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How do you respond when God calls you? Pastor
Antonio Herreño got a message from God that he could not ignore.Although he had become a Christian when he was 10 years old, when he moved to Bogota at the age of 23, Antonio stopped going to church and started drinking. Alcohol was soon running his life, but God had other plans for him.Pastor Antonio met Amelida Caceres at El Pesebre church in Bogota, and the two married three years later in 1996. They had two daughters, but instead of happiness, the young family had many difficulties because of Pastor Antonio's alcoholism.In June 2010, Pastor Antonio went to a church where God used the preacher to deliver a powerful message to him. God said he was giving Pastor Antonio one last chance: he could either stop drinking and repair his health and family, or he would lose his life.Not only did Pastor Antonio obey God's message to stop drinking, but he also heard God's message that He would send him to a place where he would preach the Gospel. Several months later in January 2011, Pastor Antonio and his family went to Santa Rosalia, Vichada, where the couple would pastor a church.This small, isolated town near the Meta River was the place God had shown Pastor Antonio, and when they arrived, they only had the clothes they were wearing and an extra set of clothing for everyone.They found nothing at the church; no food, no stove, no cookware. Amelida was distraught. Pastor Antonio went into the field to be alone and pray to God, knowing that God would not call them to this place and not meet their needs. Soon afterwards, the neighbors and church members brought food so the family had all they needed for at least one day.That first day was not that last time they felt discouraged or afraid. They were not used to the mosquitos that constantly attacked them. Their daughters had sores all over their bodies from moquito bites, but there were no doctors to help them.Seeing the girls suffer without being able to help them was especially hard for Pastor Antonio. Santa Rosalia does have a small clinic, but there is no medicine available, and clinic staff sends people with illnesses that they can't treat to Bogota or Villavicenio by air. Because the local people cannot afford to get medical help when needed, most usually resort to witchcraft.Pastor Antonio and his wife have continued preaching the Gospel, and God has continued to bless them even in their difficulties. In addition to the mosquitoes, the family has struggled with bugs, anacondas, witchcraft, flooding, and the guerilla.God has used Pastor Antonio and Amelida to be a blessing to so many others. When Pastor Antonio joined the Meals4Kids project in 2019, he had no idea how God was going to reward his faithfulness. The Meals4Kids project provided funding to tear down their pastoral home, which was more than 50 years old and infested with mold from the constant flooding, and rebuild it on a higher ground.Pastor Antonio and his family had lied in this house had lived in that house for 8 years despite the mold and leaking roof, and Pastor Antonio suffers from breathing problems as a result.The Meals4Kids project helped the church build a kitchen and dining room where the children can eat while having Sunday School lessons each week. Pastor Antonio continues to trust God and to preach the Gospel, and he is witnessing God's love for him, his family, and the people of Santa Rosalia.

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Sara Fuentes was born in a devoted Christian home, where she was given the opportunity to fall in love with Jesus even as a child.Her parents, Manuel and Alba Fuentes, opened and pastored a church in Santa Cecilia, Vichada.This is where Sara started teaching in Sunday School, which was her passion.After 10 years of serving, her family moved to Jardin Primavera, where she was the youth leader and treasurer at the church, but throughout it all, she was always working with the kids.
In 1995, she met her husband, German Perez, in La Esperanza, Casanare, where he was the assistant pastor, and in 1997 they got married. They had two children, and yet Sara continued her work as a sunday school teacher.Near the end of 2018, Sara was the first one to work with the Meals4Kids project. Always having had a heart for children, when she got the call to join, she was elated, because her prayers for a chance to help the hungry kids had been answered,However, what she hadn't known was that this dream would not come easily. With no pots or pans to cook with, and no dishes for the kids to eat with, Sara had to reach out to her neighbors to ask for everything she needed.Once she received the first donation from Meals4Kids, she was able to cook meals to feed the children, but it was with her church that it was found out that churches needed much more than a monthly donation for the groceries; they also needed pots, pans, spoons, stoves, plates, and cups for the kids to eat.By the end of 2018, the project was able to provide everything Sara needed to be a blessing to the kids at her church. But her work was not over; she also decided to take the project to and indigenous commuity about an hour away called El Trompillo.In this community, the door was opened for her, and she had the opportunity to not only feed the children in the area, but also to introduce them to Jesus. Sara and a few other volunteers would get up at 3 a.m. every Sunday and cook for approximately 120 kids; 40 at her church, and 80 in the indigenous community. In the afternoon, the crew would put the cooked food into large buckets, load them up on the motorcycles, and drive an hour to feed the kids.They also taught them essential hygienic practices, such as washing their hands before eating. Four years later, the project is still serving the kids and Meal4Kids has been able to provide everything needed at the church to feed the kids week by week.In 2020, Sara was given the opportunity to pastor the church in which she had been serving for years. But throughout her entire ministry, her focus, like always, has been the children.

