From Bogota we travelled to a farm just outside the city of Armenia. As it was a working farm I got to milk a cow and drink lots of fresh milk which was a welcome change from UHT milk! One evening we went into the city of Armenia and brought lots of fresh bread and spent time talking to and sharing with some of the city’s homeless folk. This was done in partnership with a local church who are planning to continue the work on an ongoing basis.
From Armenia we travelled south west to the city of Cali, the home of salsa. We stayed in a retreat house which had over 100 beds (so we each got a whole bunk bed to ourselves!) and hurrah I got to swim in the pool every morning too. The team has had lots of opportunities to bless the inhabitants of Cali (see below for a couple of examples) and be blessed in return. The church we have been working with called Rey de Reys (King of Kings) have been incredibly generous and have hosted us for free including all our food.
At the base I have been busy helping wash the pots for the team and looking after Zoe, our team leader’s two year old to give her parents a couple of days away. I was also part of the team who spoke at the Sunday church service which was great.
One of my most privileged moments was meeting Ruth Rubal whose husband, Julio was killed and martyred in 1995 as a direct result of their work in helping seeing Cali’s drug lords overturned and Cali’s drug use decrease. I remember watching a film called ‘Transformations’ about 10 years ago regarding communities which had been impacted by churches working together and seeing God move in power – Julio and Ruth’s church were featured in this and so it was fantastic to be able to meet Ruth in person and hear from her experience and wisdom.
Last Friday, us ladies had the privilege of visiting South America’s largest and one of its newest prisons. It took us about three hours to go through all the security checks but it was well worth it when we got to meet the ladies inside and speak and pray with them. Each lady had their own story and many had children who were being cared for by relatives.
That same evening we went out late at night armed with drinks, cakes and desserts for the sex workers on the streets of Cali. Many of them would only accept food that was packaged as there had been an incident whereby they had been offered food which was poisoned in an effort to ‘clean up the streets’. Thankfully it was great to be part of a hugely positive alternative offering the hand of friendship, generosity and prayer.
To thank us for all our work in Cali, we were thrown a salsa party on Saturday night complete with a BBQ. Whilst I was slightly disappointed not to be able to boogie to any 80s classics, I did try to salsa although not very successfully!! The last couple of days we have been working on cleaning and maintenance of the vehicles before we head to Ecuador and jungle territory!
Thank you for reading! Love and miss you all lots x
