Well, I have to say, I just cannot warm up!! It blows my mind that I took the above pictures but a week ago. Yes, those are poinsettias growing OUTDOORS :) The snow today has been like a slap in the face, such a stark difference to the gorgeous sunshine and wonderfully warm days I was enjoying last week. I heard on the news tonight we could get up to 20 cm of snow by the end of the night...argh.
Colombia was an incredibly beautiful country. I especially fell in love with the city of Medellin. A city built in a valley surrounded by mountains. As you can see, the vegetation there is incredible: orchids, lillies, hybiscus bushes in full bloom, poinsettias, palm trees. It was such a blessing to wake up to sunshine, and the noises of birds singing outside my window. Every morning would be beautiful and sunny and every afternoon we would get a good and heavy rain. I will write in another post about the storm that hit the day we arrived, but that's for another time :) Be patient with me, it's taking me a while to get this all out for some reason.
The top picture is of the retreat centre that we stayed at from Sunday afternoon (last week) until Tuesday afternoon. The building in front was the changeroom and meeting building... behind it is the pool I swam in (outside) only one week ago today. Ahhhh, it was so sweet :) The other pictures were taken in the heart of the city of Medellin. Joel laughed at me for all the pictures I took of flowers, but I was blown away.
One of the things that was most difficult to get used to, but became one of my favourite things was how open everything was. There were no screens on the windows, often the roof didn't actually meet with the walls (there would be a space along the top of the wall), the courtyards were open, people left their windows and doors open a lot of the time. I sensed a great deal of community. As somewhat of an introvert, the idea of not being able to "get away to be by myself" was a difficult one. In another way I was attracted to the idea of such "openness". People there don't seem to be afraid to reach out to one another...to help eachother and certainly aren't afraid to talk to one another. I find the area in which I live (and probably a lot of Ontario) is so private. We really don't know what goes on within the walls of people's homes. Privacy is a sacred thing to us...something we strive to protect. With this can come isolation though. We really don't seem to get to know eachother. People don't generally meet on the street and strike up a conversation.
At one point in the trip we were walking through a neighbourhood where one of the couples is hoping to plant a church. We were handing out some booklets on thankfulness. I couldn't help but think of how people would respond if we'd been doing it here in Huron County. My guess was that they would be hesitant to take the information, or wonder what we were selling. The people in Medellin seemed open to taking the information. We even passed a construction site at one point and what I assumed to be the foreman had us count out and leave booklets for each of his workers.
The people that I met in Colombia were very warm people. They were eager to welcome us. Most would say that we were welcome back anytime, that their home was our home, that they hoped to see us again. Then inevitably the people we met in the churches there wanted to pray for us. It's a pretty incredible thing when people you've never met want to surround you, lay hands on your shoulders and pray for you. Even though we couldn't understand what they were saying, I think we could all sense the Spirit of God in those moments. Personally I can recall several times when I had that strange and wonderful tingling in my body while I was being prayed for...even though I couldn't understand what they were saying. Incredible!!
The people we met in the Colombian churches were family, as it should be. We are children of God. We share similar passions for others to come to know Christ. We have the same Father, the same essential beliefs (despite some minor differences), we face some of the same struggles and challenges in wanting to spread the word of God to those who don't know it. Brothers and Sisters in Christ: Hermanos y Hermanas en Cristo. I think of and pray for my family in Colombia as I stare at the snow outside...
So sweet
Melanie
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