Jamundí!

This week we went to a community that is about 10 bus ride south of the base here in Bogota. The bus ride there anyway was 10 hours, the way back was more like 15... We had to stop for 2 hours while the road was being cleared from a mudslide, and then their was quite a bit of traffic, so it was a bit slower on the way back. This bus ride is nothing though compared to what we have coming up in the next two weeks as we leave for Chile on January 18!
Sunday night we left for Jamundí with the plan of helping out a pastor with his church that is fairly new. He wanted us to come and help with encouraging the community to come to the church. Being that Sunday  night we drove all night on the bus, we were all pretty tired so Monday was a pretty calm day. We got acquainted with the area, met the pastor and his family, started planning for the next few days, and got settled into where we were staying. Tuesday we had a day with the kids of the community. We set up in the park across the church and had a day filled with singing songs, playing games, performances including a dance and play of Daniel and the Lions Den, and ended the time with the kids with sharing the gospel through bracelets that we made and were able to give out to each one of them. That afternoon we helped with practical stuff around the church. I helped with painting the inside of the church. That evening we went around the community and invited people to the church to come and watch the movie 'Courageous'. Wednesday we woke up early and met the pastor at the church and prayed over the church and his ministry within the community. After breakfast we organized some activities and headed to the city center area where many people are often out relaxing and spending time with friends and family. Here we did the 'everything skit', did the 'glow' dance that we all learned during dts, the pastor and another girl from the church did a puppet show, and then we went around sharing the gospel to people with the bracelets that we made. I have never done evangelism in this type of way, in that I straight up go and tell people about God and then ask them if they want to ask Jesus into their life and I have to admit it was a bit hard... as I very much believe that you have to invest time into peoples lives and build relationships, and it seems that when people do say they will accept Jesus, they may just be saying it because we are white people coming up and talking to them (something that doesn't happen a lot here), but one thing that one of my teammates said that made me feel better about it, is that no matter what their response may be at the time, we don't know what God can do with what we have done in obeying Him in going and telling people about Him. I was kinda feeling that it wasn't very affective to go and tell people about Him in this way as you don't see the transformation happen, but we never know what God is doing in their lives, and this may just be one seed that is starting to affect the persons life. We just have to be obedient when God tell us to move, whatever way that may be, no matter how we might think or feel about it. Wednesday evening we played soccer in the park, well some of the team, and just spent time hanging out with the people in the community. Thursday we spent most of the morning preparing skits and planning for the church service/coffee get together that evening. I was in a skit called the clincher that was about all the sins that we are tempted with in the world and how Jesus took on all our sins through his sacrifice of dying on the cross and how we can now live without the weight of the sin on our lives when we accept what He has done and believe in Him. The church service went really well. Lots of people showed up and were really receptive to the skits and the message that the pastor shared. During the evening I was part of the first skit, got to help serve coffee, and then got to hang out with the 2 year olds up stairs! Right after the event we headed to the bus station and started our 15 hour drive back to the base. The drive wasn't that bad... the seats pretty much laid down into a bed :D I was actually able to sleep for quite a bit of the time and then got to read and listen to music the rest of the time. This week was really good as it was fun, encouraging, stretching, and we got to meet some really amazing people. What I really loved was being able to spend time and work with the people that are working in this community long term. It is easy for us to just come in and pump up the community for a week, but the hard work is the people that are dedicated to the community and really care for the people and want to see change happen!

Doing the Daniel and the Lions Den play 

To get around we often rode in the back of the pastor's truck

Painting bricks!

Everything skit in the city square

delicious fruit dessert!

watching the soccer game! gringos versus colombians :D

Family skit at the coffee night

Kids activities upstairs of the church 

A prayer request for this week would definitely be for the community of Jamundí and Pastor Hernandez's ministry in the community. Prayer that it would continually grow and that the community would come to be known as one that is after the Lord completely and that the pastor and his family would be blessed for all that they are doing!
Thanks so much!
Rachael :D