The Jungle Book!

The road to church

I have officially been in Colombia for over 2 months! Crazy! It doesn’t seem like that long, yet at the same time it also feels longer in some ways. I’d like to write about some experiences over semana santa (Holy Week… aka Easter), and also how life is going in general after being here 2 months. But first, my ‘adventure’ while I was in Chocó!

The Sunday when I was there we all split up into small groups of 2-3 to visit different Mennonite Brethren churches. I went to one that was in a very small community about 1.5 hours away in moto-taxi from Istmina, where we were staying. We left around 7:30am to get there for the 9am service. There were 4 of us, the pastor of the church, Pastor Nelson from Bogota, Carolina an MCCer serving in Chocó, and I. We squished into the moto-taxi and were off.

Flat tire #1

About an hour into our trip (I had no watch on so I’m guessing) we got a flat tire. So we stopped, put on the spare, and continued. About 100m down the road the spare went flat. When we looked at it, the tire had come off the rim and the inner tube had a huge gash in it. There was no saving this tire. Then our driver, Carolina and the pastor all got on their cell phones, trying to find a way to get us to the church. We ended up waiting on this dirt road for half an hour.

Flat Tire #2

You could hear the sounds of a mine in the distance, working on one of the countless rivers in Chocó. Our only visitors were a truck and a dirt bike that drove by without stopping at all. Then another dirt bike stopped and they were friends of the driver and trying to help him out, but there was nothing they could do. Finally the pastor got ahold of someone at the church, and they were going to send some people to pick us up on dirt bikes and take us to the church. So the four of us started walking to meet the guys who were coming to get us on dirt bikes.

Waiting with Carolina and the pastor

Walking

It was a really beautiful place. The green jungle was all around us, it wasn’t raining, and with a few clouds in the sky the sun didn’t seem too strong. After we walked over the top of a hill close to the taxi, we didn’t see any signs of any other people for our entire walk. No noises of cars, or dirt bikes, just birds and bugs buzzing around. I never imagined that part of my trip with the delegation to Chocó would end up being walking with this small group through the jungle.

After about 20 minutes of walking the first dirt bike reached us. It was decided that both Pastor Nelson and I would go on it. So I got to be the third person on the bike, sitting on the metal rack. Keep in mind that this is with me wearing a skirt! Thankfully I had shorts on underneath! We drove like this for a few minutes, then 2 bikes passed us to get the other 2, and then a third bike came and stopped. I switched bikes, so there would only be 2 of us on a bike. Then I was doubled like this for another 15-20 minutes or so until we got to the church. We drove through several creeks and rivers, and it was really good I was wearing sandals. At one point, my feet on the foot bars were completely submerged in the river! So it wasn’t just small creeks we drove through.

One of the rivers we rode through

Later on, others asked me if I was scared, and I could honestly answer, that no I wasn’t. Since I was a kid my family has had dirt bikes and I loved getting doubled for a ride by my brother, dad, uncle or cousin. For me the biggest difference was that I wasn’t adequately dressed for dirt biking. Normally I’d wear long pants, long sleeves and helmet in case you fall. Here I had my legs and arms exposed and no helmet. I knew that if we were to fall on the gravel it would really hurt, but I trusted the driver knew what he was doing, and he did, so we didn’t fall.

After all this we arrived at the church. Pastor Nelson was somewhere else getting changed, so I walked in on my own as my driver disappeared. I was greeted by this wonderful lady who was super nice and led me to a seat in the front row. Eventually Pastor Nelson and Carolina joined me, but it took them awhile to get there.

Pastor Nelson preaching

The church service was great! It was super loud music, and their passion was incredible. They sang and clapped their hands and praised God. The kids were seated close to the front and were dancing and jumping around. It was such a blessing to be a part of! Pastor Nelson was their guest speaker and he gave a passionate sermon that was very interesting, and I was actually able to follow! After the worship service they gave us a great lunch of cheese soup and we spent some time walking around their community and hearing their stories.

This MB church is the only church in the small community of under 400 people. And even though not everyone is a member of the church, they all participate in some way and want to help the church, because the church cares and helps the community. Last year when they were building a new church building everyone from the community came to help, and some non-church members were even saying that they (as in all of them together) should be doing a better job! They took ownership of the project and wanted to serve this church that means so much to this community. We heard other stories that were very impactful, but I’m not sure how much I should share here in a public space.

Getting back was another adventure, since our taxi didn’t come with us all the way, it couldn’t take us back. Thankfully, one of the 3 vehicles in the community was driving back to Istmina and he loaded up all the passengers he could take, I think around 12-13 in one jeep!

Visiting after the church service

As you can tell nothing bad happened on this trip, we just had to make some changes to transportation, but it all worked out ok. Later on that day, when we were back in Istmina, I learned more about the context of where we were, and learned how great God’s protection of us was. The road we were traveling on went past several mines, and mines are protected by paramilitary groups, who don’t necessarily want outsiders there. Pastor Nelson and I are obviously outsiders. However, we were traveling with an MCCer and a local pastor, both of whom are well known in the area, and it’s much better and safer to travel with locals. There’s also the fact that we were in the jungle for a while with no vehicle, and there are wild animals around. And again, God protected us, we never saw any animals.

For me this did feel like an adventure. It’s the first time I walked through the jungle! But more than that, it was a witness to God’s protection. While I am so thankful for this protection, I am now also more aware of the dangers and struggles that the people here face every day. Yet in the midst of this they worship with joy and hope in Jesus Christ. Jesus, the Son of God, who is here! He is here with them, and I am so thankful for the opportunity I had to join with these brothers and sisters for this Sunday. And who knows, maybe there’ll be another opportunity to go back to Chocó soon!