Category Colombia

So pre-travel (and by that I mean pre-complete change of life as you know it in my case) anxiety is normal. But bursting into tears from stress three hours before I was to embark on the greatest adventure of my life seemed a bit dramatic to me. Things thus far had not gone exactly as I had planned and on thursday night as I lay on my bed trying to catch a nap, Satan was having his last try at discouraging me. All the reality and fear of the situation began to creep into my mind, “What am I doing??? What if I fail?? Was quitting my job, quitting school, and walking away from everything I know a mistake? Was God really orchestrating all of this or was it all in my head?” All of these thoughts and doubts finally pushed me to melt into a pathetic puddle of tears. But thank God for the best family ever who instead of encouraging my pity party, dragged my sobbing self into the living room for some much-needed prayer and worship time. Jumping forward lets just say everything, and when I say everything I mean every single thing, that could have gone wrong trying to get to Bogota went wrong…. I finally escaped the Bogota airport at about 6:00 am and was able to reconnect with some close friends, It was such a relief to see some familiar faces.

That evening after some rest la pastora (wife of the pastor of the church I am working with) and I started off to, according to what I was told, a girls retreat in the city. Three hours later still driving I began to wonder where exactly they were taking me. If I didn’t know better I would have expected I was being kidnapped seeing as though we were literally out in the jungle of colombia. But I soon learned that the retreat was being held at a little club outside of a tiny pueblo. The place was absolutely breath-taking. A view that could literally bring tears to your eyes. It was definitely one of those places that brings to mind Psalm 19:1. The camp is owned by a Colombian missionary who preaches all over the world in different churches and through a direct calling from The Lord had purchased that little camp and built it into what it is now for the specific purpose of ministering to pastors and spiritual leaders. A place for them to rest and refresh their relationship with God. After a tour and some history about the place, the pastor’s wife and another amazing woman of God sat me down and prayed over me like I have never been prayed for in my life. God was moving strongly already and I had barely been in Colombia one day. We spent the rest of that day decorating los salones for the girls to come and receive the word and pray. Well, I say we decorated but really, since they were unable to communicate with me well their wishes, I was handed a bag of tangled decorations and asked to organize them…. Finally something that didn’t require communication. Fifty or so girls arrived on buses at about 9:30 pm and were immediately ushered to their separate meeting rooms for some Bible time and prayer. One for little girls and another for older girls. When it was finally time to go to bed I don’t even remember laying my head down. I had no idea what God had in store those next two days.

On saturday morning I jerked awake in a panic trying to remember where I was. Judging by the soft chuckles I heard, it must have been quite amusing to the three women who were sitting near my pallet on the living room floor. I hurried to shower and get ready. I was a little behind since the rest of the camp leaders had been up since 5 am but I didn’t feel too bad seeing as though I had gotten next to no sleep the day before. We had a full day of testimonies and presentations. I spent the first day with the older girls and wow, God really moved that day. The messages were about inner beauty vs. outer beauty, God’s calling in on our lives as women, also on abuse and how to find healing and freedom from that. This particular subject is very near to my heart. About five years ago God put a burning in my soul for abused women and children, especially the children of Colombia and on more than one occasion a tear came to my eye during that message… I was not the only one.

At the end they invited the girls to write a trauma from their past on a piece of paper and hold it while we prayed, and if you have never heard Colombians pray then you cannot imagine the power and passion with which they cry out to God. I was invited to join the other Jefes in praying over the girls which I had never done before but was super blessed to be a part. As I was praying over one girl, she began to cry profusely and refused to be comforted just hid her face in my shoulder and wept for a good 15 minutes. She began to cry so hard at one point she almost fell on the floor, thankfully most Colombians are small and I was able to hold her up. I just let her cry and prayed that God would relieve her of the past and give her a hope and a future Jeremiah 29:11. At the end the leaders and I took the little papers from the girls and threw them into a bucket filled with water, I guessed to signify how God’s love washed that pain and hurt away.

Sunday I spent with the little girl group, and after a full day of adventures (hiking, scout drills, almost being drowned in the pool) we finished the day with another time of prayer for these precious little ones, I started from one side and went from tiny head to tiny head praying blessings and protection over them and when the words would not come I would just sing over them in english. Well before I knew it I was handed the microphone and asked to sing for the whole group. I was more than glad to do it, it’s amazing to me that something as small as an english voice could bring so much excitement and joy to those little faces. God is so good, and He is working in Colombia. Please, Please continue to pray for these precious people and the work that we will be doing together with God’s children. Next weekend I am going to be a part of the same camp but this time for boys, please pray that God will move in the hearts of the kids and also the adults working on these camps, we all need so much more of Him.

“I will call upon your name, and keep my eyes above the waves, when oceans rise my soul will rest in Your embrace for I am Yours, and You are mine”

Love Brooke

Photos of Brooke’s work in Colombia

Like many missionaries, Brooke has no source of income other than love gifts from home.

If you would like to support Brooke you can mail a check to:

Mission Critical International

11743 Northpointe Blvd #1025

Tomball, TX 77377

Give online below.

100% of your tax exempt gift will go to Brooke in Colombia.

[lightbox full=”https://missioncriticalintl.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/IMG_5322-e1400786828512.jpg” thumb=”https://missioncriticalintl.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/IMG_5322-e1400786828512.jpg” title=”Brooke Bullen” /]

I grew up as a PK (Pastor’s Kid) so serving God with your life and everything you have came natural to me in the beginning and just seemed like the normal flow of life. However, the thought of being a missionary in another country was never appealing to me. Obviously there was more than enough work to be done here in the United States and leaving your home, life, and comforts was for the “Hero” Christians, not for little me who was of no great significance to anyone.

All of that changed one day when I heard the story of Bruchko, (Bruce Olsen) a young nineteen-year-old missionary to the Motilone Indians of North East Colombia. I had sat under the dull sound of my father reading dry theology books, in my child like opinion, written by even drier, old preachers and missionaries who were all together much too holy for me and way beyond all reason of regular life. But one night somehow my regular routine of solitaire and puzzles that I used to lessen my boredom was interrupted by the enrapturing story of a young man leaving everything he had to follow a passion and a calling that only God could have put in his heart, against all odds and against all “sound judgment” he set off to an unknown, unreached, savage people to share the gospel. To this day I still have no idea why I connected so closely with this Bruchko, but from that night on a hunger began to burn in my soul. I said that night as I lay in my bed, “God if you want me to go somewhere and do something for you, provide the passion and I will do it.”

Two months later my Dad asked me to go to Colombia with him for the first time In January 2010. I was excited, what a great vacation! Leaving the country and being able to see all the things that my father and sisters seemed to endlessly and exhaustingly talk about. Perhaps at last I would be a part of the missions “In crowd” made up of my father and two sisters who had already been broken by the Holy Spirit in Colombia the year before. But unlike them I refused to come back a puddle of tears surging with righteousness. I was going to be tough. I was going to show all of them up as the babies I felt that they were being. By the third day of the trip with not a tear shed and still being able to maintain my hard heart I was quite proud of myself. It wasn’t until I met a little boy named Andres (Andrew) in a tiny orphanage called Pronacer that God finally destroyed my walls, but that is for another story. When I got home I was burning for another chance to go back, I began emailing every one I knew telling them about it trying to get enough money to go back. When I was finally able to return I thought that God had broken my heart before, but He completely demolished my former desires, thoughts, and hardness toward His beautiful children. On that trip June 2010 God told me that I was going to be His missionary in Colombia. I didn’t know how or when but I finally had the desire.

After a couple of years and some hard times though, that passion began to fade and the calling was pushed to the back of my personal closet of plans. Until the summer of 2012 out of shear desperation to reconnect with the heart of God I bought a plane ticket, put in a two month leave of absence at my job and flew to Colombia to work in the orphanages there with the needy children teaching English and encouraging them in the Lord. I can honestly say that it was the happiest and hardest time of my life. God was rebuilding my whole outlook on life and Himself altogether, which is a difficult process when you have grown up in American churches and been fed the milk of the prosperity gospel your entire life. He was showing me what I was put on this earth for. I was desperate for God and His power like never before in my life. I wanted to serve Him so badly I would stay up for hours lying on the floor praying for the children of Colombia. When my time was up and I was finally forced to come home rather than be deported I was heartsick, I felt I had left my home and my family behind. To this day I still have an entire shoebox full of the love letters and pictures the children made for me on my last days there. Of course we parted with many tears, hugs and Colombian cheek kisses with all the promises in the world of my quick return.

But God works in mysterious ways and was not done working on me yet; I had not quite learned all the lessons He had for me. Somewhere amidst the new job and endless banter of friends and even extended family to make something of myself and that I needed to think about me and my life for once (prosperity gospel) I found myself working and going to school busting my back to try and prove to everyone, including myself, that I was something. And again, the passion was forgotten and put aside for the things of this world. But praise God that He didn’t leave me there. He would not allow me to be comfortable in my rebellion and my state of trading His beauty for ashes. I had been fighting His still small voice for almost a year, and then one day my mom was listening to David Platt’s message “Follow Me”. He was talking about how God calls all of us to shake off our modern day beliefs, and pick up our cross and follow Him, to go where He went, to go where He is. I sat down on the couch and began to cry, over and over God had showed me that nothing can satisfy the burning in my soul except Him, and He wanted me to go with Him to Colombia.
 

I am finally going full time to Colombia on June 5th 2014. One way ticket with just my clothes and my Bible to work with my friends Pastors Henry and Mable Castillo in Bogota for the summer and then Enith Diaz in the heart of Medellin, Colombia serving God and His people through, mercy, evangelism, street ministry, homes for children and much more. If anything I ask for prayer, I believe deeply in the power of prayer and crave it more than anything else. Please do that for me and for the people I will be serving. God also has a calling in your life as well as mine. Don’t trade it for anything this world promises. As the song “Empty Me” says, “ ’cause everything is a lesser thing compared to You so I surrender all.”

