In September 2025, I spent just over a week traveling throughout a significant portion of Colombia’s western region. My purpose there was to help facilitate a partnership between Gospelink and a tribal-led missionary movement called RELIEC (Spanish acronym for “Network of Indigenous Evangelical Leaders of Colombian”). For many years, RELIEC has been successfully engaging and discipling tribes in remote jungle regions. Being a tribal network, they have a unique advantage accessing parts of Colombia where outsiders, even non-tribal Colombians cannot. Also on this trip I helped lead a team of men from a North American church on an expedition to find local producers and exporters of specialty coffee with whom to develop business relationships as a means to sustain ministry projects in the Amazon jungle. Visit my Storymap to learn more about RELIEC and some of their recent ministry projects in Colombia.
Flying into Medellin, we set out on an adventurous roadtrip that would take us through much of Colombia’s renown coffee growing region known as the “Eje Cafetero”. Over the course of eight days we traveled through seven departments (their version of states in the USA). Some of these areas are considered ‘severe’ by the U.S. State Department for risk of terrorism. Along the way we visited 10 coffee farms and met with the Misak and Nasa leaders of RELIEC in their tribal communities within a very volatile region of Cauca department. I had spent considerable time in this region just a few years ago, and it was wonderful to return once again.
Receiving us warmly into their homes and village churches, we had a productive time in fellowship and exploring ministry partnership potential. We learned during that time that these tribes operate significant coffee-growing operations. We had hoped to visit some of their farms, but that would have brought us in contact with insurgents known to patrol these areas. There has been ongoing fighting throughout this region between armed rebel groups and the Colombian military. Boundaries of political control shift often and unexpectedly. In fact, a town where we met with a group of tribal Misak leaders had only a few days earlier been retaken from insurgents by the Colombian army. For this meeting we had to affix a special flag to our windshield as a sign of our ‘neutral’ status.
The knowledge we gained from our meetings was invaluable both in terms of ministry vision and also opportunities to invest in a coffee venture to help sustain their ministry. The team from the North American church included experienced coffee experts, including at least one certified Q Grader. They provided guidance and encouragement to groups of tribal Nasa and Misak farmers who grow coffee for the local sale but eager to produce specialty coffee for the international market. We discovered that many of these farmers also produce coca and marijuana. However, especially among the Christians, there is a great desire among these tribes to break free from drug crops and focus on expanding their coffee producing efforts. Despite their desire, any major shift would run them afoul of cartels that would respond with harsh reprisals (murders and kidnappings are common) if such a radical move were made.
There is still hope. The farmers already produce significant quantities of coffee for domestic consumption, albeit of low-grade quality and thus heavily roasted. This is what every Colombian knows as ‘tinto’. Domestic tastes in Colombia are changing, however, signaling demand for specialty coffee at a higher price point and greater profits for its producers (though dealing with middlemen will always be contentious). The experts on our team conducted a course for the farmers. This involved a cupping session to compare specialty coffee varieties with what they currently produce so that they could experience the difference. They noticed the difference immediately and were encouraged to know that the necessary adjustments to their current practices were quite doable. Notebooks in hand, they eagerly wrote their observations. As Cauca was our final stop, we said our goodbyes and visited just a couple more coffee operations in the region before making the day’s drive back north to Medellin.
We traversed many rough, windy mountain roads and trails over those eight marathon days, pushing the limits of our large rental van – and our stomachs. Several of the coffee farms, including some for sale, were located far off the beaten path. Praise God, aside from getting stuck on a steep mountain trail at one point, we did not encounter any significant problems. I am grateful for the opportunity to help advance a ministry dedicated to assisting tribal groups in Colombia and many other places worldwide thrive in Biblical truth and as unique nations in all manners of life. We aspire to a day when we can enjoy freshly brewed specialty coffee varieties back home sourced by the very tribal farmers we met in Colombia.