Bogota:Part One
Internet Explorer decided to freeze up on me right when I had finished writing about Colombia…and it deleted everything I wrote. It almost made me cuss.
After taking a deep breath, I began to re-type all that I could remember, and as I was half way through, Starbucks decides to close. I was royally hacked off.
So with that said, I can now move on and perhaps successfully blog about Colombia AGAIN. It is after all 4:00am and I can’t sleep.
Have you ever been to that place where you just can’t find the words to do justice to what your heart is screaming? Life is kinda like that right now.
God really messed me up this week…and not in the way I assumed it would happen.
I’ve been on a handful of mission trips, so my expectation was that this one would be similar. My prayer leading up to the trip was that I would only focus on serving the teenagers that we were gonna be hanging out with, and really investing in them and showing them Jesus. I was expecting to do hands on things. And talk about Jesus with them. And have “spiritual” things happen. You know, like when you come home from a mission trip with that sort of satisfaction of really encountering God through serving other? That’s what I wanted.
Sometimes we don’t get what we want.
By the end of the week I was owned by guilt. I was a leader of pretty much nothing, and felt like I hadn’t made any difference for anybody. I didn’t know too much about the camp that we were doing with the teenagers, accept that we would be teaching them leadership skills centered around the S.E.R.V.E model that CFA uses. It was more of a character building camp, and my only real responsibility was to be in the camp alongside the kids…not leading discussions or really teaching.
I didn’t understand, until I really sat down and had a chat with Jesus(hey-zeus-the cordinator of the camp) about the vision of Operation Reconcilliation. He explained that Colombia does not have the same opportunities that America does. There is no free enterprise or encouragement to begin your own business. Education is difficult to come by because college is so expensive. Teenagers cannot really work until they are around the age of twenty, because there are issues with child explotation. It can be discouraging to grow up in an enviornment like that. His passion is to empower young people. His vision is for Colombia as a whole to be transformed by raising up the next generation to have hope for something more than just becoming a farmer or street vender to survive. His vision is to meet the physical needs of young people, in order to get to their heart.
The camp isn’t advertised as a “Chrisitian” camp, because halfof the kids wouldn’t come. It’s focus is more on character building, and along the way it is emphasized that regardless of success or failure, God is the only true fullfillment in life.
There was one 15 year old boy who was a pretty self-proclaimed Athiest. He didn’t bash any of the refrences that were made to God, but it was pretty clear that he wasn’t buying into it.
Him along with 5 other kids gave their life to Christ.
And at the last meal we had as a group, we asked who wanted to bless it, and he replied, “I’ll say the blessing…how do I do it?”
I’ll never forget that.
It wasn’t about me. It wasn’t about what I could do or how well I could lead or serve. It was about the Kingdom of God stretching beyond the U.S border and beyond the cultural barriers and embracing the fact that He will do what He needs to do regardless.
Alright…that’s all I got for part one. Part two is a bit more…personal so be patient, it may take a day or two more to figure out how to put it into words without scaring off the all of 2 readers I have. 
Love.
