Steve Tuggle

Each Saturday afternoon, the people of Greater Grace Medellin gather to celebrate our new life in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).   We started these weekly meetings in January, a few days after Pastor Brent and his wife Lucy arrived in Medellin. In our church gatherings, Pastor Brent always brings a message from God’s Word, The Bible.  We also sing, pray and fellowship with one another in English. By the way, we call them gatherings because in the Bible, “church” is the people (body of Christ), not buildings or places.

Laureles-Estadio is just one of nearly 250 barrios in Medellin. (Barrio means neighborhood in Spanish). We have lived here since December 2019, and are hoping to establish our new church here. Why Laureles? First, it has the 2nd largest population of English-speaking ex-pats in Medellin. An ex-pat is someone who is a citizen of one country but who chooses to reside in a different country. We and many of our friends are citizens of the USA or Canada, but love living in Medellin.

Second, Laureles is almost perfectly flat. That flatness makes it very easy for us to walk. We walk to grocery stores, pharmacies, all sorts of shops, and at least 100 restaurants. We don’t need a car, and we don’t want a car. Consequently, we save a lot of money on transportation. This is part of the reason we can live so well on our Social Security alone.

So when it was time to find a place for the church to meet, I walked 7 blocks to a local hotel, and toured Hotel Casa Laureles. The conference room looked perfect, and they gave us a very good price. In fact, we had used them for several meetings in the past. But it turned out they had already reserved the room for 3 Saturdays per month, so we only got to have one meeting there. But they suggested another place that was only 3 blocks further.

That place was the Golden Palermo Hotel. At first, they said we could only have 30 people present due to local Covid rules. But after a couple of weeks, that rule was relaxed and the limit increased to 40 people. So that is where we have been meeting since January 8, 2022. And the hotel treats us very well, and they are generous with us regarding the price.

Why Do We Meet On Saturdays?

At first, our reason for meeting on Saturdays was simple. We had three missionary families that are part of our group and they had duties with their groups on Sundays. So we meet on Saturdays so they can join us. Another reason is that we are trying to talk with other churches about sharing their facility on Saturday. This is similar to many English-speaking churches in the US that rent out their facilities to other groups for times other than Sunday mornings. The problem is that we are the first English-speaking church here. So there is no history of them doing this.

But we are still praying for a more permanent location. And for the time being, we have everything we need – until we grow larger than 40 people. Stay tuned for an update and I’ll keep you posted about changes.

English and Spanish Speakers

Although we use American English in our meetings, we do not exclude anyone who wants to join us.  Most of our meetings offer translation for Spanish speakers through their cell phone headsets.  So please bring your phone and headset if you need a translation. ***

***Sin embargo, no excluimos a nadie que quiera unirse a nosotros. La mayoría de nuestras reuniones ofrecen traducción para hispanohablantes a través de los auriculares de sus teléfonos celulares conectados a una llamada de conferencia Zoom. Así que traiga su teléfono y auriculares si necesita traducción.

Come join us, meet new friends, and experience a blessing from God.  It could change your life and eternal destination.

Steve Tuggle

Greater Grace Medellin is a Christian Evangelical Church. For more information about us and what we believe, please refer to our page “What We Believe“.

A revival is taking place here in Medellin. Medellin Colombia needs the gospel and workers for the harvest to share that gospel in this large city of over 4 million people. Missionaries from North America and other parts of the world are and have been serving all over the country. In Medellin, we have met many devoted Christian missionaries. One special couple, Mark and Barbara Stringer came to Colombia in 1966. And they are still faithfully serving the churches they started.

But as Jesus said in Matthew 9:37-38, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” One of the goals of Greater Grace Medellin is to encourage Christian expats from North America and elsewhere to consider relocating to Medellin, Colombia. The cost of living here is extraordinarily low, and you can find many ways to serve God while helping to fulfill the “Great Commission” Matthew 28:18-20

Despite the dominant influence of the Roman Catholic faith, Medellin Colombia still needs the gospel. Here in Medellin, I believe there are at least 100 Spanish Evangelical Christian churches. They preach and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Spanish. But there are thousands of foreigners living in Medellin who don’t speak Spanish. Who is there to share the gospel with them in a way they can understand? That’s why we are here.

