John and Laurie Lopez are working together to plant churches in an area east of Medellin, Colombia.
Laurie worked many years at Multnomah Bible College in the Missions Department in Portland, OR and also helped at her church, Hinson Baptist Church, with the young adults group. During that time, she took various teams on short-term mission trips to Medellin, Colombia. Each time she returned from Medellin, her heart felt a strong pull to return. She eventually was invited by a foundation in Colombia to join their team. While praying about the opportunity, she sought God’s will to leave her stable job at Multnomah to raise support to go to Medellin.
At the time, humanly, it made no sense to start this journey as the US was in the middle of an economic crisis (around 2009). After praying very specifically for guidance in God’s will, two days later, her boss at Multnomah called her into his office to let her know that, due to the economy, they were forced to cut her position at Multnomah. Her response was that of excitement as it was a confirmation to her prayer about leaving a stable job. During her time at Multnomah, she had the opportunity to work with a number of reps from various mission agencies as she planned the missions conference there as well as planned the workshop section of Mission ConneXion NW.
Due to that experience, as well as her time on the mission board at church, she chose to go with WorldVenture. In April of 2012 she had raised the necessary support and was released to go to Medellin to begin language study. One year later, after completing language study, the foundation where she was planning to work began to make some changes that she was not comfortable with. As a result, she began to pray and seek counsel on the possibility of starting a new ministry. At that time, she was in a poor neighborhood and saw a baby (less than a year) sitting in the middle of the street playing with rocks. Her friend asked a group of women nearby if they could hold the baby. They said, “sure.” As the baby nestled into Laurie’s shoulder, she felt an overwhelming sadness and pull to work in that neighborhood. That began the ministry in Robledo Aures, a poor suburb of Medellin where Laurie worked with kids at risk teaching Bible, English, reading, and leadership.
In 2015, Laurie met John Lopez (who is now her husband) and he began to work in the ministry. John is native Colombian and grew up on a farm about 4 hours outside Medellin. During his childhood, he experienced the tension of a FARC and paramilitary presence near his home. Immediately after he graduated from high school, John moved to Medellin. After a time working in the family business, John made the decision to go to seminary. He is scheduled to graduate with his degree in theology on November 28, 2025.
At the end of John’s time in seminary his pastor asked him to pray about joining a team to plant churches. While it was a painful decision, after much prayer and counsel, both felt called to accept the invitation to plant churches in the valley east of Medellin. One deciding factor was the recollection of a conversation with someone in one of the pueblos in this valley. A number of years ago, in conversation, a man earnestly asked that someone from their mission (WorldVenture) come to plant a church nearby. He said that he desired to go to church, but there was no church near his home. The area is growing more quickly than anyone anticipated and there are very few healthy churches in the valley. It is exciting to be part of what God is doing in this region.
Featured on WorldVenture:
– WorldVenture::In Review