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Like parents who came to Jesus requesting healing for their sick children and believed in Jesus as their Lord and Savior because of His healing power, Pastor John Fernando Barragan and his wife, Martha Sanchez, were unable to help their child and asked for God's intervention.The couple met in 1997 while traveling by bus for work, and they soon decided to live together and start a family despite not being married. In 2000, their son Esteban, who was just two years old, became sick because of his hemophilia. The desperate parents turned to God and prayed for healing. By God's grace Esteban recovered.When Esteban got sick for a second time and was flown to Bogota where doctors told the parents they could not do much to help their son, the couple once again turned to God. For a second time, they experienced God's mercy and love as Esteban got better, and they decided to give their lives to Jesus Christ.They already knew about Jesus and had heard the Gospel. In fact, when they were living in La Primavera before their son's second serious illness, Luis Guerrero, the founder of La Viña del Señor, had encouraged them to start a pastoral ministry. Once they became followers of Christ, they knew that they would need to marry before accepting God's call to minister to others. They married legally in 2007 during a Sunday service and began both a spiritual and physical journey in serving God.In 2009, the couple were sent to Santa Cecilia.Santa Cecilia is also called Lejanías, which means "far away." The town does not even exist on a map.From there, Pastor John and his family moved to Garcitas in 2016. Garcitas is another remote place inhabited primarily by Indigenous peoples and Venezuelan children. He preached the Gospel there until no longer safe to do so because of the guerrillas in the area. Primavera Jardín, Vichada, was the next stop on their journey serving the Lord.In Primavera Jardin, the couple and Sara Fuentes, who is a Sunday School teacher, started praying for the children in the town. They did not have a place for Sunday School and most children came to church hungry. This church became the first church to participate in the Meals for Kids project. Before the Meals for Kids project helped with building a kitchen and dining area for the children in 2020, they had no church building, no place to cook food or serve the children, no cookware or dinnerware-only malnourished and homeless children who turned to them for physical nourishment and who benefited from spiritual nourishment. Martha would cook for the children every Sunday in a small stove they had at the home they rented. A neighbor near the church was practicing witchcraft in an effort to stop God's work, but the couple kept their faith and continued serving God's children.Pastor John's journey, however, wasn't over. While the kitchen and dining area were still under construction, God called Pastor John to go to Calarcá, Vichada, to preach. Once again, upon his arrival in Calarcá, he found no church building and no place to meet with the malnourished and homeless children in the area, but he continued to serve in faithfulness. The couple remained in Calarcá until 2022 when Pastor John became a traveling missionary for La Viña del Señor. His journey serving the Lord continues as he travels to all the churches in El Vichada to maintain contact with the pastors and awareness of the churches' needs so he is able to coordinate help through the mission.

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Arauca in northeastern Colombia borders Venezuela and has become a refuge for many Venezuelans who have fled political and economic disruption in their home country.Arauca has about ten communities called "invasions" that are inhabited by individuals who no longer have a place to call home. Most (about 98%) of the people living in the invasions are from Venezuela. Family separations are common among those living in the invasions. In fact, most of the families there are without husbands and fathers. Men who left in search of jobs in Brazil, Ecuador, or Peru that would allow them to support their families are unlikely to return. Some have disappeared. Others started new families in other countries, leaving their wives and children without financial or emotional support.Families who left Venezuela to find food and stability elsewhere are facing new hardships. Without access to jobs, women are doing whatever they can to care for themselves and their children, including working as prostitutes.God's Word promises that He will never forsake His children. When Pastor Pedro Narciso Ortiz Cruz accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior in la Misión Viña del Señor in Yopal, Casanare, in 1992, he had no idea that following Christ would lead him to Arauca. God called Pastor Narciso to Arauca in 2015 to minister to the people there, and he obeyed God's call to start a church in a place where there was great need - and great danger.Arauca is a battleground for Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and Ejército de Liberación Nacional (National Liberation Army or ELN) guerrillas, the two factions that are fighting to gain control of Colombia. As a result of the tyranny of these two groups, many innocent people have died.Guerillas have punished residents with forced labor, and they recruit children from the area to join their ranks.Sexual exploitation and rape among women and girls are, unfortunately, common occurrences at the hands of these two groups. Pastor Narciso's church is near the home of a commander of the ELN guerrillas.When Pastor Narciso first came to Arauca, he only had a bit of land that the Mission had acquired. He used mango trees for shelter as he started working with the local children in 2016.The group of children grew quickly - from about 10 in the beginning to 30 within a few days. In 2019, the church became part of the Meals for Kids project. Now, the church is working with more than 100 children and feeding them three times each week with much-needed food and spiritual nourishment.Pastor Narciso has witnessed God's blessing not only in the growth of the number of children served, but also in the church's ability to serve them. Pastor Narciso now has a church building, a kitchen where they cook for the children, and a home for him at the church.Because the church and the pastor are well known within the community and are helping the needy, the guerillas have not interfered with Pastor Narciso's work, but he knows that could change at any time. He says he is ready to die any day and meet with his creator. Pastor Narciso also preaches often to encourage his congregation not to live in fear, but to live each day as if it were their last and to be ready to meet their Savior.