Meet Pastor Brent Hillenga

Our new Pastor, Brent Hillenga, from Greater Grace World Outreach, and his wife Lucy moved to Medellin from Baltimore, Maryland. Prior to that date, several Christians were meeting in weekly online Bible studies, but it was difficult to hold regular church services without a facility and someone to preach and guide. So when Pastor Brent arrived, we joined with him in creating Greater Grace Medellin. He immediately started holding weekly church services in Laureles in English.

Pastor Brent has many talents, and Evangelism is at the top of his goals. He came because he believes in the title of this post, “Medellin Colombia Needs the Gospel”. He immediately instituted several outreach programs such as Cornhole for Christ on Sunday mornings in Poblado.

We’re currently meeting in the conference room at the Golden Palermo Hotel. But it appears we might soon outgrow that room. This Saturday at 3:00, we have a guest speaker. Pastor Kim Shibley is visiting from Greater Grace Community Fellowship in Silver Springs, Maryland. He and Pastor Brent went to Bible College many years ago. And they’ve been sharing their faith ever since, in many parts of the world.

We Believe The Bible

At Greater Grace Medellin, we believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God. We believe that “All Scripture contained in the Old and New Testaments is verbally, plenarily, and inerrantly inspired by God. It is the authoritative guide for all Christian understanding, life, and ministry.”

We preach the Bible every week and regularly share our faith with other English speakers (and Spanish speakers as well). Please consider joining us tomorrow and every Saturday afternoon for Praise and Worship, a Bible message, and prayer, 100% in English. We are the first and only English-speaking Christian church in Medellin.

[July 2022 update: We now meet in a new permanent facility excellently located in Laureles where many of us live. Calle 33, 66B-147, Medellin, Colombia. More about that in our next post.]

We recently enjoyed another week with our new pastor, Brent Hillenga, from Baltimore, MD. Brent invited three guests from Greater Grace World Outreach to join him this week. This was Brent’s third visit to Medellin in 2021. And during the week, we announced a new name for our Medellin Church. In January, Grace Church Medellin will become Greater Grace Medellin, a new name, with the same goal. We believe God has called this man to be our first pastor. We will continue our mission to establish the first Christian Church for English speakers in Medellin, Colombia. Brent and his wife Lucy will relocate to Medellin in January 2022.

Our week with Pastor Brent included meetings with many of our people. We shared testimonies and prayer requests, prayed together, and read and studied the Bible together. We also enjoyed showing off Medellin to our guests. Of course, we consumed lots of delicious food, walked all over Laureles, and traveled around the city.

On Friday, Pastors Brent and Shibley took a quick trip to Guatape to visit family members of their church in Baltimore. A local Spanish-speaking Christian pastor picked them up and took them on an exciting drive. Later that day, we met with the pastors of another Spanish-speaking church around the corner from our apartment in Laureles. Laureles is a barrio (neighborhood) of Medellin, which is where we live, and want to locate the church facility. We learned about the process of establishing a new church in Colombia. Our hosts showed us their church and talked with us about monthly costs. It was an encouraging time with Pastor Eduardo of Iglesia Redil Laureles.

Saturday Church Service

On Saturday afternoon, we enjoyed a delicious lunch. After lunch, we held our monthly church service which was special for several reasons. First, we had three terrific preachers, and we heard short messages from each of them. Second, we baptized two men from our group. I got in the baptistry with them and had the joy of participating in my first baptism in two years. While we were at lunch, my good friend, Michael Thayer filled the baptistry with a water hose. He also took a short video of his antics in adding ice cubes to the water!

The third reason it was so special was that we had a total of 23 people plus our 4 visitors from the US. Our normal attendance on Saturday afternoon is around 10-12, so we were overjoyed at the turnout. And everyone there heard the announcement about the new name for our Medellin church. By the way, the main reason we hold our church services on Saturday is that several of our group are missionaries and have responsibilities to their Spanish congregations on Sunday.

We Visited Friends in La Ceja.

On Sunday, we rented a 15-passenger van with a driver and took a trip to La Ceja to spend time with Luverne and Connie Shull. Luverne and Connie have been part of our group for about two years, and they recently moved to La Ceja, a small town in the highlands above Medellin. The bus ride to La Ceja takes an hour and 1/2, and we climbed 3,000 feet, so the road was anything but straight. However, the trip was very scenic, and on the way back we stopped at a beautiful waterfall called Tequendamita Falls.

