Sunday, December 6, 2015

An open door beckoning us to Colombia?

“How are you doing today, Mom?” Julian sent me a random message during the day, but his new choice of vocabulary brought tears to my eyes when I read it.
Could God have made it more obvious that He chose Julian as our son even without allowing us to adopt him? What a pleasant surprise when he called me “Mom” in early November. The first time he wrote it, it melted my heart. I could only imagine what I meant to him now after all this time, or how long it had been since he even used that word. It solidified our bond, binding us together for life. Through it all, I gained another son.
Only a few days remained until Juan David’s thirteenth birthday. Since he still resided at the orphanage during the week, I asked Julian to please wish him a happy birthday for me. Juan David got my message, and it meant the world to me that he knew I didn’t forget his special day. I never imagined a year ago after our last conversation that I’d still send him a birthday greeting a year later. Truth be told, I didn’t think I’d ever communicate with him again.
God filled the entire month of November with His goodness and blessing, opening several doors we didn’t even know existed.  I remembered one of my particularly long conversations with Julian in the summer. He mentioned how he would love to study in the States, but he also turned the table to ask, “Have you ever thought about coming to Colombia to live?”
“An opportunity like that would be a dream come true!” His question actually brewed in my mind over several months as I wondered if God had more waiting for us in Colombia than just Julian. Deep down in my heart, I believed God might call us to serve as missionaries in Colombia someday and use Julian to draw us there. I didn’t know this for sure, nor did I have any clue how it could ever work out. I researched several mission boards I connected with in my college days to see if they had missionaries in Colombia, but none of them worked in Bogotá near Julian.
I brought in the mail one day that month, quickly ready to throw all the “junk mail” in the fire currently burning in the fireplace. A letter caught my eye, so I decided to look at it first. We received yearly letters during the holiday season from a certain mission organization, and, truthfully, neither of us knew how we’d gotten on the mailing list. We didn’t even know anyone who served with them. As I pulled the newsletter out of the envelope that day, I wondered if any of their missionaries lived in Colombia, specifically in Bogotá.
When I realized they did have missionaries serving near Julian, I soon found myself glued to their website. The home page also contained a link to a Christian school in Bogotá run completely in English for missionary children and also for Colombian children of parents who serve in the ministry somehow. I found the jackpot, this little gold mine! I could feel my heart beat faster as I read more about the school, its mission, and personal testimonies from teachers currently working there.


Could this be that wide open door for us to get to Colombia as missionaries? I had to find out more. I contacted the mission organization to say we planned to visit Colombia in June. I asked if we could visit with the missionaries in Bogotá to observe some of the ministries going on.

Mike and I shared a passion for the mission field, after spending a summer working in Mexico together as an engaged couple, so finding a possible ministry to join in Colombia stirred my heart. We had to find out if God had a plan for us there, so we agreed to scope things out when we got to Colombia to meet Julian. 

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