 

Like many missionaries, Brooke has no source of income other than love gifts from home.

 

If you would like to support Brooke you can mail a check to:

 

Mission Critical International

11743 Northpointe Blvd #1025

Tomball, TX 77377

 

Give online below.

 

100% of your tax exempt gift will go to Brooke in Colombia.

 
 

Day 17 – This morning we went up to beautiful La Calera to take our precious daughter Heidy home. We spent a wonderful morning with her and the girls that she lives with. We took a long walk through this picturesque mountain village and just enjoyed the day. The girls were so cute and fun. We returned to the house and did some painting and English lessons and a wonderful lunch and then it was time to go. Pastor Urrego picked us up and we drove out to the beautiful little mountain village of Sopo where I was to preach that night. We were early so we ate some goodies and drank coffee and enjoyed learning all about the village. When we arrived at the church, the pastor’s 21 year old daughter (who speaks good English) and I had a wonderful visit. One of my favorite things about this ministry is getting to encourage young people for the Lord. Oscar and I preached that night and once again the Lord was there to touch and change lives. 6 visitors came to receive Christ and many many cried out their soul hunger to God. What a blessing. I’ve been invited back to preach at their 15th anniversary in September. Praise the Lord for what He is doing here.

Day 18 – This morning had the privilege of preaching for my dear friend Pastor Juan Carlos Caro in the barrio of Suba. God has done an amazing work here through Juan Carlos and his wife. They came to this very dangerous part of Bogota 7 years ago and have carved a wonderful church out of the rock. They have 4 packed services every Sunday and about 1/2 of each service is young people. He told us story after story of different people in the praise team how they had been on drugs since the age of 8 or their husband was just shot and killed the previous month and yet I’ve never seen people more excited about Jesus. It is a stunning place. I preached in the 9 am and 11 am services and the Holy Spirit was gracious to make His presence powerfully known in each service. What a blessing to pray with the very aged and the very young alike all weeping and crying out for more of Him in their life. It is such a thrill to follow Jesus on His mission among the nations. Today was the last day of this incredible 3 week journey and I can only pray and dream of what my heavenly Father has in store for me next. Thank you all for the prayers and support. Your account in heaven is compounding with excellent fruit. Praise Jesus!

Day 12 – This morning we went up to beautiful La Calera to pick up our precious daughter Heidy so that she can spend the week with us. I never get used to her little yelp and her running and jumping in my arms the first time she sees us. We met with the leaders of the ministry that she lives with and talked about some future plans and then we went to get her a chocolate milk shake which is her favorite. I’ll never forget the first time I bought her one and she looked at me with tears in her eyes because it was so good and she had never had one before so now it is a tradition.

Day 13 – This morning we were blessed to meet up with Juan David and Hillary (another aged out orphan having a very hard time on the streets) and treat them to a ride up the cable car to Monserrate overlooking Bogota. We had a nice lunch and took lots of photos and then they had to go and we met up with our daughter Ginary and her boyfriend Sebastian and our dear friend and Pastor Hector’s nephew Rafael for dinner. We laughed and teased mercilessly and everyone had a grand time. I love being a Papi, Padrino, and Tio to as many of these precious kids as I can. But so many are so desperate and it hurts me that I can’t do more. I always tell them that I am praying and looking for more people in the U.S. to get a consuming passion that will help me help them…

Day 14 – This morning we visited a deaf school. It is the first one of its kind in the city. It was founded by a girl from Texas and she is still there 31 years later. She gave us the grand tour and shared story after story of what God has done. It was amazing. They are working on translating the entire Bible into Colombian sign language videos too. We were so blessed to spend time with her and hear what God is doing. Later we met up with our dear friends Pastors Lucas and Doraynne and their kids and had a wonderful dinner and fellowship. Brooke lived with them for two months in 2012 and considers them her second family. It was a blessed reunion! Pastor Lucas is a leader in a large pastors council here in Bogota and we made some exciting plans for my next preaching trip.

Today we were very excited to head back to Soacha (which was such a blessing to us in September) and meet up with Pastor AC Jordan and Centro Internacional Cristiano. Wow! We were so amazed at what God has done here since we last saw them. Based on some great advice and mentoring from Pastor Timothy Vowell when we were here last time and when he returned in January, Jordan has been building relationships all over the city and God has been sending him people and resources and this place is growing like crazy. He has built a skate park and an auditorium and video room and much more. We were each asked to share our testimony and I couldn’t have been prouder of Heidy and Brooke. Heidy shared how our family had brought her to Christ slowly but surely and how she gave her heart to Jesus at the end of one of my sermons on the last mission trip. Praise God! She now wants to give her life to working with Mission Critical in Colombia helping girls and boys like her to know Jesus. Brooke and I were also interviewed for their new television station! God has given them everything they need but the right camera, a Canon 7D. We are praying that God will use us to get that camera for them.

After we went and had a marvelous dinner with Pastors Hector and Liliana and there precious daughters Heyley and Karoline and liliana’s sister and her sweet little ones at their apartment. We ate and laughed and sang and cut up something fierce. It was blessed and joyous. Heidy again told her testimony and made Pastor Hector cry. What precious friendships we have in this country. God is so good to let us be a part of His mission here.

Day 16 – This morning we visited a brand new ministry 3 years old that cares for disabled children. It is a very neat place and we will definitely be spending some time there are future trips. The husband and wife team that founded it are sweet Christians and we hope to get to know them better. This evening Heidy and I shared our testimonies with a Christian band called Grako (short for Great Commission). My friend and translator, Oscar Useche, is one of the founders and their drummer. We again had a blessed and wonderful time sharing and hearing about their passion for Christ. We then went and had Colombian pizza on the roof around a nice fire. I couldn’t wait to take a photo and share with our Mission Critical board and supporters/friends because we often meet around a fire at the Arnold’s our dear friends and board members. Tomorrow we take Heidy back to La Calera and start our last preaching run before heading home to Texas. Blessings.

Day 10 – This morning we joined up with some Colombian friends that used to be missionaries to China and are working to return there and jumped on the metro cable car to go spend some time at an ecological park at the top of the mountain outside of Medellin. What an amazing and beautiful ride up as we hung just a few stories above the barrios as we climbed up and up into the clouds. It was breathtakingly beautiful. We enjoyed lunch up there and many pretty sites and then came back to get ready for a church service tonight.

We arrived at the church and could hear the most amazing worship music as we pulled up. The place was packed with smiling faces and as we walked in my spirit swelled that God loves me this much to let me be a part of His work in the nations. We enjoyed stunning worship together and then Oscar and I mounted the platform to preach. Once again, I have rarely enjoyed the power and freedom with which I was blessed to deliver the message and when I invited those to come who felt a fresh hunger in their souls for God the front was flooded with weeping people crying out to God for a fresh breath from heaven on their lives and ministries. What a blessing! After the service we prayed with dozens of families and then dozens more young people and stood for what seemed like a couple of hours in the church and then in the parking lot just fellowshipping and loving on the youth. We were also blessed to meet many national evangelical leaders that we didn’t know were going to be there and they told me to “get prepared” because they foresee God giving us much to do together in the years to come. Wow Jesus! Following you truly is the grandest adventure of all.

Day 11 – Just when I thought God couldn’t surprise me any more on this trip. He did. I preached in 2 packed out churches this morning and God’s power fell like I have never experienced before. People were saved who had just come out of curiosity, people were delivered, people were restored. Jesus presence was so powerful in each place. There are so many miracle stories that I couldn’t begin to put them down in writing.

Just know that God started something here in Medellin in the three services yesterday and today that I’ve never seen before and many here had never seen before and it was heavenly and wonderful. The pastors thanked us over and over again. They kept praising the Lord and saying that God used us to do something very special here and they believe it is just the beginning. They are already talking about the next time I come. Thank you to all the prayer warriors that are holding us up and the supporters who made it possible for us to be here. Much fruit is being forwarded to your account in heaven. All for His glory and our great joy!

Day 8 – This morning we boarded a plane for Medellin. What a beautiful city tucked in a valley between mountains. We checked into our hotel and then set out walking to a nearby orphanage called Open Arms. We spent the next several hours there enjoying their fellowship, hearing stories, and learning much about ministry to the least of these in Medellin. They also have a church and I was invited to preach there the next time I am in town. Then we headed up the mountainside twisting and turning on very narrow streets through barrio after barrio until we came to the church of my dear friend Pastor Lucas’s brother-in-law Hector Estrada. What an amazing place and what an amazing view of Medellin from up here. What an amazing church! It was packed with people and we enjoyed fantastic worship and then Oscar and I preached and I could see God moving on the faces of the people and when I gave the invitation more than 1/2 the crowd came to be prayed over. One young man in particular, named Anderson, had caught my attention during the message and he came straight to me and with tears told me that God was calling him to ministry and we prayed over him. Then we shared a wonderful dinner with the pastor and his family and heard many miracle stories of how God is transforming this once extremely dangerous area of the city. Praise God for another beautiful day.

Day 9 – This morning we went up into another barrio to visit a hot lunch ministry that ministers to hundreds of children. Later in the day we visited their other site and played with the children there. We also visited two of their churches in the city. All of these ministries plead with me to send missionaries and interns and any kind of help that we can give. They are doing a tremendous work for Christ here in Medellin and I am praying for how I can help. Will you pray with me?