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Pastor Moises' parents were among some of the first leaders of the Misión La Viña del Señor, and his parents helped missionaries as they traveled through that region. Moisés and his 10 siblings grew up learning about Jesus, and his parents taught the children to read, but formal education wasn't part of their lives.At the age of 13, though, Moisés began the first grade and he completed the second grade when he was 14 years old. When he was 15 years old, Moisés began teaching children in Sunday School and became the youth vice president of the mission at the age of 17. He continued to serve the mission and became the youth president when he was only 21. That same year, he married Marly Urbano, and they began a new journey of serving God as a family.
They had two children, Hilder and Elena, within their first two years of marriage.
They also became pastors for La Viña del Señor in San Luis de Palenque. As they began preaching in the community, they rented a small house where ten people met for church. The couple would also take their children into the community while they went door to door to preach the Gospel to their neighbors.In Colombia, people offer food to anyone who knocks on their door to preach or even just to visit, but in this region, the poor farmers wouldn't open the door for them because they had nothing to offer. The couple maintained their faith, though, and continued preaching the Word of God. Not too long after they began preaching in this community, the Misión La Viña del Señor purchased some land so that Pastor Moisés and his family were able to build a small house with bamboo columns and wooden boards where they would also conduct church services.
The couple welcomed their third daughter, Lucy Sogamoso, after they were in their new home, but for seven years, the city tried to take the land away from them. In time, the couple prevailed and, with all legal documents in order, started to build the church. The church became part of the Meals for Kids project in2021. With help from donors, Pastor Moises was able to build a kitchen and a place for the children to eat. He and his family say they still have much work to do to finish their house and the church, but they are extremely grateful that the Meals for Kids project is helping them bring more children and even some seniors to Christ by providing food while teaching them the Word of God each week in Sunday School.

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Pastor Paco Gutierrez and Marylú Martinez met in 1990 in Pore, Casanare. Both had become Christians at a very young age and had been working to bring others to Christ. Pastor Paco became the La Vina del Señor national youth president while Marylú served as the mission's secretary. In 2005, the two married during one of the bi-annual conventions held in Pore to train pastors.Two years later, they were called to start a church in Sogamoso, Boyacá. In obedience, they began in 2007 with a bit of land, but no believers. They preached to each other and began building both a physical church and a spiritual church. God had prepared Pastor Paco for this moment through previous experience in construction, and, as the two started the church, two other families joined them to help with construction. The couple continued to introduce more people to God's Word and salvation, and they joined the Meals for Kids project in 2021 to expand their service to the lost children in their city.The couple visit two neighborhoods in their city regularly to minister to families there, and city officials are allowing them to use a small sports center to serve hot food to the children. At first, the children were apprehensive and difficult.They would curse at one another and were angry and disruptive. They were also distrustful of Pastor Paco and Marylu because they could not understand their motivation. After seeing the faithfulness of this couple, the children began asking them why they came to visit them and bring them food. What the children really wanted to know, though, was why the couple cared. In fact, one day the children told the couple that no one loved them. That was the perfect opportunity for Pastor Paco and Marylú to tell them about Jesus and how much He loves them.
Without experiencing the love of Christ's servants who bring them a meal each Saturday, however, the children would not understand what the love of Christ is like. In serving the children, church members have become closer as well. They feel a stronger sense of mission, passion, and a great love for these children.Week by week, they are also working together to be Jesus' hands and feet and show them God's love and redemptive power. For Marylú, showing the children how much they are loved has been especially important. While she grew up with a Christian mother who taught her to trust in Jesus even during hardships, Marylu's father was not a Christian. He was an alcoholic who abused his wife regularly, causing the family to live in constant fear.The situations the children are in remind Marylú of her own difficult childhood experiences, and she knows how important it is for them to be able to call on the name of Jesus and understand that He will never leave them or forsake them.

