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Greetings!
After a long hug, I pulled away and asked, “Yenni, how are you?”
“I’m good,” she replied. “I’m so busy helping others that sometimes olvido que soy damnificada también—I forget that I’m an earthquake victim too.”
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Pastora Yenni Mena is the pastor of our Free Methodist Church in Pereira, Colombia. Her home was deemed unlivable after the 7.4 earthquake last Monday caused destruction throughout cities, towns, and villages in Colombia. She, her husband, and their son are now living with many of their belongings in her parents’ home. Many of her neighbors don’t have that luxury. They are living in tents on the street, trying to protect what little they were able to salvage from their homes. Or, they have lost everything and are living in temporary shelters.
For more than six months, Yenni and her church had been preparing to host the Colombian Annual Meeting. But with 190 people expected to gather in a city filled with rubble, plans had to change. In just three days, the conference was reorganized and moved to Medellín, four and a half hours away.
While others reorganized the conference, Yenni and her team were collecting and distributing water, food, tents, and other supplies to earthquake survivors. At the same time, they began assessing the needs of their community and developing short-, medium-, and long-term plans. As we have learned in Venezuela, recovery will likely take years. (Photo above: Pastora Yenni praying with people living in a temporary earthquake shelter.)
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With all of that happening, Yenni was only able to attend the final day of the Annual Meeting. But what a day it was! Colombia was recognized as a Provisional Annual Conference, its first elected Superintendent, Fray Morales, was installed, and Yenni was one of five people ordained. More than 200 people gathered for the Annual Conference, where five people were baptized and nine couples renewed their marriage vows. We also had the opportunity to thank Assistant Area Director Thad Roller for his four years of service as Mission District Leader. His leadership, along with the faithful work of his team, has been instrumental in helping the district grow and mature to the point of becoming a Provisional Annual Conference. (Photos below: Pastora Yenni's ordination; Fray Morales' installation as Superintendent; and four of the five young people who were baptized.)
In the midst of so much loss and uncertainty, these moments were a beautiful reminder that God is still at work—transforming lives, restoring relationships, raising up leaders, and building His church.
| | Pastor Miguel Quintero and his wife, Yole, also attended the Annual Meeting. They pastor a church in Cali, another city hit hard by the earthquake. Miguel testified that he had traveled to Venezuela just two weeks earlier to help with the post-trauma workshops we organized there. On the morning of the Colombian earthquake, he had an early obligation, but a dream about an earthquake kept him from getting out of bed. He woke up late and had just gotten ready when the ground beneath them actually began to shake. | |
With electricity out and communication cut off, Miguel and Yole did not understand the extent of the devastation for nearly 24 hours. But they knew people around them were hurting. So, putting into practice what Miguel had learned in Venezuela, they began to serve.
They organized a team to prepare hot meals, even though they did not know where the money would come from to purchase the ingredients. On their way to the market, they met a man who wanted to help. He paid for twice as many groceries as they had planned to buy.
After the Annual Meeting, one team of leaders traveled to Cali and another to Pereira to bring relief and encouragement and to participate in the ongoing assessment.
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Missionary Shane Jewell wrote from Cali that it can be difficult even to determine who the earthquake victims are because there was already so much poverty before the earthquake. Relief trucks are swarmed and emptied almost as soon as they arrive. (Photo: Miguel leads a short prayer service under the temporary shelter the team installed to protect survivors from the rain and sun.)
He asks us to pray for the church to have wisdom to discern how best to serve its community and for generosity—from both local and international sources—to meet the overwhelming needs. We are grateful that our bishops have already approved $25,000 to help the church in Colombia respond. If you would like to join them, you can contribute to the Bishops’ Crisis Response Fund (BCRF), which responds to disasters around the world, or give directly through the Latin America Emergency Fund using the button below. Please designate your gift for Colombia.
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But even as people respond to the physical needs around them, please remember to pray for Pastora Yenni, Pastor Miguel, Yole, and the many other leaders who are serving in the midst of their own loss. They are the hands and feet of Jesus in these difficult days—serving the hurting, feeding the hungry, comforting those who have lost so much, and helping their communities begin the long road toward recovery. (Photo: Part of the team replacing a damaged roof.)
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It has truly been a week of mixed emotions. In the words of Romans 12:15, we have “rejoiced with those who rejoice” and “mourned with those who mourn.” We give thanks for Thad's faithful leadership over these past four years and for the team that has helped bring the Free Methodist Church in Colombia to this important moment. And now we stand with Fray, praying for and supporting him as he leads the church into its next season of growth and ministry. (Photo: Superintendent Fray Morales, Thad Roller, and Ricardo enjoying a well-deserved moment of rest after the Annual Conference.)
Thank you for your prayers, your words of encouragement, and your generous gifts. They are tangible expressions of love and solidarity with our beloved brothers and sisters in Venezuela and Colombia as they sift through the rubble and begin rebuilding their lives and communities.
Please continue to pray for wisdom—for our leaders on the ground, for the difficult decisions that must be made, and for the faithful stewardship of relief funds, both now and throughout the long road of recovery ahead.
Many blessings,
Ricardo and Beth
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