MBIC Church Members Take a Trip to Colombia

Recently, 19 members of the Martinsburg Brethren in Christ Church (MBIC) traveled to Bogotá, the capital of Colombia.

There, the members had the opportunity to teach children about God and help out at several ministries. Erin Barley, a member who went along, described the trip as something “I’m really glad that I did.”

The members mostly spent their time at El Camino Academy, a Christian school located in northwestern Bogotá. The group ran the school’s “June Jamboree,” a program involving missionary teams from the US coming to help students enjoy fun activities, strengthen their English, and connect with God.

From Tuesday, June 11, to Friday, June 14, Martinsburg Brethren in Christ Church had the chance to lead that week’s “June Jamboree.”

The MBIC did their church’s VBS program for this summer, titled SCUBA “Diving into friendship with God.” The program occurred during the morning, and was set up into rotations.

The first rotation was a praise and worship involving the entire group, including over 70 students. After that they would split up into smaller groups divided by age and do different activities.

These sessions included bible lessons, “Sticky Scripture” where students would use a bilingual gospel of John to find a verse and mark it with a sticky note, various crafts and games, songs, and then a closing praise to end each day.

Gerald “Gerry” Slagenweit, another member that went along, said, “Probably one of my favorite moments was when we were having bible school and a little girl–we had our bible verse for the day and then she came back to where I was sitting and wrapped her arms around my leg and said ‘I really like you.’”

Each day of the week included a theme that related to the bible lessons and “verse of the day” from the book of John. These themes included: God is a friend who’s real, God is a friend who loves, God is a friend forever, and God is a friend for everyone.

Together with the children learning about friendship with God, they were also able to create friendships with the church members.

Pastor Michael Abell said that the adolescents of the group fit right in with many of the students they served, and the friendships created were able to break away language barriers.

Erin Barley said the last praise and worship was very special, that all of the children were engaged and it truly felt like God was in that place.

Barley had a great experience at El Camino Academy and hoped that the children were able to hear the gospel that God is our friend and that He not only loves us, but likes us too.

She said, “I hope that the people, through the interactions that we had, however brief–just that we were different somehow. You can’t always communicate that verbally because of the language barrier, but you can communicate that in how you treat other people, you know, just showing God’s love through who you are and how you behave.”

Along with their duties of running a VBS program for the students of El Camino Academy, the church members also were able to serve in various ministries across the city.

Some of these places were Iglesia Integral de Restauracion or the Church of Integral Restoration, Buena Semilla, a home for children and adults with intellectual and physical disabilities, and Hogar de Paz, a daycare center.

As a group, they also had the opportunity to hike Monserrate, a mountain over 10,000 feet high–a hike where they also took a copy of the Herald to the top!

Aside from servicing the churches and El Camino Academy, they also had moments to interact with the locals.

Barley described the people they interacted and spoke with as really friendly and open people.

Barley recalled a night where some members were playing volleyball while she and other adults were sitting outside.

“This woman and her daughters come out and they were talking to us–the woman brought us some coffee,” she said. “And their English was pretty limited, but we had this, you know, conversation with them and they were just so sweet.”

Although there was a language barrier between them, they were still able to communicate with each other and had a good time.

“Things like that just kept happening throughout the whole experience and if they hadn’t been just deeply kind, I don’t think we would have had the same kinds of experiences,” she said.

Another instance included them being invited to the home of a family whose children attend El Camino Academy, where they hosted a dinner, brought in a mariachi band, and celebrated two church members’ birthdays.

Additionally, the group held a theme of “patience and flexibility” throughout their travels.

These attributes were important for the whole trip, and Barley said how impressed she was with the group’s resilience, responsibility, and ability to be out of their comfort zones.

Slagenweit had said that “I was really surprised at the young people, how they took charge when they had the bible school, how they could interact with the children.”

The trip had involved unknown experiences, but Pastor Michael believed that everyone succeeded in fulfilling all expectations and that “The Lord was gracious and definitely with us through travel, the ministries, the language barrier, and everything else.”

The Bogotá, Colombia mission trip is one that the Martinsburg Brethren in Christ Church is thankful to have experienced.

Erin Barley encourages people to be willing to step out of their comfort zones. She said, “I would totally encourage anybody to do that. You don’t have to wait to be at a certain place in your life. You can go and God can use you”

Slagenweit simply said that it was a very good experience.