Country Profile: Colombia
The population is around forty seven million people and seventy per cent of these people live in the urban areas of the country. Although the official language is Spanish, there are a total of seventy-seven languages spoken in the country.
There is also a wide gap between the traditionally rich families of Spanish descent and the majority of the mixed-race population.
The church in this northwest corner of Latin America has been characterised by a slow response to the Gospel. Despite all this, the national church has grown very slowly but steadily. Mission is still a foreign concept for the majority of the evangelical churches.
The Andean Region Field was created in 2003 as an OM Latin American initiative with the purpose of pulling together the resources and potential of four countries in the northwest corner of South America. The Andean Region is made up of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador & Peru.
In 2010, OM Colombia began official operations under the guidance of Martha Ardila. OM Colombia works to raise AIDS and pro-life awareness through school and ministry presentations through Aids Link and pro-life ministries. Martha also hopes to support economically disadvantaged children through proceeds from her childrens' books in the process of being published.
The OM Andean Region exists to challenge, encourage and equip the national church in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to engage in local & worldwide evangelisation and to meet the needs of the neediest.
In order to accomplish the purpose of OM Andean Region in these countries, the team has focused its efforts in five different streams:
Evangelism - the team aims to work alongside the church and Christian organisation in church planting projects, community evangelisation and children’s evangelisation, adopting special projects and targeting un-reached groups.
Literature distribution and sales - the team aims to promote a reading culture, providing Christian literature in a variety of subjects to meet the spiritual, emotional and psychological needs of the local community.
Equipping & training - the team aims to provide formal and informal education to train those willing to serve locally and overseas, and to equip the churches who are willing to stand behind them. The OM team has developed a formal training school for Cross Cultural Communication and Missions, as well as a variety of curriculums for workshops to equip and train the national church.
Community Development -The OM Andean Region is bringing hope to prisoners, high risk children, orphans, needy communities; providing crisis prevention, education and distributing goods.
National Church Mobilisation for Local & Worldwide Missions -The team is committed to challenge and encourage the church through our different seminars, workshops, global challenge and global action programs to be national champions of worldwide missions.
We would like to see many missionaries and short term volunteers coming to this country to serve the local church and to mobilize Colombians to bring the gospel overseas.
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