I was still in my teens when I had my first contact with Orthodoxy through some Orthodox texts from the works of the Church Fathers, which are rarely found here. In fact, they were excerpts from St. Ignatius the Theophorus. From that hour the special vocation to know the true and early Christian faith was born in me. I must also say that I had seen on television, together with the presidents who had visited Colombia, Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus. From that moment I began to search for the patristic teaching that came from the East and that is how I understood that beyond all the offshoots and the papal confession there is a Church that truly keeps pure the first Christian confession of faith without change. This Church, hitherto unknown to me and to my people, is the Orthodox Church.
The city I lived in is the city of Cucuta on the border of Colombia and Venezuela. It is a small town on the Colombian-Venezuelan border, where economic and political conditions have not been easy to date, which is why I personally and many children grew up and are growing up in extreme poverty. I must say that I was not the only one who in those days was searching for Orthodoxy in Colombia, but God who is merciful and long-suffering had called other persons to the true faith, among them the current Bishop Athenagoras of Myrina.
Here, and until the time the Holy Metropolis of Panama, now Mexico, was founded, Orthodoxy was closed to us locals, not because they did not want to open it, but because the only priest resided in Caracas, Venezuela, and was in charge of the ministry of the Greek communities in many countries. His Eminence Athenagoras, became Metropolitan of the region as God’s answer to our request, and he embraced us as his children by starting a mission in our own land.
Today Orthodoxy is growing like no one can imagine in this Metropolis, having Orthodox parishes in almost all the countries of Central America, the Caribbean, Colombia and Venezuela.
On the Colombian-Venezuelan border, in the city of Cucuta, today we have a vibrant parish that is growing daily and experiencing Orthodoxy. As our Metropolitan and Pastor, His Eminence, Monsignor Athenagoras, tells us, we are living a new Pentecost.
After many difficulties, because for the last year we were operating in borrowed premises and we had no stable place, with the help of some brothers, we bought a plot of land of 600 square meters with dilapidated buildings, in order to build there the Church of the Holy Baptist and together a center where we will teach foreign languages to poor children, who do not have the financial means to learn them in order to improve their lives.
An example of what is happening there is the young Gregory, also known as Heiner Becerra. He came to us when he was 15 years old and on his own, without pressure and in his own silence, he observed what was happening in the liturgical Orthodox life of the brothers in this city and so one day he asked to be baptised on his own. The miracle is not that a young man on his own without being pushed by anyone did research on Orthodoxy, but that the flame of God in him became the cause for his parents to convert to the true faithful as well.
The boy again, with his patience and love, first made an effort to get to know his family, to bring them to us, to open a dialogue and acquaintance, but his plan was not a simple friendship but a way to bring the Orthodox faithful to them, and this was done before he was baptized.
God, brothers and sisters, who sees and searches every heart, who knows and knows our needs, does not leave unanswered the man who seeks and searches for him in love and wants to taste his Kingdom. So first he was baptized and then his father and mother so that they might reach the Divine Mystery which is the door to salvation. After they became Orthodox, Mr. Elijah and Mrs. Mary asked to be celebrated in the Holy Sacrament of Matrimony and so they were.
I do not want to bore you, I only want to ask for your prayers that we may finish this work to the glory of God and for the good of his people on the borders of Colombia and Venezuela and that people here may know what it means to have a right faith and experience of God in these distant regions where we are thirsting for the Incarnate Word and God-Man Christ.
Christos Anesti, truly risen.
✝ Timothy of Assos
Auxiliary Bishop
