Guts and Neck Tattoos

Day 9
Written by Cal

Today was the final day of missioning for most of us. This mission trip has been unbelievable. So many amazing stories and even more amazing people.

The people here are are so much more than just friends. They're family. I remember talking to Jeff Sponsler a long time ago and he told me that you build relationships the quickest by serving together.

We have found what the Bogotá church (Iglesia Tiempo De Dios) is made of. It's been stated previously but I would like to remind you all some important stories from this week. Earlier this weekend we went into the park and were prepared to do a skit, dance, and talk to people in the park. This plan seemingly failed when the weather did not cooperate. As we sat in freezing rain, I have to admit I was beginning to doubt the success of this outreach. They did not quit and brought the speakers into the mall where everyone was gathering to avoid the rain. It was here that I thought the security guard was going to stop us. That's before I realized he was praying along with Pablo. The next day, we were all set for a simple hour long worship service when the power went out. The congregation began to sing even louder with the worship team of Bogotá. I was truly touched during this time of worship.

This church has guts. Every time it began to look like it was time to retreat they advanced. The work is hard and in Colombia, with the limited resources, it's even harder. However, when it gets tough they get tougher. I've been praying, not prophetically or anything just hopeful, that the work for them would begin to be just a little easier. This family deserves some breaks and perhaps in God's goodness he will gift them some lucky breaks.

Today was an easier today. 

It was still filled with work but it seemed easier. This feeling was confirmed with the others on the MN team too. This morning before we even left the church a man came and was asking for prayer. He heard us (but mostly Josh) singing and worshipping last night. He was not even a part of the church or the church service yet here he was because he heard us. He said he knew the Holy Spirit was in that sound and he was convicted to return to Jesus. 

We were loud, I guess. I don't actually know - I can't hear anything but this ringing noise since then.

Then we went to the park. Which is probably best described as Church Field Day. Quick highlight, Edison (from Bogotá) made a kite from a trash bag and toothpicks and got his kite a mile into the air - I am not even exaggerating, it was the highest kite I have ever seen. During Church Field Day there was several stations set up and teams went station by station to collect points. Josh Mitchell was the leader at the Soccer Station and I feel like that's an important detail. Sergio (from Bogotá) led me to invite people from the park to play church games with us. We are now in a Central Park of Bogotá, Colombia inviting strangers to come and play soccer and kite making. I have to say, for the most part, I think Colombia's hard reputation is over hyped, but that doesn't mean that there's some definite truth there. 

Bogotá is a hard place to live. 

Sergio and I went and talked to three of the hardest looking guys in the whole park and invited them to join us. Let me tell you, these three young men loved Church Field Day. After watching a man with neck tattoos giggle as he tried to catch a water balloon (Bomba de Agua) I realized that everyone really needs community and family no matter the person. By the end of CFD the three men were hugging the church moms and cheering as their trash bag kite flew higher than anyone else's.

I don't think there's a better example of the kind of community this church has cultivated. Fearless, unrelenting, serving.

The question that rose in my mind, and perhaps in yours, is "how do we bring this home?"  Maybe that's another blog but I know I feel convicted because I don't know if I'd ever choose to go to Church Field Day. It was their day off, a national holiday like Labor Day and the entire Bogotá church was there today... would we all be there?

As we ate lunch and said our goodbyes I couldn't help but notice how many stayed late just to remain with us as we waited for our late bus. This church truly loves us. They've already invited us back again next year. I love them too. So many laughs and a few tears were shared together in these three days. Serving together builds relationships. 

Gracias, Espiritu Santo.

Tomorrow Hannah, Caleb, Kajsa, and I head back to Minnesota but Mark, Pablo, and Josh continue to another church. Please continue to pray for them as they continue traveling, meeting people, and strengthening our Kingdom relationships. And pray for us for safe travels home.

Until next year Colombia, probably.
Cal

Sergio and Edison (with Josh)

Ahhhhhhh So Amazing!

Day 8

Written by Hannah

Today I was woken up by a wonderfully cold shower quite early in the morning.

