Thoughts for our last week.

Some of you may know that this week is our last week here in Medellin.  We have been busy working with teams, coaches, and around the stadium with some manual labor type jobs (we appologize for that 5 day drought of no updates). 
We have been tested and stretched both physically and spiritually and I think we have all learned a lot about ourselves and what it means to serve.
A mentor and friend of mine, Aaron Faro, sent along some verses for us to read this last week.  Grant, Jack, and I read them the other night and I have been chewing on them a bit these last few days.

(2 Cor. 2) ¹⁴ But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. ¹⁵ For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

Jack has been reading a book while down here and shared about something he read.  He shared about how important it is to be present and that sometimes you can not worry about having amazing before and after pictures to validate all the work you did while on a mission.  The importance of being present is that it allows God to work in you and through you.  One thing we have realized is that just being here, just being around the kids and talking with coaches, really simple interactions, can be an encouragement to those around us. Cyrus, our new gringo friend, added to this idea by saying ¨just smile.¨ His thought for us was that when we were getting tired or frustrated or couldn't understand what someone was trying to tell us, just smile and have a good attitude.

So for us, right now, while we finish up our time in Colombia, I think we have been encouraged to be present, work hard, and when in doubt, smile.  There is still more work to be done here and we will be working hard to have servant hearts and loving attitudes with each opportunity we have to work and serve.

(2 Cor. 4) ¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

p.s.  One side note.  With Cyrus around to translate, we have had some opportunities to share our testimonies with the kids on the teams.  I hope that this last week we will have more opportunities for these types of interactions. 

The Angel

Let me paint a picture for a moment.

Monday morning (everybody knows what those can be like)

A busy weekend of unexpected work and late nights.

Our friend and companion, one of the four gringos, Jarrett (a.k.a. Jet a.k.a. Canilla Man) is leaving at 10:30am to go home.  

We know the day will be full and busy and we are attending a coaches meeting from 8-11am.  

We sit through the first half hour of the meeting. It is all in spanish and we are struggling to follow (not an uncommon occurance).

We take a break and Marcos tells us we will be working as a group during the next session.  He turns to a guy we do not know and signals him to come over to us.

He walks over. He has long curly hair and a nice thick beard.

He looks as us, smiles, and says, ¨Hey what's up?¨ In perfect American sounding english!  It was a miracle! The first North American (gringo) we have seen or met since being here. His name is Cyrus and he we felt very blessed to meet him.  We still aren't sure if he is real.  We believe he may be an angel sent from above to lift us up on what was feeling like a tough day.  

He translated for us, shared his story with us, ate lunch with us, played soccer with us, and we are planning on working more with him this week.  

Cyrus has been venturing through Central and South America since January seeking to learn about what it means to be a human and how understanding that can help him discover new and different ways to love others and present Jesus to those in need of a Savior. His story is amazing and inspiring.  We feel blessed to have had our paths cross and we are looking forward to working along side him this week.  God is good...really good!

Farewell to Jet

Today we said goodbye to one of our group members. Jarrett.  He left at 10:30 this morning and we were very sad to see him go.  Our prayers are with him now as he will be arriving in Boston around midnight tonight.  It puts a smile on my face to think about the first time his mom sees him and what her reaction will be! We are sad that he is no longer in Colombia with us, but we are glad that he is able to go home to his family and be with them (and see his brother graduate from high school- way to go Dalton!!!)  Jet worked hard down here and was the most well rounded spanish speaker in our group!  Personally I got to spend a significant amount of time with Jarrett and feel very blessed to have worked with him, laughed with him, and shared our stories with each other.  It definitely will not be the same without him here!

p.s. If you are wondering why we may at times refer to Jarrett as Jet it is because Colombians (Weimar, our host father, in particular) can not pronounce Jarrett and so he was named Jet... which also happens to be the name of a chocolate bar here.

Pictures! Enjoy!

Thursday Night Update!!!

Wow...it has been far too long since our last update or post (Sorry Mrs.Weaner). Our last 4 days have been crazy and busy. I will just go day by day to fill you guys in on what we have been up to all week.