During the trip, revisited with our guests, sang, laughed a lot, and saw the natural beauty of Colombia. In La Ceja, we visited with Luverne and Connie, and Pastor Brent led us in a rap session about the love of God. I think everyone contributed to the discussion. Then we went to the center of town, had a delicious meal, and boarded the bus for the trip back to Medellin.

Medellin needs Destiny Christian School

I want to mention one last item. For months, we have been praying for Destiny Christian School. Barbara Manderfield and her husband have been missionaries to Colombia for 31 years, and they started the school several years ago. But the Colombian authorities seem to have placed many obstacles in their path to obtaining a license and accreditation. And they also appear to be stalling in hopes they will just give up.

Two families from our church have enrolled their children in the school, and others are considering joining the school. In our meeting, Barbara mentioned 7 specific prayer requests. I know our visiting pastors will share these with their congregations back home, and you can also pray for the school.  Here are her requests:

1. Approval of the license
2. Protection from fines
3. Publicity
4. More families and students
5. Help with their website and social media
6. Legal assistance with work visas for their teachers
7. More teachers

Please pray for these needs for this incredibly important school.

Medellin Has Many Advantages for Retirees

Tuesday, November 16, 2021, the group flew back to Maryland. We had a nice visit with them before they left and shared another time of prayer. We’re looking forward to Brent and Lucy returning in January. The Greater Grace Church is planning a conference here in Medellin from January 20-23 to officially start Greater Grace Medellin. You should definitely try to join us either then, or as soon as you can.

Medellin is a fantastic place, especially for Christian retirees. One of our messages is Couples and Singles can retire and live very inexpensively here while also having a heavenly purpose for the remainder of their lives. Here are a handful of reasons to consider relocating to Medellin, Colombia:

1. Colombia has the highest-rated healthcare system in Latin America. In fact, Medellin has 9 of the 58 top-rated hospitals in all of Latin America;
2. Medellin’s total cost of living is about one-third the cost in most places in North America and Western Europe.
3. With its world-class Metro and bus system and very low-cost taxis, Medellin provides excellent public transportation throughout the entire Aburra Valley. We don’t need or want to own a car, and that lowers our cost of living even more.
4. Medellin is known as “The City of Eternal Spring” because the daily temperatures year-round vary from 60 – 85 with very mild rainy seasons.
5. There is a growing number of direct flights between Medellin and major cities in the US and Canada.
6. Since retiring, Paulette and I have more friends than we had back home.
7. We know that many look back to the history of Colombia and the drug cartels and think “How can we be safe there?” But we have lived here for over 4 years and have never witnessed a crime. We walk all over our neighborhood to the many restaurants, stores, and modern malls, and we feel very safe.
8. And now, Medellin has a strong and growing Christian church for English speakers. There are many opportunities to serve and be a part of the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20.

Come visit and see for yourself.  You can stay for 3 months with just your passport.  No visa is required.

Steve Tuggle

Greater Grace Medellin (formerly Grace Church Medellin)

This is another of my historical posts prior to the start of Greater Grace Medellin. The original post date was March 7, 2020 – two weeks before the Covid shutdown.

What is the most modern city in Latin America? My wife and I believe Medellin, Colombia is the answer to that question. You are probably asking something like “How can you think that the city of the notorious Pablo Escobar could possibly qualify?” In this post, I’ll share with you our reasons from our own personal experiences over the past 4 years living in Latin America. And since we have lived in four different countries in Latin America and visited two others, we know quite a bit about this subject. I’m going to explore this question in this article, so you can understand what our life is like here, and why you may want to come to check it out yourself.

Medellin has been our home for nearly two years (as of this writing, 3-7-2020). Since we retired over 4 years ago, we have lived in the following places:

1. Roatan, Honduras (3 months)
2. Boquete, Panama (17 months)
3. Peru (visited 1 month),
4. Cuenca, Ecuador (3 months)
5. San Jose, Costa Rica (1 month)
6. USA (visited for about 2 months).

Looking back, we feel the Holy Spirit used that time to train and help us see His leading to Medellin. We came to help start the first Christian church for English-Speakers in Medellin, and we enjoy that ministry very much.

