The Door Was Ajar… in Colombia
By Ron Barnes
Shortly after my arrival in Madison, I received an email, asking for the opportunity to partner with Source of Light International, from a missionary in Colombia. In fact, it was in a file of many requests I kept to be reviewed at a later date. Little did I know, in those early days, that I would receive such a request almost daily. So that email sat tucked away in the filing cabinet on my email software as did hundreds of others for quite some time.
A year later, I received a similar email with the same request, from the same person in Colombia. It was in Spanish. Even though I have learned seven languages in my ministry, sadly, Spanish isn’t one of them. So, through the help of a translator, I responded that Source of Light was in a season of focusing attention on the missionaries we currently had, and we wanted to strengthen our caring for them before we took on new Branches.
Another few years went by, and by then I was discovering that the vast majority of people who requested to join SLM found us on social media or an Internet search and really knew nothing about us. I began to send a standard response outlining that Source of Light didn’t pay anyone. All of our missionaries raised their own support. This generally would end the dialogue and so it was rare when, after sending that standard email response to the brother in Colombia, he responded, “Fine. Money isn’t our motivation.”
We simply want to come under the umbrella of Source of Light International since we heavily use the materials and actually print them here in Colombia.
Wow! That was a unique response! So our Regional Director for South America, Pablo Correa, and I began to dialogue about a visit to his ministry. He had already seen and agreed with our doctrinal statement and our policies, but we still needed to investigate on the ground.
In April of this year, Pablo and I, along with a new board member, Darwin Blandon, who is from Honduras and pastors a Hispanic church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, made the trip to Bogota, Colombia. Really unsure of what we would see, we just asked the Lord to make very clear whether this ministry was a fit for Source of Light.
We arrived late Saturday night, so our first interaction was in the morning service of the church that Gilberto Vanegas pastors. As we made our way into the facility in which the church meets, we were greeted by friendly, smiling faces. Even though the downtown location—second floor over a bank—was new to us, there were some very familiar surroundings. As we entered the door, we immediately were drawn to the neatly displayed SLM literature behind a very organized glass display case. It was clearly identified and easy to recognize by the new, but personalized SLM logo that proudly read “SLM Colombia.”
After an authentic Colombian coffee, we made our way to the church auditorium where we sang and I had the privilege to share the Word. After church, we headed to a local community sports field where the church hosts an outreach to the community, using soccer. I was delighted to see how his whole family participated in the church ministry but over the next couple of days became even more thrilled to realize how involved they were with the SLM resources.
Over those few days, my goal was to just observe and see if these were “our type” of people and if they were really interested in our specific niche of ministry. As we did the tour and observed their system of printing, distribution, and involvement of other ministries and churches, with a true outreach and focus on discipleship, we began to share our vision and strategies. It became extremely clear to each of us, this was a ministry that has been doing the work of SLM for over a decade, just with no formal relationship. As they shared, not only was I thinking how close we were in philosophy and practice, I marveled that they have a few things they are doing that our Branches should consider.
Their ministry is heavily involved in churches, having a current partnership with 90 churches, schools, prisons, and addiction rehabilitation facilities. They have effectively been using the SLM curriculum for many years and have been extremely effective in their discipleship ministries. When it came to our last moments together, there was no hesitation in any of our minds that they were a fit, and then and there we decided to officially invite them to come serve with Source of Light International.
Would you pray for them and for a smooth transition to Source of Light? They are looking to expand and are seeking God’s provision in providing additional support for new missionaries to meet the increasing workload. Would you pray for the finances for travel to Madison to receive training and for quick acquisition of the SLM procedures?
We praise God that even though there was a knock at the door…the door was already ajar!
