Day 5: Barranquilla

Today was our last day in the field and it went great! The rain held off for us and we were able to work in the barrio that we were originally supposed to be in all day yesterday. The people in this barrio are great!!

There were so many kids in this barrio. They were everywhere!! While most of the kids were in school from noon-6pm, the parents were at home during the day. We saw a ton of kids this morning and then spent time with a lot of parents this afternoon. This was another barrio that was crime ridden and over run with gangs and drug dealers. But God protected us and led us to the people He wanted us to talk to which included some of these people.

The service this afternoon was packed with young and old. A church that normally has around 10 people and room for maybe 20 had about 50 at their service. We saw 41 people give their life to Christ in a day and a half. We had the opportunity to go back and visit many of the people we spoke to yesterday and do some discipleship with them. The cool thing... we would be there visiting and they would bring other people into the house and we were sharing and teaching them to share.

I played soccer with a bunch of little kids and their older brothers. The older kids were pretty hard core and into some things that definitely were not good for them. A couple of card tricks and self-humiliating attempts at playing soccer, and I had them listening to me. So cool!

I had some interesting conversation with my friend Aurora the last couple of days. It's amazing how wrong we get it sometimes in the american church today. We've placed our stock in so much stuff (media, buildings, programs, etc..) that we've created an attitude of "what are you gonna do to impress me" in the people that come through our doors. While these things are not bad at all... we must do them with excellence, we must use them to glorify God, and we must use them to encourage and point people into ministry.

God is speaking to me and stirring my heart about some things. I'm trying to work these things out in my head so I can write them out and move on them. It is just such an encouragement to watch these people worship and be a part of these services. It reminds me of what gifts God has given me and speaks to why I need to be a better steward of those gifts. To watch people with so little give so much is completely humbling.

I'm out....