Who are we?
Alexis: Hello to everyone. I come from a small city in Colombia called Barrancabermeja. I was very blessed as a kid since my mom instilled in me things about God. Thanks to her, I was able to come to know Christ and give wings to my dreams.
As I desired to receive training so that I may serve the Lord more effectively, I came to Medellín in January of 2007 in order to begin my theology studies at the Biblical Seminary of Colombia. I also began to serve the street children here with the Open Arms Foundation, and in order to carry out my role well, I find that I often use my skills as a psychologist. Without being aware of it, the Lord had been working in my life beforehand and had given me the opportunity to study psychology in my hometown before I even decided to serve Him.
I began my service with the Open Arms Foundation at the boys´ farm working as the weekend educator. Currently, I am more involved with the Robledo site of the Foundation Church and spend much of my time discipling and preaching, and also counseling and teaching the girls from the Casa Helena Girls’ Home.
I work with these children because I feel that the Lord blesses my life through them—I get to teach them about the love of God and can see how Christ works in their lives and in mine.
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Nicole: While working as a chemist with Nestle, I began to hear the Lord calling me to serve Him in missions. I then moved to the North Shore in Massachusetts in 2000 to study at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and soon afterwards became a member of the North Shore Community Baptist Church. My four formative years in the Boston area with my school and church helped me discover that I wanted to serve among children at risk in Latin America.
After being accepted with Latin America Mission (LAM) and raising support, I spent eight months in San José, Costa Rica studying Spanish. I was then able to move down here to Medellín, Colombia in late 2005 to begin working with street children with the Open Arms Foundation. When I first arrived to Colombia, I worked with the pregnant girls and their babies in our home for them for about a year until we were forced to close down that site due to lack of resources. Then, for a year and a half, I worked in our day program for street boys (and was also able to accompany several groups of boys as they made the transition to leave the streets and live at the boys’ farm). Following that, I worked in the day program for street girls in sexual exploitation for about a year. I am now currently working more with the Foundation´s sponsorship program, coordinate short-term teams and volunteers, and teach about God and the Bible to the children at risk of the Foundation Church, as many street children come from these children´s impoverished neighborhoods.
I feel privileged that the Lord has allowed me to serve Him in this labor that I enjoy so much. It is not easy work, but it´s so worth it to get to see changed lives, not only in this world, but more importantly for all eternity.
