Pictures are worth a thousand words. It seems like there’s millions of words I could use to try and describe my time in Colombia but I’d like to share some pictures that capture my time in this beautiful country filled with beautiful people that have changed me forever.

This is Pastor Willie and Momma Christina. They were our hosts this past month. Pastor Willie encouraged our teams to be led by Holy Spirit and step out in boldness. Momma Christina treated us as her own children. They both loved us all so well and truly made Colombia home.

This was our bedroom for the month. 14 of us shared the top floor of the house.  It was a blessing to have a bed this month! We slept 5 of us on 3 twins, you could say we got real close real fast!

Food in Colombia was amazing. A typical day of eating starts with a small breakfast, normally an arepa con queso or eggs on an arepa. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day (pictured above) and was served around 1-2pm. There was always fresh juice to go along with it. Dinner was served late in the evening and was normally an arepa con queso or rice con leche.

This was the view from our back porch and was where I spent most of my time while in the house. Early morning God-times and late night chats with friends. I will never forget this spot.

Some of my favorite moments of ministry were the times we did house visits. People would open their homes to us and we would pray over them and their family’s. This is Tina, the cutest little lady in the world. She fed us, danced for us, and showed us Jesus.

Another aspect of our ministry was partnering with the different campuses of our host ministry, Ministero Neuvo Vida.

This is Pastor Diego and Pastor Olga. They pastor one of the branches that we were able to serve. We got a chance to do street evangelism, house visits, and children’s ministry with their church. We also got to lead one of their church services.

THE BROWNIE PROJECT. This special person right here is Suze. We found very quickly that both of us like to snack hardcore. We found a cafe close to our home that we would venture to on the regular to treat ourselves to a brownie and a coffee. We started to ask different members from our team to join us each time we went. It turned into a beautiful time of getting to know our squad on a deeper level. We also got to know our waiter Carlos Andres (pictured below) and show him our love of Jesus and of brownies.

We got to serve the church in San Pedro doing more street evangelism, children’s ministry, and home visits.

We learned pretty quickly how to balloon sword fight and took it very seriously with the kiddos and with each other.

Our children ministry looked like going through neighborhoods and gathering little ones from all over to come and play. We would do skits, dances and games with them. Then share the love of Jesus through a word and end with snacks and more playing. In every event, these kiddos stole my heart in just a few hours. I pray we planted seeds in their hearts that they will never ever forget.

More house visits and getting to know the lovely people in the church. Here is Juliet and her mom. Juliet is about to graduate high school and venture to college to study medicine. We bonded over her pet hamster and singing Disney tunes together.

Our team had the privilege of exploring district 13 in Medellín. Years ago this place was a war zone, controlled by Pablo Escobar and the drug lords that ruled the town. Now that the state has reclaimed this area, it has been turned into a beautiful place of art, shops, and tourists attractions.

Team Fiercely Loved had an amazing month of pouring into the people of Medellín. But they poured themselves into us in ways we would have never imagined. They encouraged us to pursue this year with Holy Spirit guiding us and press into the Lord when times get hard. I learned so much from this place, from these people, from this family. I left a piece of my heart with them but I took a piece of their heart with me and I will carry all that that I learned in Colombia everywhere I go.