Funny how prayer resets your mind. We spent a while before the service in prayer and God was faithful in showing up in worship, the word, and in prayer afterwards as well. Josh gave the word about how the Kingdom of God advances one heart at a time. How good is our God?!

After a quick (but amazing) lunch we went out to the park for some evangelism. This also happened to be when we were to do the flash mob... That we were super duper prepared for. I mean, after three times through the moves the day before (with no refresher before mind you) we were  OBVIOUSLY ready for our performance. I got about half the moves on time but it was a great way to get the crowd gathered for the church to start evangelizing. This is the part that is stunning to watch: all the Colombians from the church grabbed one of us and went up to people and started asking questions about what they believe in and then they share the Gospel- ahhhhhhhh so amazing. It helped that today was a beautiful, sunny day and the park was full. Thank you for those who prayed for nicer weather today, it was a huge blessing.

The English class went very well, people showed up ready to learn and to participate. Caleb taught the kids the song Feliz Navidad, and they loved it. Kajsa and Cal were a dynamic duo who got every person excited to learn, which was also great.

Josh and Mark lead a workshop on parenting which went very well. There was some quality time of question and answers at the end.

Ok, so worship was a thing. I can't even begin to explain all the feelings and things that happened. God is so good. I can't say that enough. Let me try to paint a picture for you all. Everyone is tired. So very tired. The Colombian team is up on stage and getting all the instruments plugged in and ready to go. As soon as we are ready...BAM power is out. You know what they do? Worship louder. The whole church raised their voices when the sound was gone! Then...BAM Holy Spirit fell so heavily. 

I was brought to my knees in uncontrollable tears. 

As the whole church is singing "how great is our God" the power comes back on and stays on until right after our team steps off the stage. Before we got off though let me set up another picture. We are ending the set and Julie comes up and thanks us and prays for us. Ending one. Then says we need to play another song so we play "I am free". Ending two. Then Cal decided to start the song again from the top. Oh Cal. Final ending three.

This church is fearless, and has a boldness that I pray for God to raise in me. Continue to pray for strength for the team, we have one more day and we want to give as much tomorrow as we did today.

Batteries Not Included

Day 7

Written by Caleb (Feltis)

The first day of our ministry in Bogotá started with a lot of us having had little sleep. Cal swore that there was a rhythmic milk jug beating on his window the entire night.

On the bus we felt convicted that we had been perhaps more enthusiastic for Ibagué than for Bogotá. This sparked a time of prayer on the bus, which afterwards made us feel a lot more energetic for the upcoming day.

We started in the morning with a VBS, our role was to play the music for the children. Pablo dutifully attempted to teach the kids the songs before realizing he didn't know the songs himself. Nonetheless, the children got very into the singing and the dancing and we finished playing to a chorus of smiling faces.

(Pablo rephrased the previous paragraph along the lines of 'we had a partayy with the kids'. I thought this important to include)

After a quick lunch, we went out to start street evangelism. The Colombians had prepared dances and plays to preform to draw in crowds to whom they would talk to afterwards. The first performance wasn't a rousing success, on account of it being rained out. But we persisted and went again, inside this time. The second performance was met with applause, and we prayed over many.

The day ended with the surprise that we're participating in a flash mob tomorrow! I have gone through the moves exactly three times so I can't imagine my dancing will be anything less than absolutely professional.

Our prayers at the beginning of the day have most certainly been answered. We all met the church in Bogotá reenergized and excited. A little under half the group had never seen this church before but already strong and hopefully lifelong friendships are being formed. Spirits are high and we're all ready for tomorrow, flash mob and all.

Ciao,

Caleb

Leaving Friends and Making Plans

Day 6

Written by Mark

Ibague, beautiful city, beautiful people. 

We hate to leave our friends behind but today we travel back to Bogota. It is cooler today thanks to a rain storm last night. Ibague is at a higher elevation  (no Zika virus mosquito ) so it usually has warm days and cool evenings.