Later in the day we visited a woman that reminded me of George Mueller, Mother Teresa, and Amy Carmichael. She has been ministering to the least of these for over 20 years in Colombia. She has worked with the persecuted church for years and her stories made each of us weep. She has worked with orphans for many years and recently prayed down millions of pesos to build a home for her 40 something children here in the city. She told story after story and we were mesmerized. She is now the national director in Colombia for YWAM as well as many other things. She needs 20 missionaries right now. I have been invited to go with her to the unreached tribes in the mountains of Colombia later this year. I pray that God will make a way. We had a wonderful dinner on top of a mountain and now I am ready to fall into bed and hit it again tomorrow. God bless! My dream maker in my head is spinning fast 🙂 hope I can sleep.

Day 5 – This morning we headed out to Meta with Pastor Hector and our new friend from the conference Bernardo who was very gracious to drive us. But before we left I was blessed to be introduced by Pastor Hector to the national director of Open Doors the ministry founded by Brother Andrew. I was so excited because I had read his biography, God’s Smuggler, the first year I was a Christian and it had a huge impact on my life. I didn’t know until that moment that the home we are visiting is part of their ministry to the persecuted church and that the children there are refugees from all over Colombia due to losing their parents because they are Christians. It was a wonderful meeting and I am looking forward to giving a devotion at their national office when I’m back in Bogota on the 29th. So off we went and traveled through beautiful mountains with waterfalls and high bridges and tunnels. It was breathtaking. Then we arrived at this beautiful orphanage/school in the jungle and got a grand tour. It was wonderful. The staff and children were wonderful. God is at work in this place.

Day 6 – I wrote this… “Waking up to the sound of tropical birds singing in the jungle outside our room… watching Brooke have a conversation in Spanish with a big green and yellow parrot that hangs out in the courtyard (he kept asking her if she wanted chocolate)… hearing the stories of children whose parents were killed in front of them, or beaten, or imprisoned, or are in hiding because of their Christian faith… seeing what God is doing for them through this ministry… how they are learning farming with crops and animals, fish hatchery, baking, sewing, chemistry, physics, art, music (they have a small recording studio and have written and performed their own beautifully worshipful songs)… getting to share my testimony and encourage them that their parents were right and that Jesus is the only thing in life worth pursuing with everything you have… and now listening to a torrential downpour playing a symphony on the many different sized leaves in the jungle… It’s only noon and already it has been a good day… a God day.”

But the best was yet to come. At 4pm we met with the young people (6 of them) who are graduating this year and will go out into the world to make their own way. I shared my heart with them about the advance of Christianity in our world today and that it is no accident that they are here, learning what they are learning, and that God will use them greatly if they stay close to Him. Like Esther, they have come to the kingdom for such a time as this. The rest of the team shared and it was beautiful. Then they poured their hearts out to us about their dreams and calling and it tied directly into what I had just shared. It was stunning. They are all feeling called to missions, or pastorate, or evangelism. It was a beautiful time! We had no idea as we were loving on these young people and drying some tears as they poured out their hearts what some of them had been through. After the meeting the directors showed us this video. The children in this video are now the very teenagers we had just met with and been loving on all day. Wow! Major tears and awe that God would allow us this privilege. Later that night each one came to me with tears and a big hug and thanked me for the impact we have had on their lives and I know the other team members received similar responses. What a difference a day makes when the Holy Spirit is in control of that day. Praise the Lord! These precious six young people each need about $2000 USD for their college in the coming year. The ministry here currently has no budget for helping them beyond high school so I am begging God that we can help them raise that. Would you pray with me for God to provide this for them. They are God’s elite. The children of martyrs and they have no hope of furthering their education without help from God’s people.

Day 7 – We left early this morning to return to Bogota and get some rest before we head out to Medellin tomorrow for 4 more days of preaching and visiting institutions. The drive back was again stunning as we wound our way through beautiful mountains on the 4.5 hour trip back. Our hearts are full. We thoroughly enjoyed our rest but we are hungry and thirsty for more of God’s power to fall in the meetings to come. Please Lord grant it.

Jesus is risen! We started the morning praying over the leaders of the church. I prayed that God would give them a double portion of His spirit like Elisha had. That He would make them the spiritual fathers and spiritual mothers to tens of thousands. And that He would increase their capacity to enjoy Him and that the overflow would touch Bogota, Colombia, South America, and the nations. I have been so blessed and enriched to spend 4 days with these precious saints. We’ve been treated like royalty and have felt very loved. Thank you Jesus for this opportunity.

I was blessed to preach in the 9am and 11am services and I have never had more fun, more response from a crowd and prayed over more people or received more hugs in my life. I’ve never seen people so hungry for God. It is infectious and they drank up every word and every minute of this conference and I can’t wait to see the fruit that comes from it. So many people young and old told me that God had used my messages to confirm in their life things that God was already stirring and they thanked us and thanked us for coming. What a blessing! This afternoon we enjoyed a wonderful time of rest and relaxation. Tomorrow we head to Meta for more ministry. I’m ready!

Today was a day of rest and soaking it in for me since I was not on the schedule to preach today. Pastor Hans preached a wonderful message this morning and then we prayed over the leaders of the church. I was blessed to pray over Pastor Henry’s mother and father and over his sister who is a pastor with her husband in Medellin. After the service I was surprised and super blessed to discover that we would be honorary professors of their seminary and help officiate a graduation of their students. We donned our gowns and sashes and caps, signed the diplomas, and were honored to present the diplomas to each graduate with a gran abrazo. They gave us the sashes as a momento to remember the day. I am so impressed with all that God is doing at Mision Berakah and am blessed to be around these heroes of the faith.

Another humbling and beautiful surprise was to follow the graduation. The church has a large scouting ministry called Ghibbor which means great warrior. The children and young people were all decked out in their uniforms and performed some of their drills for us. Then they explained that we were to be inducted in their troop as honorary members of the highest order. We were presented with a beautiful neckerchief representing green for Jesus our shepherd, purple for Jesus our King, and white for purity. We were also presented with a pin showing that we were of the highest rank. Then the children and young people prayed over us that we would shake the nations for Jesus. Wow! What a blessing. God is raising up powerful leaders for Colombia, South America, and the world.

We had a wonderful dinner at a typical Colombian restaurant in the mountains. It was beautiful. We returned to the coliseum and saw a Christian film and then it was time for Brooke to share. The only word that describes what happened next is supernatural. This girl who has all her life hated being in front of people, stepped up with power and confidence and shared her heart in a very vulnerable and authenticate way. She shared her pain and struggles and how God is redeeming them into a monster passion for Jesus and His cause in the world. She challenged the people to follow Jesus and never give up. Many many young people came to her weeping and thanked her for the push that she gave them to go further into the kingdom of God. It was such a blessing. After we enjoyed dinner with Juan David. He is the first orphan Beverly and I met on our very first day on our very first trip to Colombia 5 years ago. He was the first one that broke our hearts here. We had a wonderful time with him tonight. Something he said tonight rocked my world and reminded me why we do what we do here. He said, “I was so terribly alone before you came that first time and you came and loved me and I have known from that day to this that you guys love me and are there for me and it has made a difference in my life.” Wow. One day of love for one of these love starved children can alter a life forever. Praise Jesus! That is why we keep coming. Well, good night, I preach in 2 services tomorrow. Prayers greatly appreciated!

Today was the first day of a 4 day conference with our dear friends at Mision Berakah in Bogota. This church has been fasting and praying for God’s power to fall on this conference and He showed up in a mighty way today. I knew it was going to be an amazing day because I didn’t sleep at all last night which is very rare for me. The Holy Spirit kept bringing things to mind that I should pray for and songs kept running through my head so I prayed and listened to worship music until it was time to get up this morning. I am very tired now but sustained!

We have already enjoyed some amazing fellowship. Pastor Henry preached in the morning service and we were able to pray with many who came to re-commit to faithfulness in their walk with Jesus. Brooke has already informed me that she is staying and I’m going home alone 🙂 I was blessed to preach in the evening on The Passion For Jesus. Many were weeping as we prayed over and loved on them after. God is moving mightily and lives will be transformed as a result of this conference. I couldn’t be more excited or blessed to be here. I preach again in the morning so goodnight and God bless you!

Luke, Oscar Useche, and I awoke Sunday morning with the knowledge that the night before had only been the beginning of what God was going to do this weekend. We all three woke before the alarm and were rearing to go. Pastor Jaun Carlos had been my friend for about 3 years. Every trip he invites me to preach in his church but it has never worked out so he and I were both very excited when he arrived at 8:00 am to pick us up so I could preach in his 9 am & 11 am service (they have 4 services every Sunday). Pastor Juan Carlos started out by apologizing for how ugly the slum was going to be where his church is. I told him that he didn’t know this but I grew up in street evangelism and I love the barrio. When my wife and I always lived in the war zone and took in hungry, abused, and abandoned teens (over 15 in our first 5 years of marriage) and so I was honored to preach in his church.

The hair was standing up on my arms as we drove through the littered streets of the Suba Barrio and my heart leaped as we climbed the stairs to the second floor church which seats about 150 people. It was packed for both services with about 3/4 teenagers and 20 somethings that have been saved in the last 7 years out of drugs and gangs and everything imaginable. What an amazing and anointed work God is doing here through Pastor Juan and Pastora Claudia and how blessed and honored I was to be there.

My translator Oscar and I preached our hearts out and praise God the Holy Spirit who showed up mightily in both services and once again the altars were filled both times with weeping people desperate for Jesus. In the second service I was so happy to see my dear pastor friends Lucas and Doryanne and their daughter Sara and her boyfriend Jurger. These ar some of the dearest people in the world to me and we could hug each other enough. God is so good to have such a huge and diverse family of sweet people as these. We had a delightful time with the pastor and his wife at lunch and then cafe con leche for desert.

