I’m Simon Sundingama, I’m 23 years old and I belong to the Koguis ethnic group, located in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. I come from a very poor family and I grew up among people who were not my family. Since I was very young, I had to start working to support myself and to have something to eat. I did not have the opportunity to study, as I lived in a distant region and my priority was to work to survive. Getting to know Jesus and letting him rule my life gave me hope to turn my dreams into reality, starting a new journey, as the sad past turned into a happy present, bringing a future full of hope.
Two years ago, I got to know PEPE. I was trained and started working with my community, helping children to have what I never had: the opportunity to become literate in their language within their community. It was an incredible experience that made me grow and opened my eyes to studying, especially when I received the challenge of being a PEPE coordinator among the ethnic groups in my region. It wasn’t easy, but the great and true God that I met started to open the doors and I was able to study. That’s how, after a lot of effort, in November 2022 I managed to graduate with a bachelor’s degree. I’m pretty sure it was God who did all of this in my life!
Knowing that God loves me and wants me the way I am, raised my self-esteem and helped me to overcome each stage. In fact, it has been helping me to win because we grow step by step, day by day. My goal is to become more prepared each day to teach children and be a reference for all the indigenous communities in the Sierra Nevada.
PEPE is very important because it teaches me how to teach! Not only do we teach reading and writing, which is very important, but we also teach the gospel, presenting our Savior Jesus as the only way to reach God. PEPE helped me win children for Christ!
That boy without hope for a better future became a child of God and today he is a community leader, directs the church, and is a PEPE Missionary-Educator. What more can I want?
Pray that PEPE continues to grow among Colombian ethnic groups!
Simon Sundingama – Area Coordinator in Colombian Ethnicities
Translated by Letícia Pedrosa Rodrigues
