Category Colombia Spring 2011

Todo gloria a ti Dios! All the glory to you God. This entire trip has vastly exceeded our wildest expectations and today was the crowning glory. I will attempt to share how awesome our God was today but as you know He defies words. Several weeks ago our brother and fellow board member Shoby had lunch with a Colombian man, Jair, who is in ministry in Houston and the Lord really knitted their spirits together. When Jair found out we were coming to Colombia he sent Bill Byrd the name of his former pastor and his wife here in Bogota. We connected with the wife, Lilliana on Facebook and they were very excited to meet us and invited us to their church today. When we called Lilliana yesterday she said, “Oh, I have been praying and praying that you would come!” They started this church 10 months ago and it is thriving. It is called Comunidad Cristiana Fundamentos. Three of the Goddaughters were able to come with us and so we arrived at this church about 10:00 am. Other than Lilliana, Jair’s friend, whom we had spoken to on Facebook, we knew no one there or so we thought. How wonderful for God to surprise us again because as we walked in we saw several of our dear friends from Fundacion Nuevo Mundo! We hugged and then met Lilliana and her husband Pastor Hector and many new friends there at the church. It was beautiful. There were even a couple of our young friends from the safe house that always visit on our mission trips. Tears welled up in my eyes as I looked over this beautiful congregation of Colombian believers whose faces were beaming because they were so excited that the Americanos had come to worship with them today. Shortly after we walked in I got another surprise. Pastors Hector and Lilliana asked me if I had come prepared to preach the word today. At first I thought they meant a small testimony about Orphan Hope so I said, “Sure, how much time do you want me to share” To my great surprise and joy they said, “Oh, 30 or 45 minutes would be fine.” I immediately thought, “I wish I had brought some sermon notes.” Then I looked down and saw my laptop bag in my hand and laughed at myself because I have all of my sermons on my computer. Praise God! Be ready in season and out of season… I quickly shot a text to everyone in my family at home and said, “Pray for me, I’m about to preach on the waterfall of grace in a church in Colombia!” Then I turned to my dear brother Luis and said, “Are you ready to preach with me?” And like he always does he said, “I got your back brother!” Whoo hoo! We gathered for worship and the pastors daughter led worship with her guitar and it was so anointed I started weeping and I thought, “Lord, how am I going to preach if I’m crying like this?” It was indescribable worshipping with these believers. The songs we knew but they were in Spanish but they had the words up on the wall so we were able to sing along fairly well. There was reading of scripture, and exhortation and then it was my turn. Luis and I stepped up and began to share about the amazing grace of God. The Holy Spirit helped us greatly and there were amens, and applause, and tears, and raised hands and it was a blessed time as we shared a Cascada de Gracia or Waterfall of Grace. You can click on the title to hear the sermon. I shared my testimony and then told about my 8 trips to Colombia and of our vision for the nations. Luis did a tremendous job translating for me and then also gave his testimony of standing on the stage at our Share the Hope event in December and looking out at 340 Texans who were gathered to help the orphans of his country and how that moved him and touched him. The people were very moved by his story. After a few people gave testimonies about the message. One lady stood weeping and told us that she had been orphaned at 7 years old and that she was so grateful for what we were doing for the orphans in Colombia and she wanted to help. Another lady was crying because she had her son taken away three years ago and now she has given her life to the Lord and been transformed and she is working to get her son back. She said she wants to help. A man stood who is one of our friends from the orphanage and told how wonderful the work we do is and how the children wait out the months until we return again and how happy we make them. Then a lady came forward with a little boy in her arms that suffers from hip displacement and asked Luis and I to pray for his healing. We laid hands on him and prayed. Then the most amazing thing happened. Our friend from Nuevo Mundo stood and she was weeping and she looked straight at me and said, “I want to praise God for Matt’s heart and for the vision that this ministry has for Colombia. 16 years ago when I was a new believer I heard a foreign preacher in a conference say, ‘I believe that God is drawing people form around the world to Colombia because it is going to be His headquarters for reaching the rest of Latin America. I believe there is a great revival coming to Colombia.'” and then she continued, “I have been praying for 16 years for that revival and I believe that you are the answer to my prayers.” I looked over at Dave and Gail Beach because it was almost word for word what we had said to each other before coming on the trip and it was almost word for word with what Ed said to us on the plane on the way down. Dave’s face was bright red and he looked at me and I looked at him knowing that the hair was standing up on the back of his neck like it was on mine. Bill was smiling from ear to ear. I looked over at Luis and he just shook his head and smiled. We then spent some time hugging and kissing everyone in the room (which is Colombian custom) and then getting photos with everyone. It was over the top blessed. We sat down with Pastor Hector and Lilliana and talked about the future. Amazingly enough, he is also a psychologist who works in an orphanage and she is an educator. They offered their help and time and they want to come on the mission trip in June. It is unbelievable how precious these people and their two daughters that we met are. They will be great assets in our ministry. As we broke up our meeting with them we made plans to bring our whole team to their church on June 19, 2011 and invite some other local Christians that we know here in Bogota and bring in lunch and have a wonderful day of it with God’s people here. They were very excited and asked me to preach again when we come. I agreed but we told them that we also want to hear Pastor Hector as well so we agreed to split our time and both bring a message that day! I can hardly wait! Praise God! The next personal blessing was as we were walking out Luis called me over and introduced me to Sophia. She shared that she is a linguist and a translator for the Colombian army. Today was her first time at the church and she called it a miracle that she was even there. She told me that she started weeping when I prayed before my sermon and didn’t stop until the end. She said that when I prayed for the Holy Spirit to anoint my lips and their ears that she felt the presence of God surround her. Then she said something that was very touching for me personally. She said that the part of my sermon about multi-generational discipleship and the fact that one family can change the world really impacted her because she believes that the revival that is coming to Colombia as shared in the prophecy by the other lady must begin in the family and she was glad that I told about my family because God has prepared me to heal the families of Colombia. Wow!! What a service!

