It was a cold wet Thursday night (which seems to be the norm here lately) and we were just about to leave for our youth group meeting when our phone rang. It was Gabriel and he was calling to suggest we cancel the meeting, not only because it was cold, but also because it was a holiday. Well, we knew some off the neighbour boys would come out in a foot of snow, so we said we would still come just in case. Sure enough the usual boys showed up, and not only did we have a good discussion on prayer, but we all took turns praying, and all of them prayed! One of the boys asked God to help his father stop drinking. This was a pretty big deal considering usually we can’t even get them to be quiet when we pray. Gracias a Dios (Thank you God).
Another huge blessing this month was an invitation by a neighbor boy Jorge to visit his school. Jorge is fifteen years old, but by looking at him you would think he was nine. He attends a public Empresarial school up the mountain behind our house, where he is in the third grade. In Colombia (or in Medellin at least) they seem to have a multi leveled public school system. In our neighbourhood there are three different schools. There’s the top level that kids need to apply to get into. This school is very academic-oriented, well organized and the students are generally well behaved. Then there’s the general public school. This school seems to just push kids through, it’s generally not very well organized and seems to be rather chaotic at times but has decent facilities. While both these schools require uniforms to be purchased and small administration fees to be paid throughout the year, they are still affordable to the majority of the people here. Last there is the Empresarial schools, These schools are free, do not require uniforms, and while all the schools give out snacks, these schools give small prepackaged meals. This school (if it wasn’t already obvious) is for the poorest kids. This was Jorge’s school. After arriving at the school via the very muddy dirt road, we had a chance to meet with the coordinator who was very excited to have us there. Not only was he open to having us share about Canada in the school, he wanted us to share about our work and our faith as well. After a short conversation with him we discovered he was also the coordinator of two other Empresarial schools in the area and wanted us to share in all three! This was an incredible opportunity for us, and with only three months left to go, God is still using us to start new things.
The area around Jorge’s school is populated by many displaced people, and is therefore very poor. We’ve visited one of these areas several times in the last few weeks named Chocosito, which means little Choco (Choco is a department on the coast which has a large Black/Caribbean community and has seen a lot of violence from the various civil conflicts). On these visits we have had the opportunity to meet and pray with a number of people there. It’s incredible how a person’s spiritual need is magnified by their physical need and how open many of these people are with sharing their personal struggles with complete strangers. It’s really amazing to see how God is at work before we even get there and how he is in control, we just need to be there and be willing to be used by him.
The holiday I mentioned earlier was the annual Feria de las Flores - the Medellin Flower Fair. This is basically a citywide party. Most of the shops close down and there’s a big parade down one of the main street. People of this area of the country are called paisas, and are known for (among many things) their flowers. Different families or companies enter these small floats made up of flowers, which are not really that small when you consider they are carried, usually on the back of a person, and can weigh up to several hundred pounds! It was definitely a great cultural experience with lots of traditional costumes, dancing, and one of the biggest horse parades in the world.
This past month has flown by and it’s hard to believe we have so little time left. We are definitely thankful for the past seven months God has given us here, and look forward to what he has planned for these next three.
Joe & Alicia
Pictures:
1 - Motocros - Colombian Style
2 - Progress on Gabriel’s Roof
3 - Hockey
4 - Flower Fair
5 - Alicia’s Birthday party
6 - Hanging out with kids
