For Nidia Pencue, God Reveals His Mission a Little at a Time

Nidia working with the teens at our center in Villavicencio, Colombia

We receive God’s mission for us at different times in our lives. For some, it is much later in life. For Nidia Pencue, one of our directors at our child development center in Villavicencio, Colombia, He led her down a different path when she was a teenager but he didn’t reveal everything right away. Read along as Nidia shares her journey with God.

When I finished my secondary education, my desire was always to study social communication and journalism. Being a missionary was not in my plans. However, from the testimony of my parents, the only thing I knew was that I wanted to serve the Lord all my life. I entered university, but I quickly realized that journalism was not my thing. After two months, I left school and started working.

While at work, co-workers told me that a missionary who served in the Sikuani ethnic group, (one of the 112 ethnic groups in Colombia) was looking for a missionary couple who would go with him to teach Spanish to fourth and fifth graders in an elementary boarding school. Initially, I wasn’t interested because I was not a Spanish teacher but after a month when I learned he hadn’t found anyone, I reached out to him. When the ministry director that supported the work of the tribe interviewed me, he told me I couldn’t go because I was very young, female and single. The answer discouraged me a little, but at the same time I felt good because at least I had tried. 

A week later, he called back and said they couldn't find anyone and would I still be interested? I said yes! In one week, he gave me a mini intercultural training and in March of 1999, I left my home on a mission trip of no return. 

I cannot say that my call was an audible voice, or that God spoke to me in a dream or that I had a vision. The truth is that after traveling for almost two days, when we entered the indigenous territory, seeing its people and listening to the language, I felt something in my heart. I believe that God captured my heart in this way. That first night in the indigenous community, I told him if he had chosen me for that path, that I was willing to obey him. This is how my missionary life began.

After working with the children there for 8 months, Nidia received a scholarship to attend a cross-cultural missions school. She continued her work with various ethnic groups including the Huitoto in the Colombian Amazon where she helped train missionaries and local leaders and they planted a church there. 

Five years ago, Nidia was one of 3 Colombians to be chosen by the Seed company (an organization that supports Bible translation) to be trained as a biblical consultant to help indigenous leaders translate the bible into their own languages. Right now, she is translating the bible into the Yukpa language and they’re currently working on the book of Genesis. Being able to do most of the work at home, she started helping her sisters on Saturdays, teaching biblical values to children from their community. 

Several years ago, God had been worrying me with a very strong burden for the young people of our community who were in drug addiction. I felt that we should do something for them, but I always rejected that feeling or call with the excuse that I already had a call to ethnic groups. Day after day, God confronted me with that feeling for the children, youth and adolescents of our community. In my heart there was always the idea that the church should do something more for the community. It should respond to the needs of these children, but we did nothing about it.

In October of 2019, I talked with Pastor Lucy Lancheros (from Formavida in Bogota, Colombia, one of Mission Life’s child development centers) and she encouraged me to move from the biblical to the social in working with children. Together with my sisters, we accepted the challenge and we gave it a more formal structure and that is how Semillas de Vida (Seeds of Life, the program at Mission Life’s child development center in Villavicencio) was born. 

My sister, Marilyn assumed the direction of the program and I committed to supporting her and the foundation . We started giving the children lunches on Saturdays. Then, in March 2020 the pandemic began and we had to go to mandatory isolation.

During the pandemic, I felt the great need to do something for the children and their families. I felt that we should not lose contact with them. We started giving one lunch a week, and the parents came to our house to pick it up. We saw God faithfully providing. We served lunches for 53 children, one day a week. In 2021, we challenged ourselves to give two lunches a week and God provided faithfully.

Two months ago, I assumed the general direction of the program. 

It has not been easy to openly accept this "new" call to work with children and although it is something in some way I have been doing since I was 14 years old (at that age they gave me a group of children to teach at my church) I always thought that it was not my field, that it was not my strength, that it was not my calling.

Well, here I am, ready to continue learning from this new experience. In the midst of all this struggle, God continues to teach me that his main calling is to serve him in many ways, in many places, with many groups. He has also reminded me that he is always willing to empower us through his Spirit for every good work. I always had an excuse, but today I have my disposition to obey him. I know that there is a lot of work coming with Semillas de vida. I know that there are things that I still do not understand, nor see, nor have, but we love these children and their families and we pray and we will work to be the instruments of transformation that God uses in this community.

I am very happy to be able to serve God. It is a privilege to have been called by him and now to be a witness and encouragement for many people. I really am a woman that God has blessed. Therefore I only want to serve and honor him to the end.

And just when you think He has told you everything, there is more. We just learned God has revealed another piece of his vision for Nidia. Just recently, she was asked to become the next pastor of their church. Her parents led the congregation for years. Nidia has surrendered and she is again taking the step to obey God’s plan for her. We will continue to follow her journey and share more with you.

In the meantime, learn more about the work she and her entire family are doing at our center in Villavicencio, Colombia and how you can get involved.