Soon it was time to head to another barrio to preach for our new friend Henry. I had just met Pastor Henry on Friday when we had the “God Detour” at his Christian School. His church started with 4 people in a garage and then they moved into a building that seats 150 and then they moved to a park nearby and set up tents and now they have multiple services and 700 people show up in the park for Sunday morning under the large tents. The church workers start setting up in the park every Sunday morning at 6:00am and they don’t finish taking everything down until 4:00 pm Sunday afternoon just in time to get to the Sunday night 6:00pm service in the building that seats 150. I was preaching at the evening Sunday service. The service was video recorded and live streamed over the internet. Once again, in an amazing way the Holy Spirit got ahold of that service and many many were on their knees at the altar and up the aisles seeking the Lord with tears.

After the service Luke and I met with some of the pastors and we were blessed beyond words as they blessed us with much encouragement and prayed over us. The Holy Spirit was so present. I’ve rarely if ever been so ministered to as I was by the men and women of this church. We had a thrilling discussion about future ministry together in Colombia and the U.S. God is moving in a big way. Thank you all who have prayed given and gone. It was an outstanding week and only eternity will tell all that God did and is doing through this trip.

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Today was bittersweet. Pastor Timothy and our team left for Texas, and Luke and I had to take Heidy back to her place in La Calera, another beautiful little mountain city. It was such a blessing spending the week with all this sweet young people of God. Some wonderful news for Heidy is that we were able because of a donation on her behalf to get her paperwork started to come to the U.S.

We are very excited that after 4 1/2 years of working to get her home we are one step closer. It always rips my heart out to leave her and this time it was compounded by seeing Luke’s and Heidy’s tears as they hugged goodbye. What a treasure these children are. How our Father’s heart must long for us to be His arms and “abrazo” them. I’m so grateful to God for Mission Critical International and Pastor Timothy and Relationships for Christ making this Mission Possible trip a reality.

Upon returning from La Calera we had a lunch meeting with a pastor and his wife and did some vision casting for future work together in many parts of Colombia. It was very exciting.

Then it was time to get ready for Pastor Urrego, a friend of our translator Oscar Useche and pastor of the church in which I was to preach tonight, to pick us up. We had a lovely hour and a half drive through the mountains north of Bogota to another beautiful little town called Sopo. The pastor is bi-vocational and works at Alpina, the largest dairy processing company in Colombia. His factory receives over 250,000 gallons of milk per day to be processed into yogurt, cheesecake, cheese of all kinds, and every kind of dairy product you can dream. Just before arriving at the church the pastor stopped at the Alpina factory outlet store. I call it the Disneyland of dairy stores. He took us inside and said, “Pick what you want to take back with you.” We asked, “What is your favorite Pastor?” He grabbed a shopping cart and started filling it up with two of everything in the store. We were like, “Oh yeah, a suitcase full of OMA coffee and Alpina cheeses will be just perfect.” After the service we shared some of the deserts that he bought. It was the most delicious love offering ever.

We headed over to the church, which is beautiful, and worship had already started. I was so humbled to realize that they don’t typically have a Saturday night service. They scheduled this one so I could be there and minister with them. Other churches from other small mountain villages as far as an hour and a half away had come to take part. What a blessing these Colombian brothers and sisters are. Praise the Lord for pouring down on us as we shared the word of God. There were tears on many faces and the altar was filled with people desperate for Jesus. We have been invited back next year to preach in their Sunday services and share with the pastors in the area. What a precious time we had with the pastor and his family after the service. They are precious people of God. Praise God for another wonderful day of pursuing Jesus on His mission in the world!

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This morning, once again, in His providence, God sent us on a detour. The plan was to sleep late, go sightseeing, and rest today before the team heads out to the airport early tomorrow morning but the Lord blessed us with another plan. We got a last minute invitation to go to one more place and when I asked the team they readily agreed we had to go. The church that I will be preaching in Sunday night has a school for vulnerable children here in the city and they asked us to come. We arrived at this small 3 story house and were ushered inside by Pastor Henry to find 79 little faces anxiously awaiting us. Words can’t express how impressed I was with this place. Story after story confirmed that they are taking in the least of the least of these and discipling them into warriors for Christ.

They put on the cutest presentation of each of the regions of Colombia and then a little couples dressed in the traditional dress of each region danced a traditional dance for us. It was so cute and you could tell they were so proud. After all of the presentations they asked me to share and so I gave my testimony of how I came to Christ as a 16 year old rebel and of some of the adventures that Jesus has led me on over the last 31 years. It was almost time to go and so the children split up into all the little tiny rooms of the house to have school. They asked me to pray over each class and so we squeezed into each room and prayed over the children and teachers. I prayed that the mantle of Elijah would fall upon Elisha and that the children would receive a double portion of the Spirit of their teachers and pastors and go forth to do mighty deeds in the kingdom of God. What a blessed detour that none of us would have missed for the world.

Next the team plundered the local souvenir market and then we headed up the tram to the top of the mountain to watch the sunset over the city. It has been raining most of the day so we were all praying that it would clear so we could see the view from the mountain and just in time it cleared up enough to see much of the city with a large thunderhead above which made the sunset quite spectacular. After the sun was gone we ended up gathered around Heyli and Deidra and the guitar and we sang and sang and sang. It was beautiful. Several people from Bogota and other places like the Netherlands stopped and listened and we enjoyed meeting them. What a perfect ending to a perfect week. Thank you Lord for being so kind to us. Praise be to your Name.

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Today was a beautiful day on many levels. First, because we were heading to an orphanage 2 hours outside of Bogota and we had to go through some amazing scenery to get there. We left the city and very quickly the landscape turned into desert. I was amazed as I had never been out this far west of Bogota and didn’t realize there was desert this close to this verdant mountain city. As we traveled farther west I kept telling everyone, “this looks like Arizona or southern New Mexico. There were cactus in bloom everywhere, deep red ravines (or arroyos where I come from), and strange monoliths of rock.

Then we began to climb and climb and climb. It wasn’t long before we had left the desert floor below and were winding through mountain peaks covered in clouds and mist. It was stunning. We wound our way down into the jungle and then up again into the mountains until we came to the sleepy little mountain Pueblo of La Mesa. We toured the orphanage and met all of the workers as we were waiting for the children to come home from school. This would be a beautiful place to come for a few days and they even have facilities to house us in the future. We had many talks of ideas and plans and are excited about future work with these folks.

Soon the children arrived and we had lunch and then spent some time helping them with their homework and then it was off to play soccer, frisbee, dodgeball, and all manner of games. It was a wonderful time of building friendships and sharing love. The old guys sat in the shade and dreamed up new visions and ministries together. As we were resting a little boy named Miguel came up to talk to us. He was a very precocious three year old who surprised us with how bright he was and as cute as a button. His mother abandoned him to live in a drugged stupor on the streets of “The Bronx” Bogota’s worst section. My heart broke for her and for him.

Everyone played and played and then we gathered up for devotions. We sang some songs and Luke shared his heart with the children and then Oscar Perez shared. It began to rain so while Pastor Timothy and I met with the director the team and children moved into the chapel and had a wonderful time with the Lord. At the end the children prayed for our team. It was very powerful. We said our long goodbyes and then headed into the village for a wonderful dinner in among the 200 year old colonial buildings of the square. On the long winding ride back through mountains, jungle, and desert we sang, shared, dreamed, and some of us snored. We arrived back and the hotel and our two beautiful Colombian daughters were waiting for us with the wonderful news that Heidy had been accepted into the prestigious music school for which she interviewed today. Praise God. Blessings all around.

 
 
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Today was simply WOW as they all have been. We headed back to Soacha to minister to 200 orphans, street children, and otherwise vulnerable children at a Christian hot lunch room down in the city of Soacha with our friends from God in the Streets, a Christian hip hop and street evangelism ministry in which our dear brother Orlando and our new friend Pastor Jordan partner together. We are very excited about partnering together with them in the future to make an impact for Christ on the city of Soacha. The neighborhood we visited today is so bad that we had to have a police escort to get in there. It is controlled by drug gangs and poverty is rampant.

First, we visited some of the families that are served by the hot lunch room. As we walked into Johanna’s very small house where she, her husband, and four small children live she began to cry as she told us how difficult their life is there. I asked her if we could pray for her and she quickly stepped toward us and said, “yes please.” The team gathered around her holding hands and I prayed for God to protect them, give them wisdom and guidance, but most of all to be near them and give them His presence. I asked Him to minister to their needs but primarily the need of their souls. They thanked us and thanked us. After I prayed her 6 year old little boy Miguel asked if he could pray. We said, “PLEASE.” Miguel folded his little hands and thanked God for the day, for us, for our visit, for his family, and asked for God’s blessings. It was the cutest, sweetest prayer I think I ever heard. Then his 11 year old big sister, Luisa, asked if she could pray and she too pray a sweet prayer of gratitude to God and asked Him to bless us for visiting her.

We visited some other families and then headed back to the lunch room to greet and minister to the 200 children that come there every day for what is for many their only hot meal of the day. I was blessed to get the chance to visit with Marleny, the founder of this amazing ministry. She told me all about her dreams and goals and the history of her work there. She was so proud to tell me that when she started there the malnutrition of children under age five was 80% in that neighborhood and now after a few years it is down to 10%. But the excitement among her donors has waned and her funding is continually shrinking. It costs $1.50 per day to feed a child and she is only receiving enough support to feed 120 children but over 200 come every day so she finds ways to fee two children for $1.50.

Soon the children began to pour in and the girls on the team broke out the crayons, chalk, paper, and coloring books and it was on. Luke and Deidra took frisbees and soccer balls out to the field in front of the lunch room and the fun ensued there as well. After everyone had eaten, the God in the Streets band started up and sang and shared the gospel with the children and adults from the neighborhood who had filled the place up completely. After several songs, Pastor Timothy got up and shared his testimony. It was very powerful. It was a beautiful day all around with a ton of fun and hope in Jesus shared with all.