What sweeter way to start the day than having a group of orphan girls come bouncing into the hotel just as we were finishing breakfast? We shared hugs and kisses all the way around and then pulled out the gifts that we and others had sent for the girls. It is a joy unspeakable every time we are in the presence of these sweet little forgotten lambs. I was touched beyond words when my sweet Goddaughter Ginary, who just spent 3 weeks with my family in December, squeezed me tight and said, “I love you” in English. No success, money, position, rank, or earthly treasure can compete with the joy these children bring me and the rest of our team each time we are here. They were delighted with their gifts and we shared some catching up stories and then it was time to head out to our first meeting with the girls in tow.

We had received word that there was a safe house (there are only 3 or 4 in all of Bogota) that we hadn’t heard of or visited before and so we headed out to find it and see if we could tour it and find out how they run their home. We pulled up to the nondescript brick building tucked in a row of similar buildings along this street. We rang the bell and to our utter surprise and amazement our sweet friend Lilliana opened the door. She was as shocked to see us as were to see her. What a sweet little providence that in a city of 8,000,000 people, we go to a strange house and our friend answers the door. Lilliana used to work at the girls orphanage in Madrid that we always visit on our mission trips. She was a big help to two of the girls that are or will be adopted soon. Anyhow, unbeknownst to us, Lilliana had began working at this new safe house 4 months ago because it was much closer to her home. She gave us a tour of the home and shared with us many important pieces of information that go together like a giant puzzle with the other things we have been learning this week. We really admired their model and many of their strategies. It was a very profitable meeting. They also have orphanages as well and she begged us to bring our team to their orphanages the next time we come.

We took the girls to lunch and then to the park for a relaxing afternoon of horseplay, and hugs, and jokes, and some testimony. It never ceases to amaze me at the transformation in these children just because we have reached out as the hands of Jesus to love them and share with them our passion for God. My own Goddaughter Ginary has become a secure, content, and hopeful young woman since my family met her and made her a part of our long distance family 2 years ago. Ginary grew up in the dump rummaging for scraps. Consequently, when I met this beautiful girl she was completely illiterate. Because she was excited to have a Godfather and wanted so bad to be able to communicate with me she finally agreed at the age of 15 to start school and learn to read and write. Now she is well on her way and very motivated. She told me today that she can’t be with me tomorrow morning because she has school but she will come after lunch when school lets out and spend the afternoon with me. Wow! Such a change in a short period of time. The love of God demonstrated through His children is a very powerful agent of hope and change. Praise God.

Luis Escobar’s dad lives 1/2 the year in Bogota and the other 1/2 in Florida and he was in town today so Luis invited him to join our merry band for dinner. We had a marvelous time and it was really sweet to watch Luis’ dad enjoy the girls and perhaps catch a little of the vision of what his son is trying to do for the children of Colombia. He ended up buying our dinner and assured us that we would see him again. What a blessing!

It was a wonderful day and we came back to my room for some strategy and prayer and then off to bed. Thank you all who are supporting us in so many ways. We love you all.

