Hello from Bogota!
After having our second debrief in Quito, our entire squad boarded a bus at 12:30 AM to drive to the Colombian border. We arrived at the border around 7 AM and successfully exited Ecuador and entered Colombia in the span of roughly an hour. That was downright remarkable considering there were 45 of us and there was concern about the Colombian border. God is good!
Our escape from the bus was short-lived as we arrived at a bus terminal about thirty minutes after the border crossing. At this point, we had about four hours in the terminal after a night of “sleep” on the bus before settling in for a 24 hour bus ride. Our squad was split between two buses because the greatest capacity for a bus was 44 people…and we were 45. It was unfortunate that we couldn’t have a bus be entirely our squad as one girl on my bus had her laptop stolen from her backpack at some point during the night and another had her entire day pack taken. Welcome to Colombia. The bus ride wasn’t all bad, we had wifi and were able to watch movies which was awesome. Somehow the other bus got to be 2 hours ahead of us and thus arrived in Bogota first. Once we arrived around 10 AM we didn’t have to wait long before getting in a different bus to eat lunch in a church, provided by our hosts.
This is a unique month because we are the first World Race team to travel to Colombia. With that being the case, along with the fact that Colombia comes with its notorious reputation, all of the teams are paired. Originally, my team was going to be alone but with a miscommunication with our original contact, we switched to be with two other teams. I think the Lord knew what He was doing because it has been amazing to be with Sozo and Bold Radiance. Let me give you the breakdown of ministries this month: Tonka and Open Arms are together in Cartagena, Rak Chazak and Lutroo are together in Buena Vista in Bogota, and Sozo, Bold Radiance, and us (Fearless Laughter) are together in Santa Cecilia in Bogota.
Our ministry is located at the top of mountain overlooking all of Bogota. It is quite the scene to behold. We are working with an organization called IncaLink Formavida. IncaLink has widespread influence in South America as one of the teams worked with them in Ecuador. We adore our hosts, Lucy and Ricardo. I would claim that the Colombians are my favorite people thus far. The youth and young adults that we have working with us as well as the general staff are phenomenal. We are very blessed.
***photo credit goes to my teammate, Shannon 🙂 ***
Last week, our first week, ministry took on three different forms: VBS, construction, and kitchen duty…for those of you who are familiar with the movie White Christmas, “Excuse me, I’m on KP.” Our three groups rotated throughout the ministries. In the mornings, the VBS group would plan while construction would either help do various jobs around the compound or help build a neighbor’s roof.
This second week is different. We get the opportunity to lead assemblies at the schools. For the first two days presentations have been given to 3 and 4-year-olds, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th graders. It is fun to come in a put on programs, especially with performing skits. This ministry is doubling rewarding because it gives us the opportunity to get out of the compound, which hasn’t happened very frequently. This is understandable because our hosts are concerned about our safety. The compound has been referred to as a bit of a prison since we are inside the majority of the time. As far as I’m concerned, prison’s not so grim.
The Lord is at work this month. I’ll be posting another blog about all of that but for now, there’s a ministry update for you. Thank you for your continued prayers and support!