 

 

 

 

 
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Today was another glorious day in which I am humbled and blessed to be working with some of God’s choice warriors. The 10 “twenty somethings” we are leading on this trip give me hope for the future of God’s work. I am so honored to be laboring with them in the vineyard.

I don’t have any photos to share today because in the 2 places that we went today the children are in protection as either victims of crimes or in a sort of witness protection because guerrilla hit squads are after them and so for their security we only took photos with some of the children this afternoon.

We headed out this morning to a to a house for teenage mothers ages 12-17. Many of them were raped and so are under the protection of the government. Some of them were trafficked, were street children, were abused by the boy friends of their mothers, and other reasons. All the young mothers and their babies were assembled and we each introduced ourselves and then one by one we shared a testimony. As each of us shared how we came to Jesus and what He means to us the Spirit began to move mightily in that place. Heyli would play the guitar and she and Heidy would sing some beautiful song in Spanish and then someone else would share. As they sang and shared tears ran down the face of some of the girls. I knew God was moving in their hearts. When my friend Hayley Marie shared it was so powerful that she broke down and had to leave. Others shared and then Deidra played the guitar and Amy, Luke, and I sang a worship song. Then it was time for me to share and I told how Jesus had grabbed ahold of my heart as a 16 year old boy and how I had been passionately pursuing Him ever since. I gave a very clear presentation of the gospel and asked the girls to bow their heads and I prayed for them to understand and to open their hearts to Jesus. When I finished praying, I was bombarded with girl after girl asking how she could receive Jesus and what was faith and what did they have to do to follow Jesus. It was amazing. Soon Heidy and Heyli were singing again and I stepped out of the room to make room for others. When I stepped out I said to Pastor Timothy, “That’s a room full of hungry eyes if I ever saw it.” Some of the girls followed me out of the room and Pastor Timothy, our awesome translator Oscar Useche, and I shared more with them and prayed with them. Some made decisions for Christ but not before grilling us with some very serious questions about sin, and the fear of God, and grace, and love. It was stunning. I saw before my eyes today God rescue some girls from shame, fear, and despair and usher them into His loving arms. Praise Him for being that kind of good God.

After sharing some gifts that we had brought for them we headed out to lunch. At lunch we met up with our friend Jair Montiel of the band Viraje and he spent the afternoon with us.

We headed over to Hogar De Paz (house of peace) where our friend Rafael Afanador takes in street children and clothes, feeds, and disciples them in the Lord. These children have seen and experienced horrible atrocities and they are getting the love and the message of Jesus here every day. While the team sang songs, played games, puzzles, drew, and colored with the children, Pastor Timothy and I and Oscar Useche spent a few hours with the director of the house brainstorming about future ministry ideas and opportunities. It was a blessed meeting.

We enjoyed hanging out at the hotel and then went to a nice dinner. When we came back we gathered around the breakfast table and began to share as a team what God was doing in our lives this week. It was a sweet and holy time with the Lord. As we went around the table we came to Heidy, our Colombian daughter, who has thoroughly enjoyed getting to spend this time with her Daddy and Big Brother, Luke. I hadn’t looked her way as the testimonies were being shared around the table until it came to her and then I realized that she was softly crying. As she started to share it wasn’t long before Luke and I were crying too. Heidy shared that she had been one of those orphans that we saw yesterday living in the shack on the side of the hill when she was 10 years old and even though she was living in those dire conditions she was always hoping and always dreaming. And then she said she came to the orphanage and there she met me and eventually our whole family and she learned what love is and she was so loved that she now has extra love to give to others and she told how she was able to share about the love of God with several children the last two days and that she loves this ministry and wants to always work in it with us. Words can’t express how beautiful it was what she said and her sweet little face all wet with tears. Oscar was crying just trying to translate.

Then we had a sweet time of prayer together and are now heading off to bed. God has been so good and we are just getting started. Thank you all for your prayers and support. God is doing a mighty work here.

For months before every mission trip I wrestle with God asking Him to superintend our trip. I always know in my heart that if His presence, power, and His Divine direction is not with us that all that we do will be in vain. There is always spiritual warfare of all kinds that precedes a trip like this and I have come to pray specifically that the Lord will be our vanguard and go before us removing every obstacle and paving our way before us. And in my humanness I always continue to be amazed when He comes through and shows Himself mighty on our behalf. Today was another example of this taking place.
 
We had planned for weeks to go to a certain orphanage this morning that I have been to many times and is one of my favorites and at the last minute this weekend there was a snag and we had to adjust our plans. Though I was tempted to be disappointed and concerned, I knew that many of God’s richest blessings on our ministry here in Colombia have come through what we would have considered a detour and so I waited for the Spirit to show us His plan. I was not disappointed to say the least.

We headed out this morning to a new part of Bogota to which I had never been called Soacha. It is a suburb of over 1 million people and for the most part it is very poor. We soon discovered that the place we were going was up in one of the mountains that ring the city of Bogota and after a somewhat harrowing ride up a very primitive “road” we arrived at a very poor neighborhood carved into the side of the mountain.

Many of the people here have been displaced by the forty-year war in Colombia and have cobbled together “houses” on this hillside with whatever materials they could find. An elderly woman, affectionately known throughout the town as Abuelita (Granny), runs a hot lunch kitchen there for the children of the neighborhood many of whom only get the one meal a day that she provides. We were to be her guests today and spend time with the orphans and impoverished children of this refugee city.

Before the children arrived we hiked through the neighborhood and visited several homes of the families whose children we were going to spend time with. It is impossible to explain the primitive way that these people live. They have no running water except for one hour per week and they have to collect all the water that they will need for the whole week in that one hour.

They live in shacks pieced together from bricks, tin, lumber, anything that they can put together. There are no sewers, or drainage other than the streets. When it rains hard many times their houses are washed away and they have to begin again. Our contact here is a young pastor named Jordan that we met through Pastors Hector & Liliana. He and his family minister in this place and they are very passionate about their work here.

The children arrived and had their lunch and then the fun began. Deidra has collected three large suitcases full of toys, balls, puzzles, frisbees, crayons and coloring books and such. It wasn’t very long before everyone was gathered around the team playing and drawing and this went on for over 2 hours.

Two different singing groups were with us as well and they sang the gospel and then shared the gospel with the children and prayed with them.

It was amazing to see how quickly the children responded to the love and how quickly the team responded to the love that the children showed so freely. Luke and I stepped outside with a couple of frisbees and it wasn’t long before several teenage and adult men had gathered around and Luke was teaching them to throw and catch. I told him it looked like he had the makings of a Frisbee ministry here in Colombia. He flashed his signature smile and kept playing.

As the afternoon passed I noticed that Pastor Timothy was spending a lot of time with Pastor Jordan asking many questions about their dream and vision for this place. It wasn’t long before Pastor Jordan shared his dream of buying some land right there on that street and building a larger place where Granny could feed many more children and the gospel could be shared with the community. Pastor Timothy, in his irresistible “Git er done” fashion said, “Well let’s go find some land.” So up we went and started hiking through the neighborhood looking at different available chunks of land on this hillside.

It wasn’t long before they had decided upon a piece of property and began negotiations… but that is a story for Pastor Timothy to share so stay tuned but let me say this, only eternity will tell how many souls will be affected by our little “detour” to Soacha today. Soon it was time to go and the precious little kids gathered around and told us goodbye, begging us to come and see them again soon. We had a wonderful dinner at one of our favorite places here and returned to the hotel full of joy and totally exhausted and excited about what the rest of the week will bring. Once again Lord, You have shown yourself all wise and guided our trip marvelously and we praise You.

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I am so grateful to God to once again be writing from Bogota, Colombia.
 
God has put this city in my heart and I am excited to be here on my 16th trip with this wonderful team of friends, my goddaughters Heidy and Ginary and my oldest son Luke on his first mission trip. Praise the Lord! We began our mission trip this week in Colombia with a very blessed church service with our dear friends at Iglesia Libertad in the heart of Bogota.

I always love coming to this place and these people.

The Holy Spirit’s presence is so tangible here. We started the service with amazing worship from Pastor Hector & Liliana’s daughters, Heyli and Caroline, and our friends Javier and Orlando. It was absolutely heavenly. I love worshipping with our Colombian family.

Then it was time for the word of God to be spoken and I was so blessed to share the pulpit with my friend Oscar Andres Useche as translator.

God helped us mightily and many souls were encouraged in the Lord. There were many tears and the altar was filled with those desperate for Jesus.

Then we were surprised with a beautiful song and dance by the children of the church calling on the Lord to make His name famous among the nations. It was very moving.

After the service we shared a wonderful Colombian meal with the Pastor’s family and then back to the hotel for a restful afternoon and evening. A glorious start to our week.

Sunday, January 27, 2013 was a beautiful Lord’s day. We had breakfast with pastors Lucas and Doraynne and their sweet family and then walked the few blocks to the church Iglesia Libertad. I was so blessed to see my sweet friends, pastors Hector and Liliana and their awesome children and many other friends in the church there.

I met my translator for today and his name is Oscar too. He works for Compassion International and has translated for I AM SECOND and many other ministries and has already become a dear friend.

I couldn’t wait for the worship to start because the pastors 3 teenage children lead it and it is anointed. My new friend Orlando who has a music street ministry also leads. It is so powerful. We praised and praised and prayed and prayed and then the Holy Spirit helped me to bring the message The Triumph of the Gospel from Matthew 13:33. The church was packed and God really got ahold of all of us. It was very blessed. I finished preaching and many, many came to cry out to God with me for a fresh anointing a fresh passion for the coming of His kingdom in the world. After, Pastor Hector hugged me and hugged me. I love these people, I love this country, I love this ministry!

