bogota !!

11/1/18
Bogota Recap pt 1
Time is weird. Somehow it’s already the end of our first leg of the trip. I blinked, and just like that month 1 is down; we have wrapped up our time and I write this as we fly to Armenia for month 2 of this crazy adventure. 

It’s taken some time to place my feelings of this past month, but in a really good way. I feel so overwhelmed with richness from the Lord — the kind of blessings that take time to sort and process.

First I’ll recap the highlights and tell you what we’ve been up to!

So, as I mentioned in my last post, most of our time in Bogota consisted of working at Formavida (which means "transforming lives") with the after school kids’ ministry. The teenage retreat went so well!! We had 60 teenagers age 12-18 attend and had time of worship, messages on what it looks like to live like Christ in practical ways (purity, avoiding drugs, having wisdom in relationships, etc.), and activities to apply what they were learning. 

One night we had a bonfire that lasted past midnight with worship and prayer. It was one of the most moving worship experiences of my life. 

This is one of the girls, Manuela, who attended the youth retreat. She was able to speak a good bit of English, so we talked a lot and tried to help one another learn each other's languages! It was so neat to see how directly the retreat impacted people like Manuela, who left feeling filled and refreshed by the end of the weekend.

Our linker team helped create an obstacle for them course one day that ended up with many laughs and L O T S of mud. But it was so much fun!

 Our nightly view from the mountain we lived on. Insert heart eyes.

 Some of y'all asked about my room, so here it is! Really missin dat nemo wall :(

Morning language lessons! We spent an hour teaching the work team English and they would teach us an hour of spanish.

 My chicas!! These are the kids from the class I helped in everyday. 

This guy's name is Jair. He loves to be held and his favorite words are "de vueltas," which means "turn around." He NEVER wants to be still!!!! Constantly wants to just spin haha! Love and miss him.

 Every Monday during our time in Bogota was our day off from ministry.  We worked with a World Race team, so our teams would take joint "cultural experience" days, usually accompanied by some of the people who worked at Formavida. One of the days we spent exploring downtown Bogota (my personal favorite excursion!) It was so much fun to explore the highlights of the city and spend time with the racers & work team from Formavida. Another day, we drove about 1.5 hour out of Bogota to a salt mine, and got to explore the caves! Such a neat experience!

 Downtown Bogota

 Exploring salt mines.

Learned how to make churros and empanadas. Might not remember 100% how to make em but hey i can still mark it off of my bucket list, right??

 One of the Sundays, we hiked up the mountain we were living on and the view was stunning !!

This is the colectivo! Basically a little jeep that you can fit as many as 16 people into: aka a rollercoaster that SPEEDS up the mountain. Half your body is pretty much asleep by the time you get out due to ZERO personal space but hey, it's def still a fun time.

 introduced colombia to our love for waffle and peanut butter. had to make do with a sandwich maker for the waffle iron. but hey, when it comes to waffles you do whatever it takes.

---

OKAY, now: introductions to the people who stole my heart !!

There are about 8-10 people who work full time with the ministry. They come everyday and lead classes and help with facility needs. Throughout the week, our team set aside a couple hours to have language lessons with the work team at the church. They spent an hour teaching us Spanish and we'd spend an hour teaching them English. Most of them are in their early twenties, so it was a super fun way to start building relationships with them! It also helped us a ton with picking up more spanish.

One night, Lucy and Ricardo (our hosts + the founders of Formavida) gathered the linkers, world racers, and entire work team for a night of sharing their testimonies and the story of how their ministry began. Their stories of how God transformed their lives was so powerful. 

Formavida began about 12 years ago, when Lucy felt an urge to minister to the people that lived on the mountain, which at the time was a very spiritually dark and dangerous place. Lucy began this endeavor with minimal funds, trusting God to provide all the needs. There was lots of crime from gangs, being so unsafe that police often hesitated to come up. She began the ministry as a simple cafeteria, offering hot meals once a day to the people living nearby. This drew people to come, and eventually opened doors to share the gospel with people.

Overtime, it transformed into an after-school ministry, as well as a full Alliance church. Through many trials for Lucy and Ricardo, Formavida has grown to be a safe haven for the people that live on the mountain, changing hundreds of lives-- especially in the lives of the students that attend the after school ministry, but also their parents and for those who attend church on Sundays. 

All of the young adults who work at Formavida now became Christians through the ministry and carry stories of difficult pasts, but also of beauty and redemption. And now, they give back immensely to the ministry that God used to change their lives, investing in the kids daily. It's incredible to see the way the Lord has rewarded Lucy for her faithfulness and shown his providential hand upon the community. It was a privilege to catch a glimpse and be a very small part of all that Formavida is doing to change lives everyday.

 Meet Ricardo. He and Lucy (didn't get a picture with her :( ) are the founders of Formavida. They've got hearts like nobody else. So welcoming and loving to all they meet. They're seriously changing lives everyday.

 Late night card games became a favorite part of the day. South americans take competition very seriously and get VERY loud. Needless to say, I LOVE IT hahaha

 Diana and Yurley (above) and Lorena (below) ! These girls have amazing stories of how they came to know Jesus. All through Formavida. And now they are working at the ministry full time throughout the week (AND balancing a full school load as students at university-- amazing !!!!) to pour their lives back into the kids. They show love so well.