We had lunch with Juan Carlos, family and friends. One of our greatest joys is growing deeper in our relationships with the people of Colombia. We have the blessing of serving alongside these people who are committed to reaching Colombia for the Lord. As we all feel the same, lunch became a strategy and planning session. I always want to confirm that we are not just assuming we will be invited to return. It was wonderful to hear, yes, they value our partnership just as we do. Thankfulness for our Kingdom relationship quickly turned into ideas for the future: more lectures at the University of Tolima geared toward business students, and an outreach in "el centro" (the plaza on a street downtown similar to Nicollet Mall).

So here we are now after a four hour uneventful bus ride from Ibague to Bogota. With a storm raging outside we're going to order pizza, shower, and talk through the plans for tomorrow. We will be with Pastor Esteban at Iglesia Tiempo de Dios. VBS in the morning, activities in the park and ESL in the afternoon.

Pray that the Lord will be honored.

The Gospel... the Power Unto Salvation

Day 5
Written by Pablo

We had the morning off!  Slept a bit more, had breakfast and gathered together as a team to pray for the day, the University outreach event this evening,  for our friends and church family here in Colombia, and our loved ones back home.

After breakfast we went to visit a businessman from our host church in Ibague. His name is Enrique and his business was not far from our hotel.  He is a clothing manufacturer with clients all over the world. This man loves Jesus and is using his business as a platform to minister all over Colombia and beyond. We had the chance to pray with him "in the field" and got a tour of his business.  

I'm constantly thankful for these amazing connections and new friends the Lord is blessing us with.

Our afternoon began with an incredible Colombian lunch.   This dish was a feast! It's a traditional meal called "Paisa Platter" - rice, beans, eggs, pork, sausage, ground beef, avocado and plaintain.  Hello cholesterol!

Early evening we headed out to the conference we had been preparing for. The church in Ibague (our host this first week) has a strong University campus ministry and their goal as a church and campus ministry is to plant a church nearby the University of Tolima campus around the February of 2018 time frame.

These students are on fire for Jesus.

We are so blessed to have come alongside them to participate in this conference as a way to outreach other students. The conference's topic was " How to become a better university student".  Diego,  a medical student and leader of the campus ministry led a session on leadership qualities and pursuit of excellence.

I got to lead the final session on character and spiritual development.  I was still full from that lunch but it didn't slow me down as I shared my testimony and encouraged the students to look to Jesus for spiritual life.

After the session the local campus ministry students followed up with students that wanted to learn more about spiritual life.  A total of 20 new students agreed to a 1 - 1 follow up meeting with campus ministry students. This was a big boost for the group and the response was beyond their expectations!

After the conference on the way back to the bus, as an expression of love and thanksgiving to the Lord, the US team sang "I love you Lord" at the entrance of the school campus in the middle of food vendors and students.

People applauded as we gave glory to God.

Great day, Lord. Thanks!

With a Pause for Prayer

Day 4

Written by Josh

So tired. One of the greatest pleasures of serving God is the ability to rest your head knowing that the day had a positive eternal impact. Today was there was no doubt for any member of our team.

We began our day going to La Paz, a colegio (think Jr, High) that we have visited every year. When we first went to schools 7 years ago we hit 3-5 every day for a week! This year we only planned this one colegio. By acting strategically we were able to spend time with the students, build relationships in a day, strengthen those contacts by immediately connecting people with the young leaders at the local church, and the school has been impacted so much by our visits over the years that we had complete license to preach and defend the faith openly! 

This is astounding in a culture dominated by Humanism. 

Two, hour long sessions with small classes went deep and drove truth into the students' greatest doubts, challenges in life and issues with Christianity. There was so much happening that I'm going to shift gears so that it doesn't sound like a list. 

Instead, I want to touch on those cultural difficulties I mentioned. Many people here reject faith at the mention of it. Notice I said the mention of faith and not Jesus or even God. Just the word, "faith" prompts a negative response! It is completely unreasonable but it's what is pounded into them as good reason. Homes are especially difficult places for those who do not live in a house where every family member believes. 

Faith is seen as a distraction from important things in the real world.  

I believe this is a spiritual stronghold and I ask those who are covering us in prayer to intercede on this point. In particular, we will be heading to the University tomorrow night for a conference and we need the atmosphere to be impacted so that the Spirit can move in truth. Thank you again for praying.