Some of the girls from the safehouse who were with us on Friday were there and one of them, Angelica, got up and gave a tearful and heavenly testimony of how The Lord has been her Papa and her Mama and though she is an orphan she never has felt alone. It was the purest, sweetest, adoring witness to the goodness of her savior that you can imagine. These children are the heartbeat of Jesus and getting near His heart is always life changing for me.

After the service we had a wonderful typical Colombian lunch with the pastor and his family and we spent the afternoon visiting and enjoying the moment.

Ginary was able to spend the evening with us. She turned 18 on New Year’s Eve and was put out of the orphanage and is now living with a friend but they have very little so we took them to the store and bought them a basket full of groceries. They hugged me so hard it hurt. There is so much to do here. I think it is going to take the rest of my life 😉

Our last blessing of a super abundantly blessed trip was getting to have dinner with our dear friends Nelda, and Scott and Anita Gilbert, who are here to adopt a precious girl named Sofia. What a blessing this was for me! I remember praying over Scott with several other men the night he surrendered his life to Christ. I remember how Scott later ministered to my sons. I remember the day I invited their son, Chris Poole to come with me to Colombia, and then Chris came home, sold everything, and became a missionary to the orphans of Colombia and is now going to Project Samuel in Zambia, Africa with Relationships for Christ. And now a sweet Colombian girl is going to have a family. I love you Lord. I love this ministry!

Thank you for your prayers.

Matt Bullen

Saturday, January 26, 2013 was indeed a blessed day. Most of the team had to go home but as Pastor Timothy says, “The Mission Possible trip still continues” and so after dropping them at the airport we caught a bus to La Calera, a beautiful little town in the mountains just outside of Bogota. Brooke said it looked like a town out of the movies. There is a unique orphanage up there that consists of 6 separate houses with 10-15 young people in each and a married couple in each. It has more of a family structure this way and the teens we met there are very happy. One of those precious teens is our own Goddaughter, Heidy. She was waiting at the gate of the house and when she saw us come through the gate she screamed and ran and jumped into my arms with a gran abrazo. The last seven months are the longest I have gone without seeing her in 4 years. She was so happy and looked so good. The mountains and the house and the friends she has made have done very well by her.

Her 17th birthday is in ten days so we took a walk down to the little town square and had a birthday lunch and presented her with our birthday presents we had brought. She was so happy. Then we went to the little store off the plaza and bought some things for all the girls in her house and some necessary items that Heidy needed. It couldn’t have been a more beautiful day. The sun was shining and the air was fresh and we were spending time with our girl. What a blessing. As many of you know we tried desperately for two years to adopt Heidy and our other Goddaughter Ginary but could never get all the legal entanglements worked out. But God has watched over them and taken good care of them and I know someday we will be together. I told Heidy that when I am old I am moving to La Calera and I’m going to sit in a rocker on the porch and drink my Colombian coffee and eat papaya and she is going to have to take care of me. She laughed and hugged me and said, “I will Papi.” She told me all about the Christian Bible study that she attends on Wednesday nights and the church she attends on Saturdays. I’ve never seen her so happy and so healthy. Praise God.

Then it was time to go and we hugged and kissed goodbye and we headed down the mountain in the little bus to visit with our pastor friends and spend the night. On the way we stopped and bought a bunch of groceries to surprise them with because planting a new church this year in a rough part of Bogota has been hard on them but God is bringing souls into the kingdom down there.

We had a wonderful dinner with Pastors Lucas and Doraynne and laughed and talked about the kingdom and all that God is doing and then turned in. Thank you to Relationships for Christ and their Mission Possible program and Mission Critical International for this blessed week. Praying for God’s power on my sermon tomorrow at Iglesia Libertad and our precious pastor friends Hector and Liliana and their family and our last day in Colombia for this trip.

Thank you for your prayers.

Matt Bullen

Friday January 25, 2013 was another wonderful and heart wrenching day. We started the morning visiting a Christian home for pregnant and nursing mom age 11-18. All the girls (maybe 30) gathered in a meeting room with us and we made introductions and shared about our lives. I asked the girls to tell us about their dreams. Several spoke and without fail they said their dream was to give their baby the life they never had. Some of them said be a good example for their baby and others talked about finishing their education and having a career. The whole team shared about Jesus and Timothy encouraged them greatly that they can reach any dream with God as their Father. David shared how he had had a child at 16 and how hard it was and that Jesus is the only way to true happiness. Then Oscar gave each girl a salvation bracelet kit and as they made the bracelets he explained the gospel to them. Right as he started a little 5 year old girl named Carmella came over to me and she talked my ear off very quietly so as not to distract from Oscar. She was very cute and sweet. She wanted to check me all out. She touched my beard and pulled my mustache and hair and touched my glasses and zipped up my jacket and buttoned the collar snap. She hugged me and asked if I was Papa Noel (Santa Clause) all the time chattering away. Then she took my hands and put them together as if to pray and folded her tiny hands around mine and said, “pray?” And so she prayed and I prayed. Then we worked on her necklace and she said, “one for my mother?” So we made one for her mother. I could have sat there for hours talking to that sweet little child. I love this ministry. She and her mom are why Mission Critical exists. I know there are many out there just like her digging through trash to survive, washing headlights at the traffic light for money because they are too little to reach the windshield. God help us to help them.

The rest of the day we were blessed to see some sights downtown and have lunch with some precious orphan girls that David and Michelle have a relationship with from previous trips. It was wonderful. Then we went up to Monserrate mountain to see the sunset over the city and pray and sing “God of this city” as we always do. Paul and his friend Sal were able to join us as we’ll as our sweet driver for the week, Daisy. Pastor Timothy had the great idea of having communion on the mountain as well and had brought the elements. It was very special. We finished the night with a great meal and fellowship. Another amazing day pushing out the borders of His kingdom.

Thank you for your prayers.

Matt Bullen

Thursday, January 24, 2013, was another beautiful day. We started out with breakfast at our regular little authentic Colombian restaurant and just as I walked in the door sweet Ginary jumped out and hugged me. I was so surprised and happy to see her again this week. She also had with her Erica another girl that we have known and ministered to for years. It was so great to have breakfast with them both and the team.

We left them and went up into the mountainside to a beautiful Christian orphanage. We were all huffing and puffing as we toured the facility literally built into the side of the mountain. They have 100 children of which 30 are adoptable. We had a wonderful time getting to know them and we are excited about working with them in the future for the adoption arm of our ministry.

After a leisurely lunch (all I ate was a giant bowl of papaya, my new favorite fruit thanks to Mercy) we went back to Nuevo Planeta and spent the afternoon playing with those sweet little kids. We also brought each of the 11 boys who had professed faith in Christ the day before a new Bible. We gave them many of the gifts that all of you had collected for the trip and wished them blessings.

We then headed out to go to a meeting set up by Esperanza with some pastors at Mision Colombia, a large evangelical church in the city. We had a wonderful visit and they are excited about helping us on future trips. They have literally hundreds of contacts in the city and can help us with everything from lodging and transportation to opportunities for street evangelism, orphan ministry and even tribal outreach. God has opened so many doors for us this week it is incredible. Like the Chris Tomlin song says, “Greater things are still to be done in this city.” I love this ministry.

Thank you for your prayers.

Matt Bullen

Today, Wednesday, January 23, 2013, started early but awesome as we were blessed to meet with Pastor Manuel for breakfast at 7:00 am at the Colombian National Bible Society. Pastor Manuel is pastor to Esperanza from Colombia Chiquita and also the president of the society. After a wonderful breakfast we heard about the great work of the society. It was founded in 1825 and they print and distribute Bibles all over South America. Last year alone they distributed 700,000 Bibles. They give free Bibles to the FARC and other guerrillas and they have seen many come to Christ and leave the fighting.

The exciting thing for us is that in my 15 trips to Colombia we have bought Spanish Bibles and paid the $70.00 extra bag charge for sometimes 20 extra bags in order to get Bibles to the orphans that we minister to. Pastor Manuel says that he can supply us with cases of Bibles at $3.00 each printed right here in Bogota! Praise God! They also have a Bible curriculum written for children with beautiful artwork. Pastor Timothy had the great idea of getting the society to put together a package deal for each orphanage of this curriculum and Pastor Manuel said they would also train the workers at the orphanage to use the curriculum. Please pray that someone with a passion for biblical education to step forward and finance this. Also the Bible society is in need of translators and donations to continue their work of getting God’s word into the hands of His people in Colombia.

We thanked them for the wonderful breakfast and headed to Nuevo Planeta. I have to admit that I was apprehensive about this next foundation because I knew that it housed 150 children that have each been raped and/or been exploited in the sex trade and this is why they are in this particular foundation. Also, they send buses out to the worst parts of the city and pick up 100 children who are living on the street and whose parents are addicts, prostitutes, or simply homeless and bring them in for a hot meal and a shower. I prayed with a little more intensity than usual as we headed there asking the Lord to superintend our visit there and override our fear and apprehension and allow the children to see Him in us and feel His love through us. We arrived and met the young woman in her mid thirties who founded this ministry 12 years ago with 12 children. Those who work for her know her as the “angel”.

She explained about the children and their history and how they have purchased land and are now raising the funds to build a new facility that they hope will house 500 children when it is completed because the need is so great. Our first order of business was touring their existing rented facility which consists of 3 houses connected together and busting at the seams. First we went up stairs and into a nursery like room with 25 of the cutest little 2-4 year olds you can imagine. As soon as we walked in the door they crowded around us hugging our legs and smiling and putting up their hands to be picked up. I picked up the little boy closest to me and he gave me a big hug and smile. Brooke sat down on the floor and 4 little ones piled into her lap hungry for love. I looked over and saw big crocodile tears running down her cheeks. We only stayed a moment and then had to move on for our tour and all of us were near tears as we walked on to view the rest of the facility and meet the other ages. After our tour we took a group to the park and played and played. It was so fun.

