Incarnational Living

Once again two weeks have passed since I wrote, and a lot has happened! I wanted to share about some other parts of Colombia that I have gotten to visit, and mostly about the people there and the incredible ways they are living out their faith.

Part of what MCC does in Colombia is host learning tours, helping people from other parts of the world understand, learn more about, and support the people in Colombia, their joys and their struggles. I was blessed to accompany a learning tour of MB pastors and leaders from Canada who came here to connect with Colombian MB pastors.

This is the walk some people have to their house in Cazucá

My first day with them we went to Cazucá, a neighbourhood in the municipality of Soacha, just south of Bogotá. We visited an MB church there, which is also running a school. It was amazing to hear the testimony of the pastoral couple working there. This is a neighbourhood, where 90% of the people there have been displaced from other parts of the country. (Colombia has the highest number of internally displaced people in the world.) For those who can’t afford to live in Bogotá, they’ve gone to the outskirts of the city. This is a neighbourhood of houses built on the side of the hill, which was empty land before. Walking through the neighbourhood, we saw where a landslide had destroyed many homes before, and where other homes where slowly falling. The people of Cazucá face many challenges; including living the midst of a violent context, yet still there is hope. The MB church has grown in 10 years, and the pastoral couple and the 2 MCCers living with them, are the only Mennonites working in Cazucá who also live there. What a testimony, what incarnational living.

Hearing about the Chocó region by the Atrato river.

I also got to visit Anabaptists in the Chocó region of Colombia. There are 10 MB churches there and the first was started by North American missionaries. However, these churches have not received visitors from MB churches in the North America in over 20 years. So it was a big deal for this delegation of MB pastors and leaders from Canada to visit. And the Mennonites of Chocó welcomed us with open arms. Their hospitality was tremendous.

The Chocó region is one of the poorest in Colombia. They have poor infrastructure and no water system.  It’s one of the wettest places on earth, lots of rivers, and lots of humidity, which makes it super-hot. The people there are primarily Afro-Colombian, and the music and church services were lively and full of energy! There is a lot mining going on here, and also continued violence and threats of violence from armed groups. Guerilla groups, para-military, and the Colombian army are all present. On the drive to the city where we stayed we went through territory controlled by each of these groups.

Yet in the midst of these challenges and struggles the churches enthusiastically welcomed us, with many smiles, hugs, and kisses on the cheek (the typical Colombian greeting). They were excited to share with us their ministries and how they were living out a holistic gospel in their communities. Every church we heard of was striving to minister to the needs of the people around them, spiritual and physical. They asked for our prayers, and shared their joy to have relationship with us, to know that they are not alone. It was very powerful to hear of how these churches are living out their faith in the midst of this difficult context.

Pastors and church leaders from Chocó

We were in Chocó for 5 days, and 4 nights, and a lot happened! There were some adventures, and a lot of amazing people. I’ll some more about this soon, as this post is already long enough!