At a Samaritan's Purse shelter in Colombia, a young Venezuelan mother experienced God's peace and was reunited with family she thought she'd never see again.
Sofia first fled Venezuela four years ago as a teenager, grieving the death of her mother and hoping to find a better future in Bucaramanga, Colombia.
“I used to serve in a church in my country,” she said, “but the death of my mom made me abandon and drift away from God.”
Life in Colombia brought even more hardship and violence. And it was in this environment of uncertainty that Sofia gave birth to her daughter just last year. Without family support in Colombia, the young mother made the difficult decision to return to Venezuela, longing to reconnect with her maternal grandmother, whom she grew up calling her “mom” and hadn’t seen since fleeing four years ago.
On her exhausting journey back to Venezuela, Sofia stopped at the Samaritan’s Purse La Donjuana shelter in Cúcuta, near Colombia’s border with Venezuela. She slumped through its doors as a last resort to spend the night—physically spent and emotionally overwhelmed.
At the Samaritan’s Purse shelter, Sofia and her daughter were safe–and could smile with joy again.
At the shelter, Sofia and her daughter were accepted with open arms. They received several days of safe lodging, nutritious meals, clothing, and emotional and spiritual support focused on restoring her relationship with God. She participated in devotions, discipleship classes, and protection workshops addressing gender-based violence, emotional trauma, and human trafficking prevention—all unfortunate realities for migrants in Colombia and Venezuela.
“Since my childhood, I have known God, but I had been distant for a long time,” Sofia shared. “At the shelter, I experienced a peace I couldn’t explain.”
“At the shelter, I experienced a peace I couldn’t explain.”
Samaritan’s Purse opened the La Donjuana shelter in 2018 as part of our response to the crisis in Colombia following Venezuela’s economic collapse. Since then, the shelter has served hundreds of thousands of weary migrants. In 2024 alone, nearly 20,000 people found refuge and help at our shelter, and left having heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Reunited with Family and Beginning Again With Christ
While she and her daughter recuperated and rested at the Samaritan’s Purse shelter, our staff helped connect Sofia with her grandmother in Venezuela. The team worked quickly to organize the correct documents for the family and arranged transportation for the grandmother to travel to the shelter.
Two days later, Sofia’s grandmother arrived in Cúcuta and—after four long, tiring years apart—they embraced. For the first time, Sofia’s grandmother met her great-granddaughter.
Sofia’s grandmother was relieved to see her family safe and healthy at our shelter.
“I am grateful to God first and then to you, for the protection you gave my girls,” Sofia’s grandmother wrote in a letter to the Samaritan’s Purse staff at La Donjuana shelter. “God is here with you. Keep helping many people. God carried me in victory because I have my daughter with me.”
The family eventually returned to Venezuela with logistical and financial support from Samaritan’s Purse, but it was the love and compassion Sofia felt at the shelter that softened her heart to God’s love after years of pain, turmoil, and loneliness.
“Thank you for the documents, for the care, for the food, for every piece of clothing, for everything I learned, and for the spiritual support,” Sofia said to our staff.
For the first time in a while, Sofia and her daughter could relax and recover, knowing they were safe at the Samaritan’s Purse shelter.
Sofia also shared that she hopes to begin attending church again and sing as she once did. She dreams of finishing her studies so she can provide for her daughter and support her grandmother.
At the end of her letter to our staff, Sofia’s grandmother shared two Scripture verses that have summarized the journey to seeing her granddaughter again.
One was Joshua 1:9 that says, “Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
And the other, Matthew 7:8: “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
Please pray for Sofia and her family as they readjust to life in Venezuela. Pray for the countless families that pass through our shelter in Colombia, that they would experience the peace and rest only God can provide.
Samaritan’s Purse staff gathered around the family before they departed for Venezuela to return home. We helped and supported them each step of the journey.