We had lunch together in the foundation and then took a class of 8-10 year olds taught by one of the orphans we used to minister to in another orphanage years ago that now works at this foundation to the park. Our dear friend Jair Montiel of the Christian band Viraje and Christ for the City came over for the day and as we sat down on the grass with the boys he took out his guitar and we sang several worship songs. I had told Jair that if we got the chance I wanted Pastor Timothy to share his testimony because I knew that these boys could really relate with Timothy’s painful childhood and so as we finished singing Jair called Timothy up and he spent the next several minutes sharing his story and how at age 13 after hearing the gospel at his grandmother’s church he knelt by his bed alone and felt Jesus telling him that He would be the dad he never had and he was saved and his life was changed. Every little boy sat there spellbound listening intently and when Timothy asked if they would like to believe on Jesus and ask Him to be there Papa and share his love with them nearly every hand went up and how sweetly they prayed asking Jesus to be their savior and their dad and to hold their future in His hands. When we finished praying a shout went up from the boys and they clapped. Praise the Lord! He is faithful and will continue the work in their hearts that was started today.

Then it was time to play. The big ones played soccer while the same little ones we had met that morning wore us out with piggyback rides and tag and swinging and jumping on us from the monkey bars. We had a blast. When we got tired we sat in the grass and they climbed all over us. Michelle had a sack of candy and she nearly got trampled as they all clamored to get a sucker or a sixlet. They were so cute. She also made little cross necklaces for each one with different colored ribbon. The crosses had engraved on them Dios Te Ama (God loves you). Each of us decided we could take 3 or 4 of them home if they would let us. One little girl 2 ½ or 3 named Sophia decided that I was her best buddy and hung on me all afternoon. All of my apprehension was for naught because those 150 children turned out to be just sweet little children starved for love and attention. Something all of us were thrilled to provide.

Another friend named Paul came and spent the last hour with us. Paul found our ministry through the internet a couple years ago and we have become dear friends. He and his wife just adopted a little boy two months ago. Praise God. We left exhausted but very happy, ready to go get some rest and come back again tomorrow and spend time with them again. All day I had daydreams about Jesus taking the little children into his lap and blessing them and reminding His disciples that the kingdom of God is for such as these. I love this ministry.

Thank you for your prayers and I want to thank Relationships for Christ and Pastor Timothy again for making this trip Mission Possible and thank you Oscar Perez for all of your hard work. Usted eres una gran bendicion a mi vida.

Matt Bullen

Again today, Tuesday January 22, 2013, God blessed us with a wonderful day. We spent the day with Maranatha International Foundation. They have a very interesting ministry. They focus on three different projects. The first is a Habitat for Humanity type ministry where they build houses for the poor in Bogota. Their goal is to build 100 houses. The second project is evangelistic events where they bring in evangelistic speakers like Nick Viujicic and hold giant evangelistic meetings. They have had approximately 95,000 conversions recorded in the last 6 years. The third project is Hogar De Paz (Home of Peace) where they take in children from the street each day and feed them, educate them, and win them to Christ and disciple them. This is the project that we came to see today. We were immediately impressed with the appearance and spirit of the place when we walked in. It really is a home of peace.

We had breakfast with them and then we spent the morning learning all about their foundation and about the children they serve. It was very refreshing to see a ministry serving vulnerable children whose main focus is the gospel and discipleship. They do many of the same social programs to help the children as others but their main focus is the heart because they know that true transformation of a child’s life is a supernatural happening brought about by the Holy Spirit. And all of the other needs in their life are secondary to breaking the cycle of sin, hopelessness, and abuse prevalent in their families because the life that Jesus gives is absent.
In the afternoon the children arrived and we played at the park for awhile and then came in to play board games and puzzles. It was so much fun playing with these sweet and happy children who once were withdrawn and angry and had witnessed horrible atrocities on the street and in war but now through the work of Hogar De Paz and the glorious gospel they are new little people. I had the most fun playing a memory game with a bunch of kids where we had these giant cards with pictures of all different faces of dinosaurs on them. We had the whole table covered in these cards face up and then we would give each child two seconds to look at the cards and then we turned them all over and they had to guess from memory where the duplicate cards were located. I was stunned at how smart these little 5 and 6 year olds were as they would just walk up and pick out the pair over and over again. It was so wild because they would scream and dance and jump around when they got it right. It was too cute.

An hour before it was time to go we gathered up for devotion. Some of the parents of the children who are now working during the day while the children are at school and then Hogar De Paz began to drift in while we were singing worship songs and then the children sang several songs and then it was time for the devotion. Each of the team members got up and gave their testimony and it was amazing how some of the team members childhood testimonies resembled what these children have seen and how good it was for them to hear the difference that Christ has made in each of our lives. David Attaway gave the entire gospel message from Romans and all of those parents were sitting there listening intently.

God is doing a great work through Maranatha and we were very blessed to spend the day with them. God has given us a very blessed, calm, and intimate trip and we are grateful and blessed. One of the team members this morning, Jay from Chicago, said that he originally was supposed to go on a mission trip to Nicaragua but it didn’t work out and so he sort of felt at the time like he was settling for the Colombia trip but WOW has God blown his mind and he knows that this is where he was supposed to be. Praise God. Thank you for your prayers.

Matt Bullen

Another wonderful day today, Monday January 21, 2013, started early as we picked up Pastor Timothy Vowell at the airport at 5:30 am. I am so happy to be cooperating together on this trip.

I had a wonderful surprise when my precious goddaughter, Ginary, showed up to have breakfast with us. She has grown into such a sweet young woman. Brooke and I were so blessed to get to spend some time with her yesterday and then again today. She aged out of the orphanage last month and we are working on a long-term plan to help her in life. Please pray with us that God will send the resources and opportunities as she moves into adulthood. We will see her again on Sunday.

We headed over to see our new friends at Colombia Chiquita again today. I had noticed yesterday that they had a little church next door called Iglesia Misionera Santa Sion but I didn’t realize it was their own church and not actually next door but was a part of their house.

As soon as we walked in the door Esperanza said, “You are sharing the word in the church today.” I looked at Oscar and said, “You ready to preach?” They opened up the church which has a garage door which opens onto the sidewalk and they set up chairs all the way out to the curb. Pretty soon people came from everywhere including the children and filled up the little church out onto the sidewalk. We sang and sang and prayed and prayed and then Oscar and I preached. It was awesome. I shared that John 1:2 He was in the beginning with God, though a small verse tells the story of the reason for the existence of the universe, relationship. The blessed Trinity was in a beautiful, loving, harmonious, joyful, loving relationship before the world began and they created the world and us so they could share that beautiful relationship with us. God came and walked in the garden with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. We were created for relationship with God and nothing in this world can satisfy that need but Him. We try to substitute drugs and sex and alcohol and money and position and accomplishment and many other things in place of the real thing we need, the only true ultimate satisfaction, which is found in a genuine relationship with Christ. God blessed us with His presence and it was a delight to see the smiles and the nods and the Amens from many in the crowd. One teen girl in particular who came to the foundation in a lot of trouble a year ago and is now a sold out Jesus girl was very touched.

After the message headed out to the park to play soccer and the little kids played on the playground. I sat in the shade and enjoyed a steady stream of young people who came by to talk to share with me about their life and I was able to encourage and minister to each one. The other team members made friends and ministered too. Brooke had a long and deep conversation with one of the young workers there and I know they were both blessed.

We came back to the house and ate lunch and then we sat around the table and talked kingdom strategy for most of the afternoon. We had arepas, an amazing Colombian delicacy made with corn meal, white cheese, and butter. And of course we had lots of Colombian coffee. Esperanza and Colombia Chiquita have a big vision for a ministry center someday and we even pulled out the blueprints and prayed over them. As we talked and prayed Esperanza said, “I have to introduce you to my pastor! He is the president of a national pastor’s association here in Colombia.” She picked up her phone and called him and set up a breakfast meeting with him for Wednesday. It will be exciting to get to meet with him and some of the other leaders of their association. She also invited us to speak at a national pastor’s congress in November. I am excited about the ministry that we will do together, God willing.

Their most desperate need is for child sponsors to help them feed, clothe, and house these precious children who otherwise would be on the street but who are now being discipled into men and women of God. Esperanza told me that she needs 30 sponsors right now at $45.00 a month.

I made so many little friends and my heart was stolen once again for the children of Colombia as they lined up to hug my neck as we were leaving. What a delightful mission and people. Thank you Lord. Help us to help them.

Today, Sunday January 20, 2013 was a beautiful day. I am so excited to start my fifteenth trip to Colombia in 4 years. God has abundantly blessed me with this calling and the joy I feel when my feet touch Colombian soil is hard to put into words. We arrived last night late and today we had the wonderful pleasure and priviledge of preaching for our dear friends Pastor Lucas and Pastora Doraynne at their new church in south Bogota, Rios De Vida (Rivers of Life). Their’s is the family that Brooke stayed with for two months this summer. It was so sweet to see Brooke reunited with her Colombian Papa and Mama and her sister Sara and the little ones. It was so great to see Javier and Cindy and the worship team. They are awesome.

Our dear friend Oscar translated for me and God showered us with His presence. I preached from Matthew 13:33 on the triumph of the gospel. The kingdom of God is like yeast that a woman hid in three measures of flour until it permeated the entire lump. Every day we are hiding the yeast of the gospel in the dough of the world and it will not fail to spread to the whole world. I was so blessed to see the shining faces and bright smiles as the people soaked up the word of God. What a blessed work God is doing in this very poor section of Bogota. God bless Rios De Vida!

