Gratitude.

Hey, things have been pretty busy at the ministry but I thought I’d update the blog on some recent events. We went out to the Bronx of Medellín on Wednesday night to feed the homeless. I have never seen poverty and drug use to that extent. It was heartbreaking and eye-opening and I would never wish that upon anyone, yet here hundreds of people are living it. I could paint a picture of the scene with words but I don’t think it’s possible to describe the smell. We have limited access to laundry and had to pack light to fit everything in backpacks: the racers don’t smell that great. But this was something else entirely. Saying it was tough would be an understatement, but to know people were being brought to Jesus through bread and aguapanela was incredible, and the fragrance of the Holy Spirit conquers all.

2 Corinthians 2:16 – “To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this?”

To be the hands and feet of Christ is to place hands on a blind man carrying all his belongings in a trash bag in prayer. It is to shake hands coated black with who-knows-what knowing that all people deserve handshakes when you meet them for the first time. They are impossible situations I wouldn’t be able to get through if I didn’t think about the boldness of Jesus and the way he treated others: as people, and nothing less.

I first knew I had taken things for granted the second I sat down on a porta potty and realized that was my bathroom situation for two weeks, and I was reminded again when I took my first ice cold shower in Colombia, and yet again when I found several cockroaches in said shower. But I caught myself huddled in the back of a truck with at least 30 other young men and women thinking about how grateful I am for that shower tonight. How grateful I am for that rock-hard mattress that I get to sleep on. Yeah, I miss being able to flush toilet paper and having access to more than three outfits weekly, but now most of the time I catch myself being grateful for even having a bathroom and multiple outfits at all.

With gratitude,

Camille Curtis