This month we had the privilege of hosting a team from Roseville Covenant Church who came to learn about the ways God is at work in Colombia. It was a special visit as Roseville Covenant was a church community for us while on home assignment in Minnesota and friends were able to come and experience what life is like for us serving here. It was a full week of travel, visits, meeting new people, asking questions, listening to stories, sharing stories, worshipping with brothers and sisters here, and being attentive to how God is working and moving. The team visited Medellin, a small town called El Bagre, Monteria and surround small towns El Hato and San Carlos, and the coastal city of Barranquilla. As we traveled and interacted we received such hospitality and appreciated each person’s willingness to share with us a bit of their story.
Eating breakfast together
With Pastors Luis and Gladys in Monteria
One of the themes that continued to come up in conversations was the power and strength that is found in community – whether church community, school community, or community of neighbors. The importance of relationships and doing life together was emphasized over and over again. It was clearly seen as we visited the displaced communities in Granizal and Manantiales. We saw it as we watched a community of adolescent and teenage girls come together in a soccer tournament, where at the same time they were learning together about life values such as honesty, integrity, and solidarity. We listened to the leaders of the project talk about the years that they have spent building relationships with the girls and their families and we have seen the church as a place where many of these girls has found a community. Life is not easy for these girls as education is a challenge, the temptation to get drawn into the wrong crowd is ever present, and many do not see beyond the boundaries of their neighborhood. Still community is being formed and a testimony to that is that one of the teams walks an hour just to participate in the program.
With Diana who has been a key leader in the soccer program with adolescent girls
A Saturday soccer game
We saw it as we met with a group of single mothers who have been meeting together over the past year to learn together skills required for taking care of their new born babies. At the same time that they have been coming together relationships have been built and community is forming. One woman shared how important this group has been for her because it is there that she realizes she is not alone in her struggles. Together they are stronger. Together they are discovering the resources they have to care for their families and impact the lives of other mothers in their neighborhood. The daily struggle is real, but they are not alone.
Hearing stories of hope and challenge
The neighborhood
We saw it as we visited “Taller del maestro” in Barranquilla. This social business was started by Pastor Jesus, pastor of the Evangelical Covenant Church of Villa Paraiso, as a way to help give employment to women (young women and heads of households) in their community. The business of making artisan statues that are sold in Barranquilla and Cartagena has grown and employs around 30 people. In this place they have found community. They have found in Pastor Jesus and El Taller del Maestro a community that cares for them and their families. It is here in Villa Paraiso you truly see a holistic gospel being lived out as they serve children in the community through a school, elderly in the community through lunch program that runs Monday-Thursday, as youth are equipped to lead the church in its various ministries, and as they provide jobs to women so that they can make an income to support their families. Community is at the core.
One of the Covenant schools located in the Paraiso neighborhood
Women working in Taller del Maestro
Artisan products made
As I’ve been reflecting on our time with Roseville and our dear friends in Colombia I have been overwhelmed with thankfulness for how Christ invites us into community. Different people, from different places, with different stories – invited into transforming community where we find ourselves loved unconditionally. One of my favorite scenes in the book of John (chapter 21) is after the resurrection when Jesus is on the beach and invites his disciples to “Come and have breakfast.” A simple invitation, but filled with so much love and possibility. And the Scripture says that the disciples knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was the Lord who was inviting him. They didn’t even have to ask, even though it seemed so impossible because they witnessed his crucifixion. They were now witnesses to the resurrection and they knew who it was who had invited them and who continued to invite them into life transforming community. My prayer is that as people are invited into community here in Colombia, whether in Granizal or Barranquilla, they will without a doubt recognize that it is Jesus himself who is present and is extending the invitation.