After church we were so blessed to visit Colombia Chiquita, a Christian foundation ministering to deperate children and families displaced by the guerrilla fighting in Colombia. The founder, Esperanza, is an amazing woman of God. She was in a terrible accident several years ago and was in a coma and lost a leg. The Lord raised her up and shortly after she was walking on the street with crutches and a little boy came and stole her crutches. She asked him why he was doing this and he replied that he was starving and needed them to sell. God broke her heart right there for the children of Colombia and she has been taking them in off the streets and raising them to be men and women of God ever since. What a joyous afternoon we spent with her and her workers and thirty of her children that she has in the house in Bogota. She also has other houses other places and many children around the country. We played and told stories and sang and ate and prayed. Oh! did we pray.

At one point Esperanza and her daughter Sara prayed over me for a long time. I understood every word and I must tell you I have never been prayed for like that before. They prayed some huge blessings and huge vision down upon my head, my hands, and my lips that will remain in my heart forever. My faith was so elevated as these two precious saints lifted me and my family and my ministry up to the throne of God. No wonder they live totally by faith. Praying down their monthly and even daily needs and have been doing so for years. It was a delightful time and we switched between crying and laughing or both. What kindred spirits. I am so grateful that God brought them across our path through our friend and colleauge in orphan ministry Pete Johnson. God bless you Pete! We get to go back and spend the whole day with Esperanza and Colombia Chiquita tomorrow. Thank you for the prayers and the support. Thank you Pastor Timothy and Relationships for Christ for making this trip happen. Thank you to our board member, David Attaway and his sister Michelle for their huge hearts. And to Oscar, I love you man!

Looking forward to an amazing week in the fields of the fatherless for Jesus, with Jesus and to Jesus we go.

Matt Bullen

Relationships part 2.

In my last blog I shared a lesson that I have learned on how relationships affect and touch people’s hearts, I want to share similar stories about a couple other girls in my next posts, from now on in my blogs I would rather keep their names anonymous for their protection.

Almost three years ago on my first trip to Colombia, I connected with one girl because both of us share a common characteristic, we both love to play rough and a little on the side of a tomboy. Well we talked a little and shared a couple of conversations, but never really connected on a deep level. I thought a couple smiles and a hug was enough. Now don’t get me wrong. God can use whatever we can give, but for me, I knew I had more than I was giving, I knew I was holding back to protect my heart from pain. I held this “arms length” attitude with most of the children up until my last two months in Colombia. God broke down my walls. He showed me that every child is important. He is concerned for every child.

So last month I started holding daily English classes with this particular girl that I met three years ago. She is so eager to learn and very intelligent. Other than my African sister, Mercy, I have never seen anyone learn so fast.

I was at a loss how to reach deeper with her, to really get past her “friend” to being her true friend, letting her know how much God loved her and I truly cared, so I prayed for God to show me a way and finally He answered. One day during one of our many classes, I noticed that she had scars on her upper arms, I had never noticed before because she always wore long sleeves. I told her that I had the same type of scars on my arms. She was very surprised and asked me if I was embarrassed by them. I explained that before I was, but that God has showed me that He made me just the way I am. After a long two hour conversation God helped me to explain to her that she is perfect, and that God loves her just the way she is. God softened a very locked heart that day, in the end she said she felt closer to me like a sister, and “Hermana” was her name for me the rest of my time there. God is still working on my friend, but I know that He has plans for her. She is a born leader, and very open to God. I used to be so insecure about how to help people, how to change people, but God has shown me, we only plant the seeds, the Holy Spirit is in charge of what happens after that, it is His work not ours, but He graciously invites us along for the ride, as my dad likes to call it, “Going to work with Daddy” He gets the glory and we get the joy.

Love Brooke

I feel I learned a valuable lesson from the children of colombia. As I have witnessed time and again, people respond to relationship. They respond to time and effort on getting to really know them. I learned that if you want to affect a persons life, take the time to convince them you mean business, you are here to stay, that you truly love them and care about them.

About 20 times in the new testament it says that Jesus reached out and touched people, He did not throw out some religious words at them and keep moving. He did not casually wave His hand and heal people as He passed carelessly by. He took the time to care about people. He touched them. He listened to them. He took the time and energy to show that He cared. This is not as easy as some would think. To give all you are and open your heart to the danger of being trampled, or rejected, is a very difficult undertaking. Sometimes it can be the most painful experience, especially when dealing with the people that need it the most.

For example Andrea, a beautiful girl that I met at Santa Maria. She was a newer girl so she lived in the “house of the stars.” I had been watching her for a couple weeks. She struck me because she always wore very thick eye liner and was always in the principles office at school. One day my ”Colombian mom” came home and told me that one of the girls had tried to commit suicide and was in the emergency room. I prayed for that girl that night, unknowing that it was this same girl I had been watching. Twice during my time there she went to the emergency room for this reason.

Finally one day my friend Oscar invited me to come and have a sit down with this girl. She was a little shy of me at first, because prior to this I had not met her face to face. I had just waved hi a couple times and we exchanged a couple smiles. But as we talked and I just sat there and listened she eased up and began to just speak from her heart. She was so afraid of being judged, but once she realized I was not perfect and just wanted to listen to her, she was able to confide in us and tell us the reasons for her actions. This girl had not only twice tried to take her own life, but 12 times. She had scars all up her wrists and bandages from her many attempts. She fully expected me to jump on her and tell her how wrong and sinful it was to try and play God, to take her life into her own hands, but… I prayed silently to God, “what can I possibly say to this girl, if she is so low, to try to even take her own life, how can I help her? What words can make anything better,” But I felt that God was telling me, this girl did not need a sermon, this girl needed to see Jesus, to feel his arms around her. God did not preach to the harlot. He showed her love, and said, “sin no more.” I took her hands in mine, and said, “you are beautiful, just the way you are. God made you just how He wanted, and He loves you and has a purpose and a plan for your life.” From that day on she called me her big sister, and always said hi to me with a smile. I had many other opportunities to show her the love of Jesus.

The lesson I learned was, people don’t only need to hear about Jesus, but we have to establish the relationship first, no one is going to listen and truly hear someone that has not first gained their trust, respect, and shown that they truly care. Anyone can throw words at a person, not everyone can give their time, effort and heart into helping a person.

To be continued…

Love Brooke

In my recent two month internship in Colombia I spent most of my time in an institution called Santa Maria, this is the same institution where my God-sister lives.

On one occasion I was invited by my friend to a prayer meeting that is held one night a month at every institution. This night I went to the one held at San Miguelito. When we arrived all the little boys and babies were patiently waiting for us in the group room. One by one the pregnant mothers entered the room and sat down I was able to see Louisa again and her best friend. I can’t remember her name but we were able to catch up and share some time together. Afterward we sang a few songs and a few of the kids got up and read prayers out loud for the group. It was amazing to see these kids ministering to each other at such a young age. Then it came time for all of us to pray together. I felt God hard on my heart that night to pray for these precious kids. As I stood there praying I felt eyes on me. I looked up and saw a young mother, watching me pray. I just flashed her a quick smile and continued. After we had finished, a little girl came up to me and asked my name and why I was in Colombia. I introduced myself and told her that I felt God calling me to come and serve the children of Colombia. She smiled and shook her head. We talked for a little and then she had to go to bed. She said she hoped to see me again soon and thanked me for coming.

Shortly after my friend ushered me upstairs to the pregnant mothers room. Many of these girls are barely into their teens. They are victims of rape, abuse, trafficking, and sin. As we approached a bed my friend explained that one of the girls was having pain in her stomach and had been bleeding for two days, but she was only five months along. I kneeled by her bed and put my hand on her stomach. My friend spoke softly to her, asking if she knew who Jesus was and what He meant to her. She said through tears that she did and that she had trusted Him as her Lord and Savior but she was very concerned for her baby. We asked if we could pray for her, she was more than happy to accept.

After we had prayed and were about to leave a young mother ran up to me and grabbed my hand, I recognized her from down stairs, she was the one who had been staring at me during prayer. It was hard to make out what she was trying to say at first, she seemed very distressed. I got the idea that she was seven months pregnant and was very scared. She was not ready to be a mother, she was concerned about how to raise a child, and what the future held for her. She asked me to pray for her so I gave her a hug and prayed. I felt so lost as to what to say to this girl. I could not say that everything was going to be fine. I did not know what to do. But after we prayed together, I saw a bit of peace come over her face. I knew God was at work in this girl, I told her that He has a plan for her life, and for the life growing inside her, and that if she trusted Him, she would not have to worry.

When I reached home that night, I knelt by my bed and just sighed a prayer for both of those girls, and I thank God that the one is now fine and her baby is fine too. God is good. Please keep all the young mothers of San Miguelito in your prayers that God would give them strength and peace.

These last two months have honestly been the best experience of my entire 19 years, I cannot thank God enough for the two months He allowed me to share with His precious angels.

On my second day in Colombia, I visited a little institution named San Miguelito, (little saint michael), I had visited this institution on prior mission trips and knew a couple of the children there but of course felt a bit uneasy and awkward at first, but my fears subsided quickly as I was led into a room full of the most adorable 2-5 year olds you can imagine. I spent about an hour playing with them. They love to sit on my lap and show me their elephant pictures made out of glue and macaroni pieces. I had been in that room for about an hour when I heard a familiar voice call my name. I looked up and peeking through the door was my friend Louisa, who I had met about a year ago and had not seen or heard of since. I cannot explain the joy that flooded my heart as I saw her smiling face. She took me upstairs and introduced me to all her friends and also to her baby boy Andres (Andrew). She is still seven months pregnant with him but she put my hand on her stomach and said, “this is my angel.”

I am so grateful to God that I was able to reunite with my friend and know that she is safe, we spent the whole day together just catching up and sharing dreams for the future, this was a major highlight for my time in Colombia, please keep Louisa in your prayers, and all the beautiful children of Colombia.