Reasons Why I Think Medellin Is The Most Modern City in Latin America

Of course, these are my opinions, and many will say their city is the most modern. And opinions and experiences are why no one can definitively tell you the absolute best place to live in the world. But here are my reasons for why I suggest Medellin is the most modern city in Latin America.

Transportation

In Colombia and many other parts of Latin America, a car is much more expensive than in the U.S. But the good news is that you don’t need one here. In many parts of Medellin, we can easily walk to grocery stores, malls, restaurants, movie theaters, and special events. If you don’t want to walk, numerous buses are available to take you anywhere you need to go. They are safe, comfortable, and pretty easy to find. And there are also taxis and “Uber” style cars that generally cost under $3.00 for most trips. Many of our trips cost around $1.50. We never found a taxi in Houston for a price close to that.

The Metro

But the best transportation option in Medellin is the Metro. Rides cost the equivalent of $0.75! The public transportation system in Medellin is anchored by the Metro, which is the only rail-based system in Colombia. And the Metro System in Medellin is much more than just rail. It includes:

• Two rail lines – Line A, running north to south with 21 stations and Line B, running west from San Antonio Station with six stations. Line A is located at the bottom of the Aburrá Valley generally along the Medellin River.
• Five Metrocable cable car lines. The elevation in Medellin rises quickly from 5,000 feet along the Medellin River to 7,000 feet and above. Some of Medellin’s poorest citizens live in the higher elevations where there were few transportation options. Metrocable was conceived to help these people get to/from work. It just shows the incredible forward-thinking of the leaders in Medellin.
• One Tranvía tramcar line, running east into the center of the city.

• 

  Two Metroplús elongated bus lines – special double and triple the length of regular buses with specially designed elevated boarding stations and protected routes exclusively for these buses.

• 80 “Zero Emission” electric buses for a new Line O.
• Over 200 metro feeder buses that connect the metro stations with many neighborhoods in the Medellín metropolitan area.

Medellin’s Metro system carries more than 300 million passengers each year. And it was named one of the top transport systems in the world by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) in 2012.

Modern shopping malls with a twist

Medellin’s shopping malls are spectacular. They are large, beautiful, and very modern. Two brand new malls have opened in the past year. Each one tries to outdo the last. And they are especially attractive when decorated for Christmas. What makes them unique is they are all open-air. Medellin is known as “The City of Eternal Spring”. They all have special solutions to protect from rain. For example, Santa Fe Mall has 2 retractable roofs – one over the center court and the other over the giant food court.

Medellin’s shopping malls also offer some of the most breath-taking views of the city and surrounding mountains. Whenever we have visitors, we always include a trip to Tesoro Mall to see what we think is the best view of Medellin.

High Quality, Low-Cost Healthcare System

This may not sound like a distinguishing factor to determine “most modern”, but just wait. You will be asking yourself why it costs so much in the U.S. You will also wonder how a small South American country can be so far ahead.

The total cost of our health insurance is about $35 per month. That is the total for both of us. Most doctor visits cost $1. My prescriptions cost $1 for a 1-month supply. Many of our doctors are trained in North America. Sometimes, we choose to go outside our system to get faster service. For example, last month I was examined by a Dermatologist. During that appointment, she removed three sun-related lesions. And best of all, the total cost of the visit was only $45.88.

The most impressive story was one I just heard. A friend was in the hospital ICU for about 2 weeks and then had arthroscopic surgery. His total cost for the entire stay was zero! Because of the high quality and low cost, we made the decision to discontinue our Medicare coverage in the US. Including the cost of related supplemental insurance policies, we are saving roughly $500 per month. We would never dream of returning to the U.S. for a medical procedure. Even without insurance, the out of pocket cost here would be less than the deductibles and other uncovered costs back home in Houston.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

You are invited to visit and see for yourself. I’m sure your visit will be both enjoyable and eye-opening. And while you are here, we would love to have you visit our church groups. If you decide Medellin is right for you, join us in our mission to establish a Christian church and Christian community for English-speaking residents and visitors to Medellin.

You will be excited to know that your Social Security benefits will most likely be enough to cover your living expenses. And I also feel that God will give you the opportunity to serve in a special ministry He has in mind for you.

Ephesians 2:10 says:

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Please leave a comment below and contact me if I can be of any assistance.

Steve Tuggle