Our Colombia Mission Trip: Part 1

Before we knew we it, we were on a plane to Miami, and then another plane to Colombia!  The Lord had already answered so many prayers.  The flights could have not gone more smoothly, and all our luggage made it with no problems.  That is very unusual!  (especially looking back on my last mission trip, everything went wrong, I lost all my luggage, and become extremely sick..not fun!).  So we arrive at our hotel late Saturday evening and meet the rest of our team.  There was a huge group from the team leader's church there, but we were all split into groups of 4-6 people for the entire week.  Then Sunday morning, each group went out to different churches to join their worship services.  Just driving around the city fills my heart with joy as I just love being in a different country experiencing different cultures.  It was great worshipping in another language that morning.  The Pastor also asked us to give our testimonies during the service.  Here is a picture of Justin giving his testimony.

After church, we spent the rest of Sunday resting and going through some training.  We also broke into our teams Sunday evening and met our translators.  There were enough translators there for each of us to have our own, which was awesome.  All the translators were so nice and helpful and were such servants.  Here are some pics of just some of the translators we go to know during the week

So then Monday morning comes and we are all pumped and ready to share the Gospel.  We had a prayer time with the group at 6:30am, breakfast, teaching time, and then we made our way out to the neighborhoods by 9am.  Each team was assigned to 2 neighborhoods for the week.  One for Monday and Tuesday, and a new neighborhood for Wednesday and Thursday.  Each of the neighborhoods had a church plant that was either just starting or just starting to grow.  The first neighborhood was in Villa Carmen where we worked with Pastor Eduardo and his wife and 2 beautiful children.  They moved to this poorer neighborhood to start a church there which is amazing.  There are about 5 core people involved in the church and they meet at the Pastor's home.  So, our team spent all Mon and Tues with this Pastor and church members, sharing the Gospel in the neighborhood.  We were each paired up with a translator, and a church member and we all went to different parts of the neighborhood for door to door evangelism.  Here are some pictures of the neighborhood and some people we shared with:

It was incredible to see just how hospitable people were!  Almost all of them would invite me into their homes and allow me to sit in the nicest chair and put the fan directly on my face.  Each of them were interested in what I had to say and listened attentively.  We used an evangacube to share the Gospel which was a great tool to have.  It really keeps their attention as it shows pictures especially for the visual leaner.  When I was invited into a home, I usually started with a few get to know you questions and explained to them why I am here and that was to share my story and about my relationship with Jesus Christ.  I would then share my testimony with them, and then share the entire Gospel.  It was awesome being able to see the Lord changing their hearts and how the Lord has been moving in their lives way before we even got there.  I would then invite them to the church that we were working with in their neighborhood.  Each evening, they held a Bible Study for all the people in the neighborhood to come and learn how to study the Bible.  Everyone who came whether new believers or just seeking were broken into small groups which were led by the church leaders.  The groups were called Yo Soy Segundo which means I am Second.  We thought it was a great way to get new believers involved right away and teaching them how to study the Bible. 
After the evening Bible Study we were on our way back to the hotel to have dinner and then finally to get some rest.  By the time we would get back to the hotel after dinner was around 9:00-9:30, so there was not much free time as we were exhausted...but a good exhausted...

to be continued...