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Jaime was born in El Pretexto, Casanare, in 1963 to non-Christian parents who believed in fighting to get their way. Jaime's father drank a lot and was known locally as "the devil"; townspeople called the couple's eight children "little devils." At the age of 13, Jaime began following in his father's footsteps by drinking heavily--until his heavenly father intervened when Jaime was 16.At that time, he became a Christian and led his entire family to the Christian faith. In 1981, he moved to Bogota and lived with Luis Guerrero and his family. There, Jaime studied at the Berea Christian school with the Corson family before moving to El Vichada in 1983 to pastor a church. El Vichada was Jaime's first experience with an indigenous community.
In El Vichada, Jaime also realized that his family had once been part of an indigenous community and that he was very much like the people to whom he was called to preach. Even now, many people discriminate against and look down on indigenous people, claiming that they do not have souls and are not real humans and that they cannot change. Jaime knew that the power of the Living God had transformed him and his family, and he knew that God could transform the lives of these people. As he pastored this church, Jaime received God's calling to preach the Gospel to indigenous communities.In 1983, he also met Ana Rita Dominguez, and they married in 1987. Jaime and Ana pastored the Ladera church from 1983 until 1990 before moving to Santa Rosalía where they pastored from 1990 to 1992. Because of Jaime's calling to preach to the indigenous communities, he was searching for a church that would help him go back to the indigenous communities.He then moved with his wife and his daughter to Villavicencio, Meta, where he has been until now. The couple's second daughter was born there. Thirty years later, Jaime's church is one of La Viña del Señor's most solid churches. La Viña del Señor has supported God's calling for Jaime to reach indigenous people. Jaime now has two schools in two different communities that area about 375 miles apart.He instructs approximately about 100 people in each school to become leaders and pastors in their communities.There are no paved roads, so it takes Jaime about four times longer than it would take us to travel those miles. By the end of 2022, Jaime plans to plant two more schools in two different communities in the state of El Meta. When they travel to these communities twice each year, they bring studying materials as well as food to feed everyone for four days.With the additional schools, Jaime will be traveling eight times a year to reach the peoples in these indigenous communities.The need in these indigenous communities is great.They are the most impoverished, discriminated, and forgotten people in Colombia, but pastor Jaime has brought them the good news of God's love and compassion.Through the Meals4Kids program, the children are also experiencing the love of God as they enjoy a nutritious weekly meal.

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They are currently pastoring the church of El Convento, in the state of Casanare. Tirso was born by the Pauto river in 1978 and was the youngest of 10 children. At the age of 21, he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior, and the late Pastor Placido Achagua baptized him in the Pauto River. When he was 23, he went back to the world for two years. At the age of 25, feeling defeated and unworthy of God, he went back to church where Gladys Espitia was preaching.That day, sitting in the last row, he decided to come back to Jesus and started attending the church where his brother-in-law was a pastor.
Two years later, he started working with the mission's Youth Nationals Board of Directors and was in this role for seven years before being sent as a pastor in training to Arrayanes, Pauto in 2007. Every Saturday morning for a year, Tirso had to walk by the Pauto River on his way to Arrayanes and would stay until Sunday to preach. This walk was a reminder of his baptism.During that year, though, Tirso became ill. He thought he would die since he was far away from any doctors or medicine, but God healed him. He learned to depend completely on God during this time.
He met his wife, Adriana Fuentes, in 2010. She was a Christian woman working as a youth leader. After dating for four years, they married in 2014. By this time, Tirso was serving as youth president for the Youth Nationals. Then God called him to pastor at El Convento in2015. The couple obeyed God's calling by faith since El Convento offered very little in the way of economic security and since they both had to leave jobs they had just acquired working in a farm.When they got to El Convento, they were very discouraged. The church is located in a very remote place where rain prevents travel for most of the winter months, so the couple was isolated.The church was also falling apart, but they began working together as they believed in God's Word and calling. They built a new kitchen, expanded the pastoral house, added concrete floors throughout the house and church, and built a place for events in the back of the church.Adriana soon got pregnant, and, when their daughter was born, they felt that this was where their home and work was meant to be. They have come to love this church and this place as their home, and they have also learned to survive by depending daily on God's provision for them and their family.They feel blessed to be part of La Misión La Viña del Señor and began working with Meals4Kids project in 2022. While they have sometimes felt discouraged in the midst of great need, God has strengthened them and has given them a deep love for the people and the children in their church. They are now reaching these children by providing a spiritual and physical blessing as they preach the Word of God and give the children a weekly meal. They have even been able to feed some abandoned elderly individuals through this program as well.