 Lorena ! ^ my home girl. I knew about 5 minutes after I met her that I wanted to be friends with her hahaha. We clicked so well. This girl's got sass for daysss and appreciates a good prank as much as I do. We caused a lot of trouble together ;) Miss her a whole lot :(

 RUTH!! I love this woman. She has such a young and adventurous heart, so eager to embrace the fun things in life & in such a loving way. She lives at Formavida and leaves earlyyy in the morning everyday for her hour-long commute to work and school. However, that doesn't stop her from being apart of a midnight bonfire or a good late night card game. She also always carried around lollipops, and would walk up to people saying, "Would you like a bon bon bum???" I realized within 3 weeks, I found myself a new role model. Thank you for teaching me so much in so little time, Ruth!

 DANIEL!! This kid. He moved to Bogota 3 months ago to attend University in the city, and lives at Formavida. Most days he was away at school, but we got to hangout most nights. He wants to be an engineer, loves to cook , has the BEST laugh, and we also taught him to love peanut butter religiously.

 This is Caley!! He also has such an amazing story of how he came to know Christ. He works at Formavida everyday and loves & cares for the kids so deeply. 90% of the time he's never being serious -- always goofing off and ALWAYS giving me a hard time whenever I try to speak Spanish hhahaha

This is Jose!! This guy has got endless energy and lives life with adventure. He volunteered to be our guide around Bogota, when we toured downtown. He also made us try a capybara, without telling us what it was until AFTER we ate it hahahah. I'm pretty sure I'm beyond forgiveness with a few of my friends for this, but I'm sorry. It was pretty good.

 One of our final nights, the work team came together and made us a surprise farewell dinner!! They wrote each of us letters and decorated the room for us <3

---

I think my biggest takeaway from my time spent in Bogota was the impact of love. I came into this site (honestly, into this trip) with the mindset that I would meet people and part with them as acquaintances; people I would say hi and bye to throughout the day, maybe hear a cool testimony, and that was it.

But I’ve quickly learned that this is not how the body of Christ functions. They love fellow family in Christ deeply and richly — one highlight being from my birthday // !!

So, during my time in Bogota, I turned 20. In case you don’t know me very well, I’m a total birthday snob ahaha. I loooooove birthdays (especially mine ahahah I’m just being honest) I just love the time spent celebrating together, especially with your favorite people who make you feel loved. 

Right off the bat at training, I told my team: “by the way guys something you should know about me is that I’m kind of obnoxious about my birthday I go all out and always have a fun celebration with my friends back at home. Not saying y’all have to spoil me or anything BUT it’s just a fun day for me back at home.” I said this expecting maybe a cupcake or something to celebrate, and I really wasn’t expecting my team to do anything insane. Mostly just didn’t want them to forget about it hahaha. 

BUT LEMME TELL YA WHAT THEY DID. 

For starters, this is less than 3 weeks of knowing my team, and less than 2 weeks of knowing our hosts. I wake up, welcomed by everyone at breakfasts with excited “happy birthdays!!!!” and hugs. Aw, sweet, that was probably it until night when maybe I’d get a surprise cupcake or something, right?? wrong. 

After breakfast, my mentor Erica calls me into a classroom, and I follow, wondering what she needed from me. She hands me her phone and there is my entire family looking back at me on her screen. YEAH she did a surprise FaceTime call for me!!! I don’t cry a lot, but I immediately started crying, 1. bc i missed my fam so dang much and it was so good to see their faces and 2. bc of erica’s thoughtfulness. “You probably planned on talking to them today anyways, but I wanted to be extra sure we made time for this just in case the day slipped away.” honestly getting to talk to them was the best bday present I could’ve gotten. 

The day continued on pretty normal: we served the kiddos lunch, washed lots of dishes, played hand clapping games, and I helped in the classroom I normally help out in. After ministry time, I was hanging out with one of my friends on the staff team, helping her with English homework, and Erica and Bryan come in, hanging up a curtain over the office window and announcing that I was locked in the office (for what ended up being 1.5 hour ahahah) and couldn’t come out. Sounds boring, but Lorena and I had a blast. (yes, lorena knows minimal english and i know minimal spanish and we still managed to have a fiesta of our own. more proof that love extends beyond language)

Eventually, Erica comes in and says “ok you can come out now!!”

I walk into the dining area to see a “feliz cumpleanos" banner, piñata, and BURRITOS and guac on the table for dinner. heck yes. oh but it gets better. knowing my favorite foods are peanut butter and waffles, erica found a sandwich iron and cooked waffle batter in it, creating sandwich -looking waffles and topped with peanut butter. what the heck???? i knew these people for less than 3 weeks and they already knew my fav things??? talk about feeling loved. they sang an intense lively colombian version of happy birthday that had me smiling so big and we feasted together.

Then, they brought out little gifts too AH!! The class teacher whom I help daily, Yurley, had all the kids in her class make me surprise birthday cards. Erica and Bryan also bought me a handmade crocheted bag from the local sewing/crochet ministry! It was easily one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had.

Bogota left a mark on my heart that I won’t forget. Having Jesus into your life means you have a family scattered across the globe. Meeting my hosts, staff team, and new teammates wasn’t like meeting strangers — it was like an accelerated friendship that led to us parting as family, all within 19 days. I’ve quickly learned that you don’t have to be fluent in another person's language to love them well. 

—

I wrote this all on the way to Armenia, and am just now getting around to posting it haha. I am working on an update about life in Armenia!! We are here for a total of 4 weeks, living at a seminary school. There are 17 students here, all training to be missionaries and pastors in foreign countries, most of them being in the middle east. 

If you could, please pray for me as I continue to learn Spanish, and that have boldness to build relationships with the students here, even with the language barrier.
Love and miss you all! Thank you for all of the prayers. They truly make a difference. <3
-Allison