Sunday...All 4 of us were at Weimars house. We went to his church again just like Saturday night. Grant, Weimar, and I helped lead the worship. The middle of the day was filled with a lot of rest. Sunday night consisted of us putting our newly practiced dance moves to the test at Lenas, Weimars wife, families house. We enjoyed some empanadas and mucho fresco! We went late Sunday night to a corner shop for our new, nightly coined tradition, cookies in the night!!!

Monday...This day was a holiday in Colombia called Festivo. Basically, everything shuts down, and you just spend the day resting with your family. That is exactly what we did for most of the day. At night, we went to Acevado, one of the neighborhoods, and helped out with their league games. We all officiated one game, except Weimar took over for Grant because Colombian teenagers tend to get out of hand (there were multiple red cards in this game).

Tuesday...The blessing of many, many weeds took over our morning. It was a great time for us to work and fellowship at the same time. Grant and I went with Alex in the afternoon, while Jet and Sam stayed with Weimar. We had lunch in Bello Park, and enjoyed some very delicious aveno. Grant and I returned to Granizal this night, and played on the turf field by Alexs house.

Wednesday...We woke up at six thirty in the morning to take the metro to the club. Grant and I trained the kids at the soccer school, while Sam and Jet did some more work around the stadium. I was able to all train the under 16 all star team in the afternoon. Grant and I did some more work around the stadium in the afternoon, as well. We planted 4 trees in some very interesting places! We ended our night back in Granizal training the chickies with one of our friends, Eduardo.

Thursday....Another early morning. Sam, Grant, and I arrived at the club a little before 8. We spent 4 hours in the morning leveling a huge pile of dirt and rocks. Grant trained with the all star teams, while I snuck in siesta in the stands of the club. Sam and Jet spent most of the day in Zamora and Acevado.

There is a bit of an update. Sorry for the poor grammar and length. We will try and do a better job of putting up pictures and stuff for you guys! Tomorrow is an exciting day for us. Grant and I will be moving in to the Guzmans house. We will spent the remainder of our trip there together. Alex and his family have been awesome to us, so it is a bummer we are leaving their house.

Trust in the LORD,
Jack

P.S. Just a disclaimer......last friday, when we got to the stadium, I took a friends moto for a joyride. In the shuffle, I set down our Flip camera we have been using to take video. Unfortunately, the camera was stolen. There will not be any more videos on the blog for the remainder of the trip. Fortunately, Jet has his moms camera, so we will have pictures. Do not worry Mrs. Weaner, I am not allowed to touch it!

Saturday

Grant and Jack slept over at our house Friday night into Saturday!  Two guys per a bed... four gringos on one bunk bed! We helped coach two games  at the stadium in the morning, watched the u20 premier team play their game, then went to Weimar's house for lunch.  This was the first time the four of us have been able to spend an extended period of time together and it was great!  


Weimar took us to his church's Saturday evening service.  Grant and Jack both played guitar with their worship band.  They had no music/notes to follow and practiced for a total of about 15 minutes... but they did well.  The service was two hours long...of very fast spanish, so we didn't understand much. BUT, it was really encouraging and inspiring to see a group of people, gathered in a big garage, with their Bibles on their laps, diving into the Word!  The verse that came to mind was, Matthew 18:20, ¨For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.¨ Many Colombians would consider themseleves Catholic, many don't practice any form of religion, and Evangelical churches are few and far between. But I could see that this group of people (maybe 20 people) were committed to being uncommon in their convictions and  faithful in their relationship with Jesus.  


After church we walked to a local Colombian arepa stand and had arapes and a stick of mystery meat.  We took taxis back to Weimar's house, where we spent about an hour dancing and learning how to salsa and tango! We are having a fiesta here next week when Jarrett leaves and we need to know how to dance like Colombians!  I think a laughed harder tonight than I have in a long time.  We all laughed and danced (and sweated) a lot! It was a very fun time and we are very thankful for the Guzman's hospitality and joyful hearts!

