¿Que esta pasando a mis hermanos y hermanas?

          I didn’t know cheese and hot chocolate went together, but they do when you eat at La Florida. Although the quesillo is served with French bread, it might as well be one of the seven deadly sins to eat them together. I conformed, surrendered, defected, whatever, and I put the cheese in my Florida Chocolate drink. It was good, especially since my cheese eating days were a thing of the past before I came to Colombia.

          Before we found at the delicious cheese and hot chocolate combo, we took a trip to Monserrate, a church built on the top of a mountain. The motto for Bogota is “2,600 meters closer to the stars”, but when visiting Monserrate one is 3,152 meters closer to the stars. The history of Monserrate is on Wikipedia, so I am not going to go into detail. The Monserrate features a path with statues picturing the events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion, most commonly known as the Stations of the Cross. We could see almost the whole city from the top of the mountain.

          The next day a couple of us went back to Monserrate to climb the stairway to the top of the mountain. During Easter many Catholics climb the stairway using only their knees; this is recognized as penance for one’s sins. The trek was arduous enough going by foot, but I can somewhat see the worth of that mode of travel. Mass was being conducted in the church when I reached the summit; I have always enjoyed the calmness of Mass.

          We had to descend the mountain quickly because we were running out of time, so we ended up jogging down. Although the descent was little easier than the ascent, our legs were only trembling when we reached the bottom. There was fresh pineapple waiting for us at the bottom, and a taxi ride back to the hotel was uneventful.

          The rest of the day would be spent in the far north part of the city. Although the trip seemed like we stayed in the district of Bogota, we actually entered into a new municipality, Soacha. The town we visited is called San Nicolas, and it is one of the poorest villages on the outskirts of Bogota. We were visiting a Mennonite Church that has a MCC Seed participant currently working and living in San Nicolas. The village has been subject to violence, but the church is currently working on peace programs with the help of MCC. The people of the village are also cleaning up the river that is located directly south of the village, we were told that river was heavily polluted and had a horrible stench until the community spoke up about the problem. The church has a soup kitchen and a volunteer conducts English lessons a few times a week. Our stay in San Nicolas ended with the children conducting some traditional Colombian dances and a delicious lunch!

          The next day we visited a church that Kelly, Colombian Seeder, is providing her services at. We sang some praise music, introduced ourselves, and heard a very good sermon on the prophet Elijah in 1 Kings. We also sang a hymn in Spanish for the congregation to enjoy. The church was full of beautiful people willing to build a community in the face of big city challenges, i.e., poverty, violence, apathy, hopelessness, natural disasters, and displacement. The work being done at the church gave our group hope in our upcoming projects. I talked to a few of the church members, but it was hard to fully communicate due to my lack of Spanish vocabulary. We shared a very good lunch with the Seeder’s host family, and were able to discuss some the obstacles and barriers she is experiencing.

          The following evening we shared a nice dinner with the Nathan, the Colombian Seed facilitator, and learned more about Colombian culture. I feel like our group is beginning to have a since of identity every day we are together, and this is only the 5^th full day together! I can feel God’s presence in our group, and it gives me great joy. Adios!