Our final task tonight was a church service where our team led worship, brought the Word, and moved in power as we followed the Holy Spirit in a joyful family reunion! Before it began, we had dinner at Pastor Juan Carlos' house.

The meals at this table are some of the most powerful times of every trip.

This is where relationships go deep, get real, and are enriched by loads of laughter. I'm so thankful to come from a church where fellowship is understood to be an essential element of strength for the people of God. We stay true to this belief on mission trips. In fact, we've been told that eating together with our hosts is one of the most personally impactful things we do for the leaders we go to serve alongside. These times demonstrate the reality that we are family, and we serve the Kingdom as equals.

On the way back to our hotel I enjoyed stealing Hannah's spot again (3rd time so far) and the team was just giddy with the strength of experiencing the presence of God in way that brought different individuals, from different people groups, who speak different languages together as one family! 

Oh yeah.

Growing Little Seeds

August 15th 

Written by Kajsa

Hola!

This is the second day in Ibague and we are loving getting back to the rhythm of meeting with old friends and playing music and eating wonderful food. It seems like we are jumping right back in where we left off, yet that is so far off. I am observing such change in our friends' lives. We see them preaching and ministering in big ways now. God definitely keeps working after we leave each year. 

In the morning we went to a University to talk to students and invite them to an event we are hosting on the campus on Thursday. It seems like a straightforward task that even we could do in our broken Spanish, however, there were these bugs! The sound they produced was like an army of boiling tea kettles that nobody cared to go attend to. The students were so used to it somehow. So we shouted our way through the morning. But! Besides that it was such a special time to go along side our Colombian brothers and sisters and watch them talk to the students. They were so happy to talk to students and jump right into the "Do you believe in God?" questions. I hope to see a lot of the students again on Thursday to follow up with them. 

CHICHARAS

Afterwards we went off to lunch with a small pack of students. When I would ask who a student was they often replied "oh he is a disciple of so and so...". The relationships are so intentional. Everything is done here with such commitment and expectation. Cal gave a talk to everyone about defining our hope, purpose and truth through the lens of Jesus. 

In the afternoon we hosted some workshops for members of the church that were involved with the worship team. Hannah explained to the large group at the beginning how we make worship an encounter with God by listening to the Holy Spirit. 

This day of the mission trip was a testimony to how God grew the little seeds we planted over the last years in Colombia. This church is now making the disciples, playing the worship music, and committing themselves to truth. 

Adios,

      Kajsa

Flexibility, Challenge, and Joy

Day 2 

So much happened our first day out that I could not possibly try to encapsulate it in one post. Instead, allow me to discuss the practical expression of three mission standards. 

First off, our entire itinerary for this week has changed. No joke, every single thing we had planned has been altered in some way. Welcome to mission work. Blessed are the flexible. Some aspects of our work have simply been moved around, others deleted, and still others have increased in priority. In addition, where some doors have closed, other doors have been flung wide! 

Bright and early, the first change was to find that Lilliana and her son, Santiago, had come to ride the mountain pass with us. This was our first reunion with our extended family thus far and it was excellent! The next change brought a challenge along with it. After two days of traveling, our hosts surprised us with a ministry opportunity right off the highway. We thought we were headed to a hotel to change, freshen up, and eat lunch. Instead, we found ourselves stepping of the bus and into a school assembly at a place that's similar to a community college. We scrambled, gave some testimonies, Hannah & Caleb did a song with a make shift sound set-up, and Pablo brought the Word. 

Oh, and did I mention it was hot? It was.

What happened next was a little fantastic. We engaged in the standard meet and greet kind of thing with a few incredible stories of people who had been touched by God.

The final piece of today's pie consists of the various means God brought joy to our team. It seemed that half of the day was spent basking in the triumphs of seeing the fruit of our labor from years past. The power of what the Holy Spirit has done in a few years is simply unbelievable! Or at least it would be if we hadn't witnessed it ourselves. Then there was the simple joy of seeing our forever family. From a few of them packing our little bus to ride with us after the assembly, to catching up on our lives, to laughing at whatever, to being asked to share in the birthday party of the two-year old daughter of someone we didn't know 7 years ago. 