Update and Affirmation

Quick update for the guys on the team and for all of you that heard about the work we did at the stadium.
The water tank is in and working!  There are about 10 to 12 new faucets/water pipes that are using the water.
The trench we built for the turf field is completely filled with concrete and the field is flat and covered with stone/concrete. There is a retaining wall around the entire field and they may lay down the turf during the last few days we are here!
The field we weeded last year is looking good on one half.  The other half is struggling... A worker accidentaly sprayed ¨poison¨ on the field to kill the weeds and it killed the grass as well. It is still very playable!

We have seen Messiah shorts on coaches and Messiah scarves and balls in coach¨s offices.  There have been Keaton, Trevor, Jordan, and Peez training jersey sightings!

My favorite story yet:  Jarrett and I went to Acevedo the second night we were here.  One boy (8 or 9 years old) was looking at us and was kind of following us around. After about 10 minutes he walked up to me and asked, ¨Logan?¨  I just smiled and thought, Uncle Logan has done is again! I just thought is was awesome that a boy from Medellin Colombia saw our crest and had a special enough experience with one of the players wearing it to remember his name... a year later! Well done Logan

All this is just to say, we did have an impact down here last year. We left it better than we found it!  We helped and it mattered.  As I saw and experienced all these things down here, the second time around, I was filled with joy as I realized that our trip was indeed impactful and meaningful!  It is a unique and special experience to be able to see the fruits of your labor in a foreign country a year after you went on a mission trip to that same place.

Hopefully Jarrett, Grant, Jack and I can continue to help and have a positive impact on the CDUC and the people of Medellin.

I apologize for the lack of grammar and the amount of spelling errors in this entry.... I type on a spanish computer and I can not find some of the punctuation buttons.  Also, I know speak a hybrid language of broken english and broken spanish so my writing has taken a hit.

God Bless!
Sam

El Canche De Granizal

I wish I would have taken more video this morning. We did a training session at one of my favorite places in Colombia, the turf field a minute from our house. When Messiah was here last year, they played a game against one of Alexs teams on this field. Most of them remember that experience very well. Granizal, the neighborhood we live in, is not a good one by any means. It has been a place of many gangs, drugs, and violence. The kids who play on this field, which is in the middle of the neighborhood, either have dads who are in gangs or they themselves are a part of a gang. We have been there 3 times or so to run training for younger kids, and will be there this weekend with Alex and his team of older guys. Our names go from Grant, or Forlan, and Jack, or Messi, to gringo, gringo, gringo!!!!! It is a completely different environment then being at the stadium, or other neighborhoods we go to. My blood pressure is always a little bit higher when I am there. Maybe it is the security guards at all the entrances with guns and clubs in their hands or the muzzled police dogs roaming the perimeter, nevertheless, it is a cool place to be. It is where Alex grew up, and lead his own guys in violence and drugs. Thanks to his new life in Christ, he leads this neighborhood in a different way. Everybody in the neighborhood knows who he is. His spectrum of influence is massive, and he takes advantage of it. Almost every morning for 3 hours or so, he takes his Bible and goes into different houses and shares the Gospel with them. He sits down with the families and fathers he used to provide with drugs, and provides them with knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus. It is so sweet to hear about. He has begun to take and share the tracts we brought down with the families as well. I am glad and thankful that we can join in with what he is doing in Granizal. It is a place that desperately needs Jesus. Pray for Alex and the CDUC guys who live here as they take the Gospel into some really tough places in this neighborhood.

I will try to take some more video of the soccer in Granizal this weekend. I was too busy playing with the kids, I forgot to video the actual session, but you can kind of see what it is like around here!

Jack

Our Morning in Manatial

I think I can speak for the four of us when I say I have a new definition of a ''crazy drivers'', as we all have had the opportunity to ride on the back of a Colombian's motorcycle through the streets of Medellin.  Today Jack and I road with two coaches 15 minutes up the mountain from where we are living to a place called Manatial, or ''the fountain''.  The C.D.U.C coaches run a weekly training session here for the kids of the neighborhood, followed by a short message from the bible.  The space they usually play in was taken up by circus of some sorts, so we played on a smaller space next to it.  Despite the fact that we were playing on a slanted dirt and rock field with a drainage ditch lining one side, and bags of human waste in another corner, the kids had a great time playing, and so did we.  While the soccer was fun, my favorite part was seeing the kids stay after to listen to the message, ask questions, and pray together.  We were able to share the spanish gospel booklets we brought with us with the kids and we could see that they were excited and curious to read them and learn more.    Although going back to the neighborhood means another life threatening motorcycle ride, we are still excited to go back next week to see the kids and play with them. 

