Tabitha's Truths: the fear of colombia

Colombia is mostly known outside the Latin world for three thinngs: the FARC, drugs and coffee. So when I told my family that I was going to be in Colombia for three weeks, naturally it scared them. I arrived in Cartagena, Colombia on the 19th of January to this sight

Needless to say it didn't strike fear into my heart. The purpose of my trip was to help Martha Ardila get started with the work in OM Colombia. We began a long two weeks of visits with pastors, churches, missions groups and ministries. I was impressed and awed with the local church's desire to get involved in missions and saddened by the fact that the majority of pastors were wary of missions organizations because they believed that we are only out to steal their best sheep from them. It became obvious to me that the first focus for OM Colombia needed to be on one of the nine core values of OM - Esteem the Church. So we have set a course for OM Colombia to seek ways to better involve the church in the mission process so that they will realize that it is the church that sends the missionary, not the organization. During our time in Cartagena I was also given the chance to preach in Spanish about missions

Martha and I

In my two weeks in Cartagena, I also had the opportunity to visit several ministry sites. We went to the women's prison where I met a woman named Wanda, arrested for being a drug mule. She has a powerful and sad testimony. We also visited a girls house were 25 girls live with a family and are treated like family. They had me translate the songs to a Disney movie (in dubbed musicals the music stays in the original language). We also visited a very poor neighborhood on the 'wrong' side of town. It has a lot of problems with gangs. Mabel the missionary who has a preschool foundation there showed us around the neighborhood and it was obvious that she is loved by all. As we were leaving we had to go by a different route as there were gangs fighting on the corner where we had arrived a couple of hours before. Yet nothing that you will not find if you went on the dangerous side of any big city in the world. It strikes me as odd sometimes that we are will to serve God as long as it is safe. Yet the funny thing is that the most needs are where it is not 'safe', because everyone is scared to go, no one helps.


Preteens in the 'bad' neighborhood

The famous coffee on the coast comes in a dwarf cup.

We also visited a nearby town where HIV is very prevalent and gave a Church's Channels of Hope workshop.

Centro Cristian Betel Church is a channel of HOPE

My last week was spent in Bogota, Colombia a huge city full of people. I stayed with the Echeverri family as Hugo, a local pastor is going to take the role of representative for OM in Bogota. We also had a very full week of pastor and church visits. I am happy to say though by the end of my time in Colombia I am so excited about the direction that OM Colombia is taking! I also had a chance to speak in a youth group and to teach a group of 30 pastors, of which only three present were women. It was an exciting trip, I want to go back!