colombia week 1!

We made it to our first country! Yay!! It is so incredible here. Wow. The weather is perfect everyday, our hosts are the kindest people ever, and we even have a roof that we hangout on that overlooks the city.

Medellín, Colombia is beautiful, and the foundation we’re staying in is awesome! My squad has two floors of apartment style rooms with a main kitchen and living space on each floor. The roof is just one more story up, and every time I go up there I can’t help but say “wow, that’s beautiful.” But that’s not even the best part… there’s a bakery on the first floor! I know, I told you this place is awesome. Not going to lie, the accommodations feel a little too luxurious, given that we were prepared to sleep on the floor in a sleeping bag in one big room with no AC… but hey, I’ll take it. There’s also a church on the first floor that we’ve been attending on Sunday’s! The service is entirely in spanish, but the experience of worshipping the same God with another culture is so special. The food here is so good. It’s rice upon rice upon rice. Rice for breakfast, rice for lunch, and rice for dinner. The kitchen staff cooks us three meals a day, which we’re so grateful for. They are so kind, and I have loved practicing my very broken Spanish in an attempt to communicate with them!

This foundation we’re staying in, Ciudad De Refugio, has a variety of ministries, with the main focus being street evangelism to the homeless and restoration for those struggling with drug addiction. Many of the staff and volunteers here were once on the streets themselves but have been redeemed by Jesus and delivered out of poverty with the help of this foundation.

We are partners with this ministry, which is mostly self-sustaining, and all of our work here supports their outreach. Some of our projects have been kitchen duty, recycling, vegetable sorting, stair cleaning, and other seemingly small or unimportant tasks – but they are truly a big help to the staff here. When we’re not working, we are bonding and hanging out as a squad and praying and spending time with the Lord. Even though many of us are eager to go out and share the gospel, the Lord has graciously given us this time to really connect as a squad, which will be super beneficial for future ministry.

My praise for this week is that my team planned and helped out with the youth ministry on Saturday, and it was very successful! The kids loved it, and we had so much fun. My prayer request is that my squad would continue to use our time wisely and intentionally with each other and with the Lord!

That’s a little update on my life so far in Colombia! Till next time…

Mo 😊

P.S. I will also be writing a blog about my spiritual journey on the race so far, and how the Lord has personally worked in my life, so stay tuned for that!