At a Colombian Street Party

(Photo by Jen)

Fresh Wind Children's Center hosted a Sancocho on November 18.

A Sancocho is both a street party and a chicken stew or soup.  As a soup, it has large pieces of meat (ours had beef and chicken) and vegetables in a chicken broth.

In the afternoon, some of our mission team went on the street evangelizing and interceding for the street party.  A couple people from our group helped prepare the meal.  We all came together for a meeting in the evening with several other people from Christian Faith Community Church, (Click here to use Google Translate on their website) which sponsors Fresh Wind Children's Center.

During the meeting, we discussed our plan for the night.  We were going to separate into several small groups and go to the people in the community, invite them to the Sancocho, and minister to them.  We would all meet back at the Sancocho, which was only a few blocks away from the Children's Center.  We would help there and then go back to the Children's Center.

Some of the local Colombians helping with the Sancocho wanted prayer because they were afraid of going out.  After praying they all felt better and we left.

When I went to the travel clinic to get some vaccines before the mission trip, I was told that it was a bad idea to go out at night, but that's exactly what we were doing.  Fresh Wind Children's Center is located in the dangerous neighborhood of Niquitao in the city of Medellín.  The neighborhood is entrenched with witchcraft.  People practice it there and its practice comes with unpredictable results.  We could smell marijuana in the air in most places.  Of course there were also homeless people doing crack or cocaine in plain view.  I saw some people I was pretty sure I didn't want to talk to at all since they might have wanted to just kill me for looking at them.

We met all kinds of people, and they all generally wanted prayer.  I came up to one lady who was holding her head.  Through my translator, I asked if she needed prayer.  She said that she had a headache and an infection on her body.  I prayed for her and the headache went away!  She stopped holding her head, and told us that it was gone.  I encouraged her to see a doctor about her infection.

I asked this woman how she felt, and she said that she felt depressed.  Sensing that there was more to this story, I asked her if she was suicidal, which she confirmed.  I told her that we would pray for this too, but she asked us to pray for her inside her house where there was more privacy.  Once inside, I counseled her, and encouraged her to follow-up with the Children's Center since they could continue to help her and were within walking distance.  But through this, I led her to Jesus.  Although I know God can take away suicidal thoughts, I hope that she goes back to Fresh Wind so that they can help her work through the things that brought her to that place.  Isolation is so conducive to listening to the destructiveness of the enemy.

When our small little group made it to the Sancocho, there were lots of people in line for food.  I helped create a human barricade so that people got their food in turn.  I got pinched a couple times by a little girl who didn't like waiting in line.  Another lady came right up to me to get some food, but was spaced out and reacting to things that weren't there.  I figured she was hallucinating on cocaine.

But there were also some great people there.  Lots of happy people were in the street—both adults and children.  I remember two four-foot-tall ladies in red dresses.  I was told that they belonged to an aboriginal tribe since our Colombian translators couldn't understand them.

Jeff smiles as a fire for the Sancocho is built next to the street. (Photo by Jen)

A couple Colombian men help put the Sancocho pot over the fire. (Photo by Jen)

We had entertainment at the Sancocho.  There were bubbles, face painting, and we made balloon animals. (Photo by Jen)

After the street party, we went back to the Children's Center where we debriefed.  Apparently one of the groups had 35 salvation commitments! In the amount of time we had, I figured they must have just asked a group of people to repeat the sinner's prayer if they wanted to know Jesus.  Another group had around 10.  My group had a few salvation commitments, but nothing like those numbers. 

At the debriefing, one of the Colombians remarked that we missionaries seemed to be unaffected, fearless, to the danger of the neighborhood.  After the meeting, I commented to Tom and Jen that it wasn't fearlessness.  We were just ignorant of how dangerous it really was.

No one got hurt that evening, and we made a good impact in the neighborhood.  Around 50 people came to know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.  Our Sancocho was a success.