12Stone Colombia Blog

OMD!! this is this is the Colombian OMG... it stands for Oh My Dio! :) I have to say, to anyone reading this that supported myself or another member, thank you. Today was our first experience REALLY digging in with the locals... I mean this both physically and spiritually! My team, Team La Chinita, transformed a local park and rebuilt it! The hardest part today was cutting the grass with "machete's as sharp as 2x4's" and flat head shovels. But we were working along side 25-30 local community members and church members HELPING them to fix their problems. Our main goal here is to not give them anything that would only fix a problem temporarily, but instead to help them realize that they can make a difference on their own, and can keep doing that, with the power of God and his Son walking and working right beside them. Ths playground/park is in a peculiar spot, right next to a road alot like Ga20 (in Gwinnett) or 278 (in Covington) and had a police department right in the middle of it. We painted as we repaired, we hung lights so that the illegal activity and the promiscuity that was taking place would be more visible, making the park a less attractive place for "unwanted's" and more attractive to the children!!
Speaking of children... As most of the supporters know already, the area that we are working in is full of kids! I found out that the most popular age for having children here is 16... in the USA, although it is becoming more of a regular occuance, 16 y/o mothers are still looked down upon! So that was a major learning moment for me today... which leads us into one of the main ideas that the local churches are trying to instill in people, and that is an idea of self value, and values in general! hopefully our evangelistic outreach will assist them in changing their way of life within the specific community!
As far as I go, my day was tiring, but it was also quite rewarding! After the work part was down, the talk part began.... myself and team member Bon Qui Qui Kelsey and our translators headed over to a family that was sitting on their porch. They had sent one of the younger girls over to tell us they wanted to talk with us. We are finding that many of the locals want to talk to us simply because we are white, and because our eyes are different colors than theirs... but this is our way in the door that! so we spoke with this family for about 30 minutes, finding out that they are a believing family. One of the girls, Estephany (13) told me that she leads a study group for her and her friends every saturday. This blew me away because most 13 yo's dont have the courage or the knowledge to minister to their friends... so I gave her my "evagycube"... I actually helped this girl minister to a younger neighborhood girl a little later in the day! The younger girl said that she believed in God at first, but came back after Estephany had spoken to her and asked me and the translator to pray for/with her because she wanted to be a true believer and Christian, following Jesus and being a child of God. With her, we prayed for 4 or five other children about 10-13 y/o. As I was describing the pictures and asking the little boy in front of me if he understood who Jesus was, and if he wanted to pray to recieve Christ as his Savior, an old man, who had originally been asking for food and money, raised his hand. I hope I paint a really good picture of this old man because in the USA you will never see this. This man had a tumor that covered 4/5's of his stomach, and as a begging tool he showed it to everyone. His right eye was all but gone.. it looked like a grey blue marble sitting way too far back in his head to even be an eye! His hands were crippled and dirt covered him from head to toe.. But he raised his hand, asking to be allowed to pray with us and the children, to be a Christian believer in the Love of Jesus and the salvation that he offers. so I grabbed three translators and together we brought them all "to the good side!"...

walking through the hood.

Capt. Kelsey Bon Qui Qui

local house/business-mechanic

cutting the grass at the park

painting the bench after replacing the bottom four slats

a couple of local kids interested in Americans

the local pastor cooking us lunch

the translator nicknamed Kevin Queen!

 Estephany explaining to the little girl about Christ  (she is right in the middle of the picture on the right side with her hair pulled back)

...We hopped a bus and headed back to the hotel, promising to return to the neighborhood tomorrow, which we will... We will be painting a couple walls that are covered in grafiti and gang affiliated markings, painting bible versus over them to help remind the children of the community about the churches that exist within their neighborhoods. These paintings will be childrens storys from the Bible and I think will list out the values that the community leaders have decided to prioitize. Again, I will add some pictures of the days events, so I hope everyone that is reading this will be able to experience what I am seeing and living right now, through this blog. Adios!!