Aline On A Mission
Colombia
Even though I walk through the valley of shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Psalm 23. 4
It is the middle of the Covid pandemic that the Lord called me to go to Colombia. In the middle of fear, lockdowns and terrific news about how many people where dying in Brazil and over the world.
Flights were canceled from Brazil to Colombia and my YWAM leader had decided to cancel all international outreaches including Colombia due to the exploding covid pandemic in Brasil. But he also said: if Aline understands to go to Colombia, she has my blessings. This was very unusual because we always travel in teams and I was suppose to lead an outreach team. But I understood the Lord was inviting me to go. In december 2020, I took my flight from Brazil to Colombia with the assurance that He was calling me to go. Zuny a local missionary received me, the door opened so I could serve and preach the gospel in the Afro-Colombian village Palenque de San Basilio, also called the ''the first free slaves of America''.
First Christian wedding
Zuny asked me to help her to prepare her wedding; the first christian wedding in a polygamist community. I accepted the challenge and it has been an incredible way to make Jesus known.
In Palenque, I served in many ways:
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- praying and sharing the word by visiting the household.
an older lady accepted Christ on her deathbed, I prayed for widowed in morning, for orphans who lost their father to HIV
- by teaching english. The community asked me if I could teach english because of the tourism coming which is a source of income. So I have teach english but always starting by prayers and worship first.
- Starting a dance project with the locals.
- Organizing a bachelorette party for the girls, and taking the opportunity to share the Word and praying for the young woman
- Organizing little meeting with the woman.
- preaching and teaching in the local church
-every morning sharing a devotional for the workers building a christian community center.
Colombia & Congo are connected
When I arrived in Cartagena, Colombia, I was taken into the painfull history of the transatlantic slave trade. Cartagena is an ancient port city where the Spanish brought African to be sold into slavery. From Cartagena, we drove 3 hours to arrived at the village. But for the escaped slaved, it would have been a 3 of 4 days walk into the nature. Palenque which means walled city, was found by Benkos Biohó in 1599. Benkos Biohó was a former African king from either the Democratic Republic of Congo or Angola. He escaped slavery but also freed and died so that others could be freed and saved from slavery. When I arrived in Palenque de San basilio, I stepped into the ''little Africa'', not only the scenery reminds Africa but everything about their people, culture and musical tradition. They speak a creole language called Palenquero, it is a mix of Spanish and Kikongo a language from Congo. Since 2005, Palenque de San Basilio is recognize as one of the most important historical villages in the Americas and a Unesco-declared Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. It is through His-story that the Lord revealed me that my next destination: Congo.