It's summer in Peru and our team is down to half its size. Carolina and Vladimir were both away this weekend and so it was just Milagros and I on the streets tonight. The youth already know who we are and we just stay in one spot now and they come to us. Well, those who want to see us. Oscar ran away from us today. We believe it's because he and a friend wanted to do some B&E (break and enter) so they would not even say hi to us. Carlos was a no show tonight.
The first person we saw tonight was Andrea and another girl, Jimena who is 3 months pregnant and smoking pasta. She is 14 years old. She said that the father of her baby died in an accident. I started teaching her about the consequences of doing drugs or alcohol when pregnant or lactating and she was genuinely surprised. I sincerely hope that she stops smoking pasta for her baby's sake. Andrea told me she is consuming drugs again after 2 months of not doing it. I wish families would realize that and get their kids out of the environment after they get clean.
We met Carla tonight with her 5 month old baby, Jean Pierre. She is 18 and was accompanied by a family friend, Christian Anderson (and no, I am not making up any of these names) who is 12. Both of them have very interesting stories. Carla's live in spouse, Roberth who is 16 was shot twice in the abdomen last night at the stadium. Football or soccer games here can be fatal. There are 2 major teams, Alianza and Universitaria and they both have gang back-ups and fans and the gangs backing these teams use the games as excuses to fight one another. And Roberth, being involved in a gang backing one of the teams, got shot last night. He could have died but is now in Intensive Care because God protected him. Carla knows that and keeps saying that herself. They have 2 kids, the older child is 2 years old and little Jean Pierre is 5 months old. Carla sells chewing gum on the streets to help support them. Her mother provides the necessities for the babies. She is a Christian but has not gone to church for a while now. Christian Anderson who is only 12, used to be on the streets inhaling terokal. He decided he wanted to change his life, begged God to help him and got off terokal and is still clean today and attends church. He shared his testimony with Milagros and started preaching to her. I love it! I asked him what he was doing in Ciudad and he said that he was only there accompanying Carla as she sold candy because Roberth is in hospital. And it was obvious he was telling the truth because the other guys teased him and bugged him about being off the streets and being clean. Hopefully Carla will let us know when we can go and visit Roberth because it would be good to be able to go and see him, pray and share the Word as well.
While we were talking, right in front of us were the older guys mentioned in the last blog, swiping wallets off unsuspecting passerbys' back pockets. When Milagros asked them about it, their justification was that these were new people in the area. Those who steal will only steal from newbies as they know better than to steal from their neighbours or the people who live there. Then, as we were heading to our bus stop to go home, we ran into Luis Enrique who is a thief. I had met Luis Enrique a while back and he used to go to church and had been somewhat involved but then he decided to stop going when he knew that he didn't want to give up robbing people. His motive for robbing others is because he is spoiled and likes living the good life and working will get him no where. He can make up to S/1200 (USD 430) a day stealing. We talked extensively with him about his lifestyle and what's really funny is that he thinks that one day it will all change like a fairy tale and he will have kids and all will be good and fine and feel good fuzzy. I kinda burst that bubble by giving him a huge reality check of what would be the probable thing that will happen if he keeps going the way he does. He didn't like where I went with his fairytale. At the end, before we left, I asked to pray for him, he was like, nooooooo, the last time I talked to you I felt so bad I couldn't steal for days. I was like, yes, and that is why we need to pray for you more! So we did and I prayed that God would touch him and change his heart and take all desire of robbing people away. He didn't like that too much, I could tell by the way he scrunched up his face at me. LOL. He did like it when I prayed protection over him and healing over his leg that got hit by a combi when he robbed a girl of her cell phone.
Sometimes, all you can do is shake your head in disbelief at them. You just gotta love them because they're so weird and funny and endearing despite the stuff that they do. Where their thoughts come from, how they perceive things....it's beyond comprehension sometimes. But then, they are the product of their upbringing. How many of them have mothers who are prostitutes and dads who are druggies or vendors? How does one stand a chance when they are born into a family which does not know better? How does one know what is normal or abnormal when complete dysfunction is absolutely normal to them? If you see your mom constantly handling marijuana, would that not become the norm for you, just like someone who sees their mom baking all the time?
So much needs to change. But we can only do it one step at a time. I can't wait to be able to have funding to start the residential part of the house going so we can get some of them off the streets. Step by step, that is all we can do while God leads and directs.
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