Another wonderful day today in the presence of the Lord and some of His choice soldiers. We started out the day with a meeting at the national headquarters of ICBF. We met with the head of adoptions for the nation of Colombia and her assistant for 2 1/2 hours regarding our upcoming Texas Vacation Program. We obtained the answers to many of our questions and learned many new things about the vacation and adoption processes in Colombia. Some amazing statistics came through today that play right into everything Orphan Hope is working on. There are 27,000 adoptable orphans in Colombia between the ages of 8 and 15. The shocking thing is that this represents only about 20% of the total number of children in orphanages in Colombia and that larger number only represents the small portion of orphans who are in orphanages. No one knows the number of orphans living on the streets and in the sewers. Children On The Brink estimated the total to be 577,000 in 2005 but the people we have talked to here say that it is in the millions. This is why we must continue to bring mission trips here and have vacation programs and facilitate adoptions. And here is the reason we must have safe houses once the children age out of the orphanages at 18. Every year in Colombia 5000 children age out, 800 a year in Bogota alone. 15% of these kids will commit suicide within two years and another 60% will end up in prostitution or prison. This is why we are here. We must work and push and pray to help these beautiful children to find Jesus and have a life in His grace. We cannot look the other way and pretend that it is someone else’s problem. God has clearly called and equipped us to turn this country upside down for Him and we must obey.

We had a marvelous meeting and they were very complimentary of our vacation program last December and the adoptions and Padrinos that came out of it. They said that the older girls who couldn’t be adopted came back on fire for education and felt like they were not alone in the world! Then they said something that we kind of knew but it stunned us to hear them say it. They said, “You know, before you guys started coming Colombia’s Padrino program was solely internal in this country. Then you Texans started coming down and becoming Padrinos and then you helped us develop a program so that we had a defined, national Padrino program, and now we are taking that program to other agencies and other countries from what you guys started here.” We were stunned. God took some ordinary guys and gals over the last 4 years who came to Colombia and fell in love with some kids and wanted to have a way to take them out of the orphanage and spend family time with them and were committed to coming again and again and used them to change the program of an entire nation and develop something that will impact hundreds of children in the next few years. Who says ordinary people can’t change the world?

We left there giddy with what God is doing for us at national government levels and went to have lunch with 2 dear brothers from Fundacion Nuevo Mundo that we partner with here and we spent the whole afternoon learning from him about safe houses and orphanages and Jesus and spiritual warfare and facts and figures. It was amazing! We strategized about how we can work together in Bogota to impact more children. It was over the top anointed and we left there with a greater sense of urgency and surety that we were on the right path and working with the right people. We left there giddy with the possibilities and rejoicing at the people and counsel and help and resources that God continues to send us as we take one step of faith at a time. On the way to the restaurant for our dinner meeting we babbled about multiple safe houses and short, mid, and long term missionaries and interns and bringing radical sold out for Jesus college kids down to work in the streets and alliances with Christian ministries and Tres Dias Colombia and how it would be our training for servant leaders and on and on. “I AM the Lord! Is there anything to hard for me?” Dream Center Bogota anyone? 🙂

At our dinner meeting we met with the directors of two orphanages and our in country team and just had a wonderful time of fellowship and fun. We talked about old times and dreamed about the future and God just strengthened these relationships all around. It was a blessed time.

We came back to the hotel beat but blessed beyond words. We all gathered up in Luis and my room for prayer and some more dream building and strategizing and then drifted of to bed. God is doing this, it is huge, and we are tremendously blessed to be a part. Thank you all for your love and prayers.

We all said, “What a miraculous 48 hours this has been and we have 48 more hours to go! Tomorrow we go to visit a new safe house and learn from them and then we are having lunch with the Goddaughters!!! and spending the rest of the day with them. Sunday we have several ministries to meet with and the Goddaughters will be with us all day. Praise God.

I was so tired and weak last night as I was writing my Flight Down segment that I forgot a very big providence that occurred on the plane as well. Not long into our conversation with Jose, he handed us back a magazine with an article about orphans and said, “I just read this today and it sounds so much like what you guys are doing it is uncanny, you have to read it.” So we all read it and were amazed. It was about a fellow in London in 1843 that started a Safe House to take in street kids and disciple them for Christ. He started with one and then another and another and eventually 60,000 children came through his houses and many became doctors and lawyers and politicians, etc. So many things about the article were exactly what we have talked and dreamed about. It was a blow by blow description of what we want to do in Bogota. When we all finished the article and finished our oohing and aahing, I turned the magazine to the cover to see what it was and it was a Decision Magazine from the Billy Graham Association dated October 1995! Think about it! God put us right behind a missionary from Canada headed to Colombia who happened to be reading an old magazine from 1995 which happened to have an article about Safe Houses and he happened to overhear us talking about our ministry and started up a conversation and then handed the article back to us… Wow. Ok, now about today.