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William came to know the Lord during his mother's battle with cancer. In 2001, his mother was diagnosed with cervical cancer and underwent chemotherapies, surgeries, and other treatments, but each day she got worse.Sometimes, she would lose consciousness. Other times, she would scream, cry, or even bite herself as she endured extreme pain and anguish. When William was with her in the hospital one day, a lady with a New Testament approached him and talked to him about Jesus. That night, his mother could not sleep. She was hurting herself so much that William told God that he would serve Him throughout his life if God would make his mother feel better and give her some peace. The next morning, his mother woke up feeling much better. His mother's cancer was too advanced for any treatments or surgeries to help, and eventually she passed away; however, William had no doubt that God had helped her. From that day forward, William began serving God and started going to the church in El Gandul San Luis de Palenque, Casanare. The pastor there, Luis Basilio Tumay, became his spiritual father.In 2010, William and his wife were sent to pastor a new church in Támara, Casanare.While pastoring at this church, the couple discovered their great love for children. In 2019, they were transferred to the city of Villavicencio, Meta, in Ciudad Porfia.William and his family began working with children living on the streets. In the beginning, reaching the street kids and other children in the community was difficult because they did not have any tables, chairs, or Sunday School materials. Little by little, God provided what they needed to start a children's ministry.With the help of the Meal4Kids project, William's church is now working in a marginalized neighborhood called La Isla. La Isla is located between two major rivers, and more than 70 families live there. Economic and spiritual needs are great. Houses are constructed with cardboard and plastic tarpaulins and have dirt floors. Most of the families living there are from Venezuela, and they have nowhere else to go. God has allowed William to spread the Gospel to these people.Currently, there is no place for the children to eat and participate in Sunday School, but William hopes to build a place where they are more comfortable as God provides the means to do so.The church is very motivated to help the people of La Isla as they have recognized an opportunity to show God's love to others and have experienced a blessing in doing so.

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Pastor Omar Alexis Blanco and his wife, Patricia, hope they can bring children to Christ at an early age because they know how life-changing that decision can be, especially for children who are living in dire circumstances. In fact, Pastor Alexis was only six years old when Pastor Jaime Achagua told him and some other children that they were heirs to the kingdom of God.Pastor Alexis recalls believing and choosing to follow Jesus on that day. His wife, Patricia, also became a Christian when she was young after Luis Guerrero, who founded La Viña del Señor, knocked at her family's door and told them about Jesus.Her family had never heard the Gospel before, and they immediately gave their lives to Christ.The couple met in 2005 and married just two years later. In 2011, they accepted the call to pastor a church in Primavera Centro, Vichada. While this church is only 55 miles from the church in Santa Rosalía, Vichada, there are no good roads to travel. When the pastors of the two churches visit each other, they travel for eight hours via motorcycle over rough terrain. Like Santa Rosalía, Primavera Centro lacks readily available medical care,so locals often turn towitchcraft for healing. Primavera Centro is also in an isolated rural location where there are few jobs and many difficulties. Extreme flooding, snakes and mosquitoes, and guerillas are common dangers. Like the wildlife and natural disasters that are prevalent in the region, guerillas are another source of injury or death that the people cannot control. The local people are resigned to this reality and believe that, as long as they keep quiet, turn a blind eye and do not get into their business, nothing will happen to them.In an environment where hardship and even the possibility of death are routine, Pastor Alexis and Patricia are called to show the children another way of life by preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Meals for Kids project is helping them achieve this goal. Local children who often have little to eat and must walk long distances to come to the church are coming each week and encouraging their friends to join them. They are greeted with a warm meal and the warmth of Pastor Alexis' and Patricia's love that shows the children what God's love is like.

