Colombian Christian Mission

TRANSFORMING THE WORLD, ONE FAMILY AT A TIME

Poverty is a very real challenge for many in Colombia, especially the new Christians. This is especially true of women with children who have been abandoned by their husbands. Prostitution is one of the few ways they can earn money to support their family as there are few jobs for women who do not have a college degree. When these women become Christians, they often face the very difficult job of trying to live a Christian life and yet support their families. So we try to help them find something they can do to earn a decent living and yet live up to their new found values in Christ.
From the very earliest days of our ministry here in Colombia, we have helped people learn job skills with which they can improve their lives. In many cases, along with this, we have given out micro-loans to help them get started in a new venture. We support these efforts with micro-loans from our benevolent fund. Sometimes, things don’t work out, but in most cases things do work out very well for them and the people become self sufficient and even prosperous.
In one recent case, a long time member of the church was abandoned by her husband. He had found a new, younger model and decided his wife and four children were expendable. He simply left them and refused to provide any help whatsoever. The woman, who had never worked outside of the home soon found herself in desperate straits. Their water and electricity were cut off, she was behind in the rent; things were looking impossible for her. She did what any Christian would do in such a case. She turned to her brothers and sisters in Christ.
At the request of the local church, I visited her and helped her search for something she could do to make a living. She had one very marketable skill, she made excellent tamales (a traditional Colombian dish where corn meal, vegetables, an egg, and chicken leg are wrapped in banana leaves and steamed for many hours) and could easily sell them for a nice profit. But she had never done this on a large scale. So while she could make them and sell them, she did not have the equipment to do this on a commercial basis.
I visited Nohelly and her four children. In her poverty, she still sent the kids out to buy me a cold pop at the corner store (they did not have a refrigerator). I chatted with them for a while and then explained why I had come. She was excited by the idea and soon I set to work helping her develop a business plan. She worked up an inventory for everything she would need to make and sell 100 tamales each weekend. She could sell them at about one dollar profit each. While that might not seem like much money to an average American, for a Colombian woman to make $400 per month is quite good. Plus, if all goes well, she could soon double her equipment and begin hiring some help and easily double that number of tamales and with that, her income.
We offered to help her. The first step was to buy her the cooking utensils she would need. For about $250 we purchased the massive 40 gallon cooking pot, ladle, and scoop she would need to cook 100 tamales at a time and supplies for the first week. I taught her how to manage that money and to never ever spend the money needed for the next week’s worth of supplies. She set right to work. Her first week was a great success. She sold every single tamale and had earned one hundred dollars profit. She paid her water and electric bill and those services turned back on. She purchased food for the week. She was one happy lady. The next week she repeated that same process and again easily earned one hundred dollars. With that she began paying her back rent. She is now well on the way to success and self sufficiency.
Having demonstrated her self-discipline and abilities, we took the next step. We bought her a refrigerator with a freezer. This will allow her to make more than what she can actually sell during the weekend and freeze them. She can store her tamales in the refrigerator as she sells them so she will not lose anything to spoilage. This cost about five hundred dollars here in Colombia. So with only about $750 in this micro-loan, we have helped lift a family of five out of a desperate situation and place them on a road to dignity and self-sufficiency. And along with that, we have created another Christian able to tithe to the local church.
If all goes well, she will begin paying a small amount back into the fund once she has achieved stability, usually in about a year. We charge no interest or fees. If the business fails after a good faith effort, she would not have to pay back anything. But in most cases, they succeed and begin to pay back what they borrowed with great satisfaction. Any money received back into the fund goes for more micro-loans (we limit them to a maximum of $1,000). Over time, the fund becomes depleted or the increasing needs outstrip our ability to provide this service for the Christians.
That is where we offer you the opportunity to make a real difference in someone’s life. You can help lift someone like Nohelly out of poverty and set a family on a course to dignity and service in the Lord’s kingdom. Contribute today to our benevolent fund and make a difference in the world, one family at a time!
To make a donation to the benevolent or the deaf ministries send to:

Colombian Christian Mission
Post Office Box 95
Rittman, OH 44270

6 Baptisms at the Deaf Church

On Sunday June 21, we witnessed a historic event in the Normandía Christian Church. The deaf church that we planted one year ago has been growing steadily. They have increased in numbers and now form one of the more significant deaf works in the entire country. But today, they went beyond that and became the very first church where a deaf preacher baptized new deaf believers that had been won to the Lord exclusively by the preaching and testimony delivered wholly in sign language. It was a day of rejoicing for them and for the Normandía church that has been the mother church for this new congregation.

The deaf typically are wary of churches as many have felt used by them in the past. Cults have typically preyed on them, making them even more cautious. So most works here in the country are very small groups that meet in a hearing church and watch a sign language translation of the sermon. When we started a deaf church with the preaching in sign language that effort on our part created quite a stir here in Colombia. We have been the subject of some criticism as many people feel the deaf can’t run their own church. But the church has grown steadily with attendance now nearing fifty in attendance almost every Sunday.

During this past year, William, the preacher we trained last year has been teaching and evangelizing these visitors. As he worked with them some began to express a desire to become Christians. The preacher began to work especially with that group to build their faith and encourage them to make that final decision of being baptized. About two weeks ago, a few of them began to seriously consider making that important decision. As he worked with them, they decided to move forward and be baptized. They asked to be baptized on Sunday so they could invite their friends and family.

Once the first few made that decision many others who had been considering it, decided to follow their lead and be baptized as well. By the time services concluded the number was up to six new believers requesting baptism. As the week went on, more and more of the deaf congregation called the preacher to make their decision as well. That Sunday there were ten deaf believers awaiting the new birth in Christ.

We decided to hold this service together with the hearing church. After a brief opening, the deaf preacher delivered the preparatory sermon to the new believers and to the church as a whole. He preached from Jesus example when baptized by John the Baptist and then from Peter’s sermon on Pentecost and Phillip’s work with the Ethiopian official. He finished his teacher by referring to Romans 6:1-4. It was a well prepared and delivered sermon. We had a sign language translator translating all of this into spoken Spanish for the hearing church. The preacher then proceeded to the baptistery where he baptized each of them until the entire group of ten had been born anew of the water and the spirit.

In a packed church building with standing room only, the deaf church and the hearing church celebrated this historic event together as one. Now that the deaf church has its own new baptized believers, they are looking forward to beginning their own communion service. Something that the one or two who had be previously baptized had simply shared with the hearing church. Please join us in rejoicing at this great victory in extending the Gospel to what is probably nearly three per cent of the entire population of the country of Colombia!

To make a donation to the benevolent or the deaf ministries send to:

Colombian Christian Mission
Post Office Box 95
Rittman, OH 44270

Scholarship Time

It’s time to find sponsors for the children at Colegio Peniel
It’s that time of year again, scholarship time. Now that we’ve sent out our first batch of scholarship forms it’s time once again for us to start finding sponsors for all of the students who don’t have sponsors already. If you would like to sponsor the same student again this year let us know, we’ll save them for you. If you would like to sponsor a new student, we can send you some information about our scholarship program. This program is perfect for Sunday School classes, VBS’s and children’s church. Make a difference in the life of a poor Colombian child, give them the hope of a brighter future. Join our Colegio Peniel Scholarship Progam.

For more information contact me at: SusyMorris@supportCCM.com 

or at:
CCM Scholarship Program
PO BOX 95
Rittman, OH 44270