Oh fellow soldiers! Today was a vision expanding, dream building, major mission accomplishing day! Praise the Lord. Our team on this trip is, Bill and Sandy Byrd, Dave and Gail Beach, Luis Escobar and me. It has been a delight and honor to be here with these sweet saints. They are big thinkers and a huge encouragement to me. Our first order of business today was a meeting with our in country team. We had a wonderful 6 hour meeting where we finalized plans for our Texas Vacation Program this summer, and plans to open our first Safe House in Bogota. Some of our time was pure vision casting. Thinking and talking way outside the box and into the “miracle gap” as Matthew Barnett calls it. We talked about multiple safe houses, we talked about the prostitutes that stand on the street corners in south Bogota trying to sell their babies and strategies that we might employ some day to impact them. We talked wildly about our BIG God and what could be done in this city of 8,000,000 people for the Kingdom of our Savior. We talked about discipleship, and job training, and education, and staff, and young people coming down as interns, and 6 and 12 months missionaries coming down to minister. It was RADICAL and biblical and super enjoyable. We were able to get clarity on many details and that was very exciting as well. Our team was so like minded and harmonious and we just felt the Holy Spirit guiding the conversation and pushing us forward. Thank you Lord for sweet confirmation at every turn. After the meeting we drove to the headquarters of ICBF, (translated it means the Department of Colombian Family Welfare) and had a meeting with the representative that the Colombian government has assigned to assist us in establishing our first Safe House. He was a wonderful man and we talked about many subjects relating to helping Colombian children. The most encouraging thing though was as I was explaining about how God had drawn us to Colombia, his face brightened and he said, “You are Christians?” and we said, “yes” and he said, “wonderful, welcome to Colombia, we are excited about working with you because you will bring the example and the values that our children need.” He was very excited and animated and it just warmed our hearts that of all the people that could have been chosen to be our government representative, God has chosen this man who was excited about working with Christians. Thank you God. We left that meeting and went looking at properties for a potential Safe House. It was very exciting. One house we looked at was suggested by our in country representatives mother. I have met this mother and she is a radical believer. Well, this mother gets this feeling that she should go check out this one neighborhood in Bogota and so she drives through it and sees this house with a For Sale sign on it and calls her daughter and says, “I have found your Safe House.” 🙂 We don’t know anything about the property yet but it is exciting that people are out there looking for us. As we are driving through the neighborhoods Bill Byrd says, “Do they have any abandoned hospitals for sale?” (You would have to read the new book “The Cause Within You” by Matthew Barnett to get the full impact of the radical nature of that question) We all laughed at Bill as the goosebumps popped out on my arms… “I AM the Lord, is there anything to hard for me?”

We finished up the evening with more dream building talk and rejoiced that our little team had operated today so harmoniously, and with such shared faith and urgency, and that we had enjoyed the very real presence of God all day. To Him be the glory.

I usually don’t start my blog of each trip until the first full day but the plane ride down was so eventful and providential that I had to say something. Bill had arranged for all of us to sit together on the plane and so we were enjoying dream building and vision casting for the future of Orphan Hope, sharing things we were reading, and generally discussing what God was doing through us and around us. Suddenly the man in front of Dave, Gail, and I turned around and introduced himself as Jose. He was born in Mexico but went to Christ For The Nations college in Canada and stayed. He was on his way to Bogota with a team called New Beginnings International Christian Society that does camps for up to 500 kids all over Colombia. We had a wonderful visit with the whole team and exchanged contact information and ideas about how we might work together in the future to bring Christ to the children of Bogota. It was very exciting to meet with people who are, like us, just people whom God has touched with a radical passion and vision and have just launched out in faith and seen God partner with them in miraculous ways. It was refreshing and confirming for both ministries to hear how similar our stories were. Ed, the leader of the group said something that all of us here at Orphan Hope have felt and said and it made us look at each other when he said it. Ed said, “I believe that God is drawing people and ideas and resources to Colombia because it is going to be His headquarters for reaching the rest of Latin America.” Wow! We have all felt that very definitely and very strongly. I believe with all of my heart and I have felt the Spirit impressing upon me very strongly that we are only looking through the keyhole right now of what God wants to do for us and through us in Colombia and all of Latin America. I have also felt that we cannot ask anything too big from God for this ministry because His passion, vision, and urgency for this ministry is way ahead of ours. Like a patient Father, He is allowing us to see a little at a time until we catch up to Him in full faith and vision. It is mind blowing exciting and we all agreed on the plane tonight that we are very grateful and humbled to be on His team. Praise God!