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Life for Indigenous peoples in Colombia is very difficult. Violence is prevalent because of the guerillas. Food is scarce. Families have no regular meal times because there is not always food to eat. They eat as much as possible when they can hunt or when they receive food since they never know when they will have food next.Educational opportunities are extremely limited.Children do receive an education in Spanish, but speak only their native language, Sikuani, at home as a way to preserve their language and heritage. Young people begin having children very early in their lives as well. As soon as girls begin menstruating, they are married to boys as young as 14 to 16 years old. With no birth control readily available, early marriage and sexual activity lead to many children who go hungry without enough to eat.John Jairo, an Indigenous pastor, is also the governor of his community.
He finished elementary school, which is a higher level of education than others in his community typically achieve. He became a teacher and then a council member before becoming governor. Community members regard him with much esteem because of his education and because of what he has done to keep his community safe.
He liberated the community, which is the equivalent of a county in the United States, from a paramilitary guerilla and the government gave legal ownership of the land to the people in the community.
Pastor John's mother was one of the first members of the community to become a Christian; however, he had no interest in following in her footsteps.Indigenous peoples are often convinced by their personal experiences and what they see rather than by what they hear, so bringing believers to Christ simply by preaching the Word of God is challenging. When Pastor John received a diagnosis of diabetes, he became very ill and could barely walk. The food available, which is primarily carbs, made his situation worse. He began learning Bible verses and calling out to God for healing. In God's perfect timing and with God's grace, Pastor John was healed completely from diabetes and became a testimony of God's power and grace to others in the community.He continues to lead people to Christ and improve the lives of others.His own children have graduated from high school, and some of them have gone to technical school. Joining the Meals for Kids Project has helped Pastor Jairo care for other children in his community. The children who come to Sunday School at his church know they will have a meal, but they get so much more.Pastor Jaime Achagua works with Pastor John to teach the children about God and his provisions and love for them. Pastor John has also been a voice for change by encouraging members of his community to take advantage of educational opportunities and to save marriage and having children until they are older.

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Colombia, as in many other parts of the world, Indigenous peoples are often still viewed as inferior in some way, and these populations suffer as a result of discrimination.For example, although Indigenous individuals in Colombia own land, they are not considered part of the country's political and other systems. Jesus told his disciples that the Gospel would reach all nations of the world, and Pastor Jaime Achagua, who pastors a church in Villavicencio, Meta, was called to preach the Gospel to Indigenous communities.Although Pastor Achagua's ancestors were members of an Indigenous tribe, his family did not teach him their tribe's native language. That hasn't stopped Pastor Achagua from traveling countless hours to reach these forgotten people and tell them about Jesus Christ. God is blessing this work as new believers begin to follow Christ. One of those new believers was Gregorio Quintero who accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior.Gregorio's son Freddy heard about Jesus, too, and is now an Indigenous pastor who works alongside Pastor Achagua to make sure that Indigenous peoples have the opportunity to hear about God and the salvation the Jesus Christ offers them. About every three months, Pastor Achagua travels with a group of people from the International School to Pastor Freddy's church where they preach and minister to about 100 people who would otherwise not hear the Gospel message.Pastor Freddy, like many others in the Indigenous communities, is unable to read, but he hasn't let that stop him from learning God's Word and growing spiritually.Pastor Freddy's son reads the Bible to him.Through his time studying God's Word, Pastor Freddy learned that Jesus gave his followers authority to pray for the sick and ask for God's healing power. Indigenous peoples are superstitious and believe in healers and witchcraft, so many have come to have Pastor Freddy pray for them, and he has had the opportunity to bring them to the Lord. God has used Pastor Freddy to reach those who are forgotten and to bring healing and hope to those who are suffering, and the church has been growing as a result.The Indigenous communities in the states of El Meta, Casanare, and Vichada typically eat mañoco or casave, but very rarely have meat or other protein to eat. Both mañoco and casave are made from yucca, a root grown in this region.Mañoco is a fermented flour made from dehydrated yucca that lasts up to a year while casave, or fresh yucca, lasts only about a week.Pastor Freddy joined the Meals for Kids project in 2021 to help minister to the families in his community in a new way. His church now feeds children on Sundays during Sunday School, so they are eating at least one regular meal a week while also learning about the love of Jesus Christ.While Pastor Freddy's church is currently only a roof without walls and the children have no tables or chairs to use when they come for Sunday School and a meal, Pastor Freddy is sheltering them with prayer and teaching them about the armor of God that shields them.

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