Livin' la vida loca,

          Grant 

view from our neighborhood

key word...FLEXIBLE

I wish I knew what Sam and Jarrett were doing right now. Grant and I are living about 30 minutes in a car or 1 hour on the metro away from them. We are living with Alex and his family. He and his wife,  have three kids, Alexis, Lorena, and Juan David. Like expected, we are not doing anything we expected. Fortunately, we got to hang out with them at the stadium for a few hours today. We also trained with the all star teams which was fun (we did fitness the whole time). It has been a brand new experience living with a Colombian family. Everything is just different then back home. Juan David goes to bed last, and he is only 2 years old. Grant and I sleep in bunk beds and we accidentally slept in until 10am this morning! For not knowing any Spanish, we communicate really well with our family and the guys on the team.They are all awesome people. As of right now, I am walking back and forth from my room trading clothes with Alex...a language all soccer players speak!

Last night for about 3 hours, Alex was telling Grant and I about his life and how he came to know Jesus. It is a story that not many can tell. From a murderer to a gentle, loving husband, father, and coach. He talks about how Jesus is his only protection now. The neighborhood we live in, Granizal, used to be a terrible place filled with drugs, kidnapping, and murder. Today, it is not bad, and Alex has a big part in that. It is a long story to tell, and I will tell you when I get back!

We are going to try and figure out how we can all be together more, but the bottom line is we are living, breathing, and serving wherever we find ourselves on this trip. Pray that God continues to force us to be willing and flexible to his plan, even if it is not exactly how we see it. 

Con Toda Mi Mente y Mi Corazón,

Jack

And so it begins...

We have arrived!  Marcos picked us up from the airport and drove us to the stadium. To start everything off we played in a staff scrimmage, which was a full 90 minutes.  I didn´t think we would be so tired the first day!
We got our tentative schedule for the next few weeks.  Looks like we´ll be helping the coaches a lot with their teams in the various sections of the city and helping around the stadium (final preparations for their turf field).  We will also be training with the CDUC´s select teams (u14, u16, and u20), with opportunities to share our our stories and testimonies.
Jarrett wins the prize for best spanish.  Jack gets second place, and Grant and I are tied for a distant third.  I do feel as though even in one day, I´ve learned a good amount of spanish (or maybe just how to nod and respond like I understand).  Anyway, all is well here. Learning the language and building relationships with the people around us!!!
My apologies if there are typos. I am writing on a spanish keyboard, on a spanish computer.
Grace and Peace,
Samuel

Woodworth Brother Interview- The night before

We're Going Back!

It has been almost a year since our last post, and I don't know if anyone is still reading this blog. But if you happen to see this, there will be many more posts coming in the next month as we head back down to Medellin.

The team had an unbelievable experience down in Colombia last May, and it has caused us to stay connected with CDUC this summer. While the entire team is not making the trip, there is a group of 4 of us going. Our team consists of 2 guys who went last year, Sam Woodworth and Jarret Weaner, and 2 newbies added to the team, Grant Woodworth and Jack Thompson. God put a desire in our heart to remain connected with our friends at CDUC and the country of Colombia.

We are waking up at the crack of dawn tomorrow for a 6:45am flight out of Philadelphia. Our arrival time is set for 1:00pm in Medellin where our point man, Marcos, will pick us up and our journey will begin.

There will be a video posted interviewing the Woodworth brothers shortly explaining the purposes and hopes for our trip!

** If you are one of the few reading this post, we would love for you to share our blog with friends and family through email, Facebook, Twitter, and however else we communicate these days. We would appreciate as much support as possible as we share in this journey with you. **