A heart for Colombia

Campus club ‘Limitless’ raises awareness for Latin America

Once a country known for coffee, Colombia is now a land ravaged by crime, drugs and civil war. The Liberty University club Limitless was created with the goal of raising awareness to these issues. Run by passionate, mission-minded students, the club holds campus fundraisers to support relief organizations already working in Colombia.

“I founded Limitless in 2012 as a club that raises awareness about social issues affecting Latin America through the promotion of sustainable local projects,” Limitless founder and graduate student Joy Cruz said. “We believe that God’s love is limitless and it transcends geographical, racial and linguistic social barriers.”

Although Cruz had always felt God calling her to make a difference, she was given the motivation to take action during her sophomore year at Liberty University.

“I remember it was at Convocation, Johnnie Moore was speaking and the Lord touched my heart and told me to stop waiting to see a change and to go make a change,” Cruz said. “From that moment I felt my mission in life was to seek justice for the powerless and for those who can’t speak for themselves.”

As a native of Latin America, Cruz was well aware of the dire situation in Colombia. However, she quickly discovered that few of her classmates and professors were informed about the problems facing Colombia.

“It really caught my attention that many people did not know about the conflict in Colombia and the ongoing civil war that we’ve had for 60 years,” Cruz said. “I felt like this was an invisible crisis.”

With her passion and determination for the cause, Cruz began to raise awareness with the other students and faculty on Liberty’s campus. As the club formed, they began fundraising for the Moses Home, a refugee haven connected with the Path of Light church in Colombia. Not only is the home in need of funding for its job-training and education programs, but also for an expanded refugee building.

“So far we are just fundraising for the Moses Home … hopefully in the future we will be able to support other local projects,” Cruz said. “We’re looking to do more events this year to raise more awareness and financial support.”

In previous years, the Limitless club hosted events highlighting Latin America’s culture with music, food and charity bracelets. Cruz said the club also held movie nights showing documentaries about Colombia and the local projects that Limitless supports.

“Even though events and financial support (are) important, we really ask people to keep these refugees in their hearts and minds when they are praying,” Cruz said. “We also encourage people get educated about internal displacement in Colombia and the project that we are helping out.”

Cruz encourages Liberty students to connect to Limitless through the club’s blog and Facebook, facebook.com/LimitlessColombia. She also says that it is important to attend the events in order to become further informed and gain a passion for the ministry.

“It is so incredible to see how God has been working these past few years,” Cruz said. “He is already touching so many students’ hearts and giving them a passion and a heart for Colombia.”

RUTT is a feature reporter.