Milton and Laura Acosta were a part of a church family while Milton studied nearby at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. When he finished his PhD, they returned to Milton's native Columbia to teach at a seminary. Milton once wrote about their church building in Medellin, Columbia:

We are attending a Baptist church in Medellin. We are using what used to be one of the houses owned by a prominent drug dealer. The guy was shot dead by the police a few years ago. Now all his properties are in the hands of the government. Some of them are rented out to people. This particular house where the church meets has a discotheque, movie theater, soccer field, basketball court, swimming pool, fitness room, bar and kitchen, a stable for ten horses, and a huge house with a fountain at the entrance. The sanctuary is what used to be the discotheque.

Now that's a transformation to thank God for! A drug dealer's compound is now a church building. Churches—the people, not the buildings—are supposed to be miracles of transformation, like a drug dealer's playground becoming a home for the holy.