“The idea is to capture the vision of how the church might get involved in the work that is going on down there.”

For Kathryn Stephens, visiting Colombia is like going home.

Stephens lives in Virginia, but worships at the Faith Reformed Presbyterian Church in Frederick. She lived in Colombia for eight years as a child when her father worked in the country for the Rockefeller Foundation in international agriculture development.

“I’ve really fallen in love with the people down there, they’re like family to me now,” she said. “When I go down, I’m going down with all of the feelings you would have if you’ve been separated from your immediate family for a while.”

On Thursday, Stephens and five colleagues from the Faith Reformed Presbyterian Church will leave the states for a week-long mission trip in Colombia. Stephens refers to the trip as a “vision trip” because it will introduce the members of her congregation to the country and the various ways that they can help the ministries in Colombia.

“The idea is to capture the vision of how the church might get involved in the work that is going on down there,” she said.

These opportunities could include running children’s sports camps, dental or optometry clinics and building schools or churches on future trips. Since much of the ministry in Colombia is child-based, Stephens and her team will be taking nearly 35,000 children’s vitamins with them to distribute.