her testimony.  This was the end to great, successful work day.

 

Every day we are more and more in awe of what God has done in and through us!

Written by Justin and Tyler

 

 

Tuesday

This morning, we woke up bright and early to a lovely breakfast made by Mari, our Colombian cook.  After eating delicious pancakes, we had some time to do devotions before we left.  Being so close to the ocean makes devo’s so much more peaceful.  After our morning prayer, we had a rough start because the language barrier caused some confusion with the taxi driver.  However, that was the only minor problem and from there on out, our day was FANTASTIC!

We went to paint at Cristal Rey Church.  The first blessing of the day was that the heat wasn’t nearly as bad as we expected it to be.  We were indoors, so we could feel the breeze while we painted.  Partway through the day, we headed outside to eat an excellent lunch they prepared for us which was fish and coconut rice. 

 

 We weren’t used to the scales and bones which are usually taken off in America, but thankfully, they spared us from seeing the fish’s head. In the middle of our lunch, we were taken off guard because the pastor, Jorge, had a parrot that was given a bath in the upstairs window by Jorge’s wife.  She sprayed it with water to clean it, and during the process, he fell down into the courtyard where we were eating.  He couldn’t catch himself because his wings were clipped, but Jorge picked him up and allowed us all to meet him and hold him. His name was Paco!

 

Another type of animal that we saw throughout the day, which we’ve noticed a lot, is a crazy amount of sick and malnourished dogs roaming the streets. They chill on the beach, in the middle of the road, and wherever else they feel the need to go. It breaks our hearts that we can’t do anything to help them L They’re so cute.

Around 2:00, most of the team went to a Christian school for another painting project, but some of us stayed behind and finished up at the church (Bonnie, Aubrey, and Elyssa).  Jorge and his beautiful family were so blessed by the work we got done today.  We painted the entire inside of the church in just a few hours and built great friendships with this family despite the language barrier.  Before we left, Jorge prayed for us, which was really powerful because even though we couldn’t understand his words, we could feel God’s presence.

 

Meanwhile, the team at the Christian school has accomplished painting 7 rooms so far, and we’ll be back at it tomorrow painting 4 more rooms. When we first got there, we played soccer with the children while we waited for the rooms to be ready for us to paint. We had conversations with the older teenagers who had learned in school how to speak English. It was nice to speak to people who know our language, but it was also hard to relate because their culture is so different. For example, the only time they ever play soccer is with friends; they don’t have any school sports.  Also, while painting, it was nice getting to know one another and how each of us have come to God.  Our group gets along so well; we are truly blessed to have each other! Every night we come together to debrief, talk about highs and lows and of course worship together!

-Hailey and Elyssa

April 1st

Hey everyone! So today we thought it would be super fun to go to the Russian Circus on Ice, so we did! Then we decided to relax by the beach and go zip lining through the jungle; it was beautiful!! Then we finished up our day by going to a movie in the beautiful theatre around the corner. JUST KIDDING! April Fools!! Today was truly an amazing day though. We took an hour and a half drive to Barranquilla and spent our day at the school, La Rosa De Saron. The unique thing about this school is that it is one of the only private Christian schools in the area, and it is totally free for students to attend. We got to go class to class and try to have conversations with the children.

 

 

The school ranges from pre-school to 11^th grade. They were all so excited to see us and wanted nothing more but to talk and take LOTS of pictures with us.. they were adorable! We also had fun bringing 100 stuffed animals to the preschoolers, who were in disbelief that they were gifts for them. One other amazing opportunity we had was to sit down and do a group activity with the teachers of the school. They knew minimal to no English, and many of us didn’t know much Spanish. We paired up with a teacher and with our language barrier, had to learn how to introduce each other in each other’s language. It was an awesome experience. At the end we put them in the middle and surrounded them and prayed but when we were done, God moved them to pray for us. Most of us had no idea what they were saying but it was really moving. Even with the language barrier we really felt a connection with one another in the sense that we all share the love for God.

 

 My personal favorite part of the day was getting to give the stuffed animals to the children. To see their faces light up the way they did was something I will never forget. We couldn’t speak together but we would make the animal noises together and it was fun J (Mackenzie Henry).

 Today God blessed us all in so many ways, but God really blessed me personally by allowing me to meet Isabel. Isabel was a woman in her mid-40’s who was a single mother. She had 3 kids ranging from the ages of 5-8. She was such an awesome woman. I could just feel God’s love radiating from her. I was so glad I was able to communicate with her in her native tongue. She was able to teach me more Spanish and I tried to teach her a little bit of English. In the end she shared with me that her brothers and cousins were in the US and how much she missed them. She was very upset that she can’t communicate with them because they only speak English and she only speaks Spanish. She asked me if I could maybe help her translate letters to her brothers and cousins. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do that today, but God moved me to help her. Somehow I want to be able to help her one day communicate with her family once again. (Whitney Krieger J)