Wrecked

Have you ever been wrecked by an experience?
 Seen something that changed your world view? Met a person who challenged your thought process? Or perhaps had an experience that even was difficult to pass through but changed you for the better?

 Wrecked.

 It is a word drawn from a book I recently read. The book in fact is called Wrecked.  By Jeff Goins. And it is about "when a broken world slams into your comfortable life."

  People often wonder or ask me why I go to Colombia so often?

 It is because I was wrecked by that experience. And being wrecked changed my world forever.

  The first time I went to Colombia in 2016, it changed my perspective forever. I'd always had the desire to do work in a Latin American country. But the experience I had there wasn't just about the one time event. I was told in preparation for that time we would have there, that I would feel and see differently upon my arrival home. The challenge would be when I come home how to take that feeling and not let it fade, but to let being "wrecked" make a change for the future.

 I didn't always understand that. I would come home each time I visited and feel such a deep need to make a difference. To be different myself.  I wanted to implement here what I learned there. However, in a different culture, like our go-go-go and plan-plan-plan culture, putting those lessons to practice becomes extremely challenging. I never do it super well. Yes, I get wrecked every time I go. In a different kind of way each time. But when I want to do it here at home in the states, it is very hard.

 But through these few years of traveling there, expanding into different villages, Footprints with Hope, the non-profit foundation I founded has come to life. That is what being wrecked has done to me. It has brought the desire to life, to work towards a change because I was changed. The foundation has become an effect of being wrecked. Through the foundation, we hope to help change the lives of the women living in Colombia who have experienced violent situations and are looking and longing for ways to crawl out of those, but haven't had a hand to help them do so. And through that, more people are going to get to experience being "wrecked". Both the women in Colombia and those who will have the opportunity to begin traveling with our group. And I hope when they do, they will want to come home and make a change. Not a temporary one, but one that will carry out the work of Jesus in new ways, ways unique to each of them.

 We all have unique gifts. Thus, when being wrecked, how that will play out will look different.

 So, ask me why I keep going back to Colombia...

 It is a calling, yes. A desire to help spread the love of Jesus through acts of service and a simple "show up and be there", which makes others know they matter. But I go back, and I began the foundation, because when I was wrecked, I knew I never wanted to go backwards. I wanted to make a change. Not for my sake, but for the reason of spreading the love of Jesus with the gifts He has given me.

 Tomorrow I leave once again to go to the beautiful country. We are working as the foundation to launch our first project, which will be an 8 month program for women. We will be teaching them a trade, a job skill. They will get time with a psychologist, who will help them work through their past, their hurts, their insecurities. They will learn financial management. And we will put together their stories in a book. They will have dance therapy. To do this program, the cost is roughly $5,700. We have begun the process of raising that money.
 Tomorrow I take 2 of the 3 board members with me. We will visit locations, talk about the program, meet those who will implement it in our absence. We will visit a village which I have not yet seen, which does intense work with the Venezuelan migrants. I go back because those people matter. I go back because I was wrecked and don't want to ever lose what I have learned through that. I go back because those women are valuable. And I am excited to share my experiences with others to see how when they get wrecked how God will take that and use it for His good.

   I can't wait to share about the experiences post trip.... and how I get wrecked this time around.