The New Apostolic congregation of Cúcuta is excited about his visit on 15 February. The seventh largest city in Colombia, its official name is San José de Cúcuta, is in the north-east of the country on the border with Venezuela. It lies 320 metres above sea level and is around 600 kilometres north-east of the country’s capital Bogotá. The Chief Apostle can expect an average temperature of 28 degrees Celsius.
From warm to cool
Sunday will be a completely different story. Chief Apostle Schneider will conduct a divine service in the congregation of Bogotá. The capital of Colombia is the largest urban agglomeration in the country and one of the fastest growing metropolises in the whole of South America. Around eight million people live in the city proper and ten million in the metropolitan area. It lies 2,600 metres above sea level and occupies a sloping plain at the base of two mountains in the middle of the Andes. The average temperature here of 14 degrees Celsius is much cooler than in Cúcuta.
Irrespective of the temperatures, people are friendly and lively! Just like the country itself, which stretches across the northern part of the continent between the Pacific and the Caribbean. It has everything: Caribbean islands, the Andes Mountains, the Orinoco Basin, or the Amazon rainforest. Its highest mountain range, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, reaches an altitude of 5,775 metres. The Amazon region is almost completely covered by dense rainforest.
Unrivalled landscape
And then there is the equator, which runs right through the country. All these components make Colombia a gem. Its biodiversity is the greatest on the South American continent after that of Brazil. Ten per cent of the world’s species are found on Colombian soil. With its large number of endemic species as well as its diverse ecosystems, Colombia is one of the world’s most diverse countries.
Beauty, culture, and faith
The Chief Apostle can therefore expect a country that has a lot to offer in terms of beauty and culture. The New Apostolic faith was shaped by Apostles such as Lorenz Hans Muth, to name just one. The Church’s future is promising. The Chief Apostle knows what to expect as this is not his first visit. His pastoral tour will focus on the 26 congregations and seven missions in the country and their current situation.
Armenia
Bucaramanga
Cali
Ibague
Medellín
Neiva
Pereira
Tunja
Villavicencio
Annual motto
!Es tiempo de hacer el bien! It’s time to do good! The Colombian congregations have also adopted our annual motto. For them, doing good is a matter of the heart. “Just as Jesus Christ gave His heart and did good to people, we want to do the same.” This is what it says on the homepage of the New Apostolic Church Colombia. Doing good also means protecting the environment to leave a better world for future generations.
And finally, fellowship means a lot to the brothers and sisters: “When we are together, we learn from each other, listen to each other, find solutions to problems, become more empathetic, and strengthen our faith.”
Many more impressions from the Iglesia Nueva Apostólica Colombia can be found on its own YouTube channel.