Family is a beautiful gift from God.

With the new schedule, tomorrow we'll be heading to the University for some campus evangelism, then Cal will be leading a lunch on defending the faith. Hannah will be leading a worship workshop on following the Holy Spirit, followed by music training for the church teams, and we'll be meeting with the Pastor of a new plant to encourage him in his work, and show him that he does not labor alone. 

No one is alone in Christ. There are no boundaries or barriers for the love of God and it's a wonderful task to put that sentiment into action.

Vanilla Bean and Chocolate Sauce

Day 1 August 13 2017 

Written by Cal

Today we started the journey in the same fashion that we usually do. It is becoming quite routine nowadays. This is our sixth time returning to Colombia (seventh to South America) as a full team since 2011. All of the team members have been to Colombia before. We slowly trickle into the MSP TERMINAL 1. Josh, Mark, Kajsa, Pablo, Hannah, Caleb, and I make up the completed team this year. 

You have to already know that with three full time ministers, two elders, two deacons, a worship team, and two interns that there is no down time for us. By the time I got through the checkpoint (having been stopped to have my starbursts double checked for any funny business) we were already in ministry mode. Talks of apologetics, podcasts, and ministries were already blooming. We are veterens. There's no need to stop and wait for the Holy Spirit to guide us - He's been guiding us the whole time. We are completely aware of His presence with us. 

We now await the much longer flight to Bogota, Colombia from the monstrous ATL airport. Nerves are calm, but we are nervous as to where we sit on the plane. For such long flights aisle seats are hot commodities. Luckily Pablo is in a good mood because of his vanilla bean gelato and chocolate sauce. As Pablo would jokingly say, "We are suffering for the Lord." 

It does not matter what tangents we find ourselves on we always find our way back to the heart of the mission. Whether we are practicing Spanish or telling stories of mission trips before we are building up excitement for seeing our brothers and sisters whom we love so very much. Mark's announcement that Pastora Lilliana will be meeting us in the morning for our bus ride through the mountains from Bogota to Ibague was met with cheers. We are so excited to see them. It's hard to not cry knowing that Jesus has givin us forever friends from around the world. Knowing that my dear friend Cristian is merely a day away brings so much joy and hope into my heart. 

See you soon my Colombian Family. 

 

What We Know

Heading out on a mission trip requires a lot of work ahead of time but there is no aspect of preparation as important as prayer. A week before we leave we know we'll be traveling to three cities, we know we'll be leading workshops, we know we'll be teaching ESL, we know we'll be talking about Jesus with everyone we meet, and we know we'll be joining in worship with churches. There are many more things we know but it is key to note that we also know we will be used in unexpected ways.

If there is one predictable aspect of mission trips it's that they are unpredictable. I think every trip I've been on has taught the team that flexibility is as essential as passion. We have to be ready to minister in a moment, to have our daily schedule rearranged for any reason, and to act as ambassadors for Christ every waking second. All of this is heightened because of our short-term commitment to lay all other responsibilities aside and invest in this mission. 

That kind of commitment is not possible without prayerful preparation.

It began a long time ago with our prayerful consideration to commit to the team and this particular mission trip. God has provided all of us with jobs, families, finances, and other responsibilities that we must seek release from in order to commit to the coming time frame. Next, under the leadership of the team, we prayerfully build a mission that will effectively serve the churches for this short amount of time. Our desire is not to bring our own agenda but to invest in and amplify the work of those who are faithfully committed to that mission field long after we travel back to ours. In the months leading up to lift off we prayerfully get ourselves organized for our assigned tasks as team members.

Now, in the final week, we are all keenly aware of the need to intensify our prayer. Yes, we need to be ready for anything, but we just need to be ready. Our attitudes, our covering, our sensitivity to the Spirit, and our health must be primed for non-stop action. That amount of spiritual preparation requires a joining with the rest of our family. Thank you for sending us out. Thank you for being with us. We know we will be needed on the ground. We need the church to know that they are needed in the air. What we know is that God is good and we are not alone. He has a mission for us to accomplish and He has provided us with a household who now actively supports us by sending us out in power.