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Missions Team Ministers in Colombia

By May 18, 2012June 17th, 2014No Comments

AMES, Iowa—A team of high school and college students from CrossRoad Baptist Church (previously called Campus Baptist Church) traveled to Santa Marta, Colombia, to help Impacto Biblico, a local Baptist church, reach out to its community. The team worked with ABWE church-planting missionaries Jon Boyd, Scott Carter, and Alfredo Medina, spending most of their time in the city participating in various outreach ministries. “Our primary goal for the week was to share the gospel with as many people as possible and to get the name of the church out in the community through different service opportunities,” says Jeff Wood.

“The first of many highlights was picking up trash in one of the busy sports parks,” Jeff says. “Almost everyone who works out does so early in the morning before the heat sets in, so to be visible we were there at 6 a.m. Many people came up to us expressing gratitude. They had never seen Americans serving their city like that before. It was a simple gesture we could do to show Jesus’ love. We picked up about 30 large bags of trash by 11 a.m. and were able to hand out dozens of church cards.

“Afterwards we started a pickup game of soccer with some teenagers. Just as we started, one of the high school classes passed by the park, and their teachers allowed them to join our game. God brought about 40 students by for us to interact with using soccer and gospel bracelets. After the game we were able to share the gospel with Laura Carter translating. Later that day we were in another park and were able to do the same with several large groups of students. Soccer became an awesome tool for us to cross culture and connect the gospel with teens.”

Another purpose of the trip was to help the church planters with their ministry Cine de Impacto. Each month the church shows a Christian movie in a park, with the simple goal of getting the church’s name into each neighborhood. “With us there,” Jeff says, “they could do this three nights in a row.”

The missions team was instrumental in the setup and take-down process. “We would arrive early and begin canvassing the neighborhoods, going  door-to-door. What I enjoyed most about this culture is how it’s so relational. People are open and love to talk with you. We had a great turnout of families each night. We also played soccer with kids and teens, painted faces, and shared the gospel using gospel bracelets. One of our team members, Jim Griffith, was recently saved and was able to share each night at intermission how God rescued him from a life of atheism and brought him into a life of peace and purpose through Jesus.”

Through this movie outreach, Impacto Biblico was able to obtain contact info for dozens of families to follow up with.

God also used the missions experience to impact several of the young people from CrossRoad Baptist. Many had never before worked alongside missionaries in the midst of ministry, so they saw what it’s like to live in another culture for Jesus. Several are now seriously considering full-time missions after college.

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