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Colombia Church Making Huge Impact on Lives
MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA (September 14, 2005) - A small delegation from the
Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) was scheduled to arrive in Quito,
Ecuador, yesterday to continue visits to various ministries supported by
the ECC in partnership with the national Covenant churches in both
Ecuador and Colombia.
The delegation includes ECC President Glenn Palmberg and his wife,
Sharon, and Covenant World Mission Executive Minister Curt Peterson and
his wife, Martie. They were joined in Colombia by Covenant missionaries
Gary and Mary Lou Sander, Cathy Campobello, and David and Wendy Mark,
regional coordinators for Latin America.
The group arrived in Bogota, Colombia, on Monday, September 5, with
visits to various ministry areas in Bogota, Monteria, San Carlos and
Medellin. One highlight of the visit was participation in the CIPE
"Integration Project" meeting in Medellin - to read more about that
meeting, please see Medellin.
Ruth Hill, executive minister of Women Ministries, spoke during a
Covenant Women's luncheon attended by CIPE representatives and Medellin
Covenant Women. In Medellin, a number of individuals preached at
different churches during September 11 worship services, including
Palmberg, Peterson, Hill, David Mark, Alberto Ruiz, Walter Contreras,
Tom Kelly and Rob Reed.
An important aspect of the Colombian visit was to allow Palmberg to see
the development of churches and ministries in the 36-year-old Colombia
Covenant Church, which has 35 local churches (seven in Bogota and 14
each in Medellin and the Caribbean Coast). Colombian Church President
Jorge Julian Perez was a special guest attending the 2005 Annual Meeting
in Keystone, Colorado. (To read an earlier story on Perez's visit,
please see Perez. Also
on the agenda were visits to projects funded over the years by Covenant
World Relief through the generosity of local Covenant churches. The
projects included:
- Poultry farm project - Located in San Carlos, the "Fadescar" farm
raises 1,400 chickens.
- Integrated project - Located in Las Chalinas, this project raises
cattle, poultry and pigs.
- Resale store project - Two second-hand resale stores, operated by
Covenant Women, are located in Medellin, and El Hato.
- Tractor Project - Located in El Hato, this project focuses on
agricultural/economic development.
- CRENN project - This project, located in Monteria, works to
reinforce nutrition and education among children, working within a
community of people who have been displaced due to violence and the poor
economy. The project also provides meals and nutrition for families.
- Drug rehabilitation - Programs have now expanded beyond men's
rehabilitation programs to include women and children. One of these
programs is called Jacob's House, located outside Bogota. Children ages
7 to 12 who have suffered abuse and/or become addicted to drugs are
referred to Jacob's House by child welfare department staff and by local
Covenant churches and neighborhood outreach programs. Health and
Education Brigades have been sponsored by local Covenant churches
entering areas where there are known populations of street children,
providing short-term responses including food, clothing and medical
treatment. The center is an extended rehab program for these children
centered on a ranch built primarily through the efforts of the Norwegian
Covenant Church. Currently, there are 20 kids at the ranch in a program
including drug rehab, psychological counseling, abuse counseling, family
counseling, and counseling on child abandonment issues, child abuse and
nutrition. The program includes ministry to the families of the children
and enrolls each of the children in a nearby local school.
- Compassion project - "El Pinal" - Hope of Life - is a compassion
project that had its origins in a Covenant World Relief response to a
fire tragedy that destroyed 710 homes and displaced 3,500 people.
Immediate relief focused on care for fire victims, and developed over
time into an ongoing Children's Compassion Project.
- Fountain of Life - This is another site that is part of the
Children's Compassion Project.
- Covenant Kids Foundation- Covenant World Relief has helped to fund a
fish farm, flower farm, the Being Loved Health Center, the Child Sponsor
Program, and "mini-business" startup programs, including stores and
sewing projects.
- At-risk outreach program - Called "Renewing Colombia," this is an
outreach program for at-risk girls - including a drop-in center - that
is part of a Women Ministries project involving local Covenant churches
in North America.
A number of other programs also were scheduled for visits:
- Let's Be Friends - A soccer program in Medellin led by Julio Isaza,
husband to short-term missionary Katie O'Connor Isaza, that reaches out
to boys in a very poor community of displaced families, giving boys
from the surrounding neighborhoods an opportunity to be part of a soccer
team, participate in devotional talks and small Bible study groups, and
providing a positive experience through sports activities and
interaction with adult role models.
- Covenant Elementary School - Located in Medellin, this is a
Christian school operated by the Medellin regional Covenant church.
- Potosi Elementary School - Located in Bogota.
- Love Brigade in Bogota - Sponsored by the Normandia and Bethlehem
Churches, this program is an outreach initiative into the most destitute
neighborhoods, providing food, clothing, and health care and providing
entrance into the rehab programs for men, women and boys.
"My heart was touched by a little girl with no legs and only one arm,"
Palmberg said following a visit to one of the schools. "It was so moving
to hear her story of being found on the streets looking for food, and to
know she now in part of the Covenant Kids program." Palmberg's wife,
Sharon, also was moved by what she saw. "I was so touched by the
dedication of the teachers of the little kids in the Covenant schools,"
she said. "They have little or no pay, few supplies, and they work in
cramped quarters. Yet, they continue to provide such compassionate care
for these children in the poorest communities."
The Colombia Covenant Church is extremely effective in confronting the
biggest problems faced in this country - spiritually and socially, notes
one of the trip participants. "Over and over we met pastors who were
formerly drug addicts and were rescued by Jesus Christ through this
church ministry, and are now pastors."
"They keep seeing a new need and find a way to address it," notes Martie
Peterson. "A new foundation, a new care program - and lives are changed.
Children are a priority in the ministries of the church."
The impact the Colombian church is having was obvious to all:
- Sharon Palmberg - "We were so moved by the social programs that are
changing lives and bringing people to Christ - doing so much, even
though they have so little themselves."
- Glenn Palmberg - "For many, many children who have benefited from
these care programs, they now have a hope, a dream, a future. If you
took the church out of the picture, they would be drug addicts,
prostitutes, living lives of despair. There is such a seamless
connection of evangelism and compassion/social projects in the Colombia
Covenant Churches - you never see a church here without an outreach into
the community to meet the most significant needs of people. This church
is a leaven in the loaf - a small church making an enormous impact
beyond their size."
- Martie Peterson - "We visited one very poor community where many of
the children spend their days alone because their mother is working
throughout the day. It is important for them to have a group to be part
of, like the soccer program that gives them a model and keeps them from
being drawn into gangs."
- Curt Peterson - "I am so impressed by the visionary leadership of
the church in Colombia. The dedication and devotion of pastors, the
compassion of church members is impacting many lives."
- Andres Bunch - "If I couldn't be involved in social projects, I
wouldn't want to be a pastor. If I couldn't proclaim the whole gospel, I
wouldn't want to be a pastor." (Bunch is pastor of the largest Covenant
church of more 800 congregants, the Normandia Covenant Church in Bogota.)
The Covenant missionary team - Gary and Mary Lou Sander, Cathy
Campobello and Katie O'Connor Isaza - are working to encourage, empower
and equip leaders of the church, Palmberg noted. "We have seen the
effective partnership of Covenant World Mission, the Colombia Covenant
Church and Covenant World Relief in proclaiming the gospel in word and
deed to the glory of God!"
Editor's note: to see more pictures from the visits, please see Photos.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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