So we decided to go to Ciudad for street ministry twice weekly now instead of once a week. I went today with Milagros and met up with Luis Enrique and his friends. I would like for you all to pray for him hard. He knows he needs to stop being a thief, needs to change his life around but the easy money traps him. And that is definitely no excuse for him not to change. He knew Jesus once and I know that Jesus is still pursuing him and I don't want him to go to prison. He almost went two times this past week. To one of the worst prisons in Peru, in San Juan de Lurigancho. I was like, "will you please quit what you're doing cos I don't want to come here and find out that you're in jail?" He gave me that look that said, "yeah, yeah, yeah".
I wanted him to know what it feels like to be a victim of robbery so I told him about my purse being stolen and how it felt after that. He was like, " I didn't do that, it wasn't me cos I don't still whole purses, just cell phones. Purses bog you down and are too hard on the elbows." I replied, "It wasn't you but I did think of you then and if it had been you, I would have... but I was in Rimac" to which he said,"What were you doing there? You shouldn't have been there anyways. It's dangerous!!" I had to try not to laugh at the irony of it.
They see as on equal footing as nuns and other volunteer workers, in that we're there to help them and to want better things for them. So they respect us and refer to us as "hermanitas" or "little sisters". Well, if they are lucid, that is. When they are high, it doesn't matter, you're just a blob standing in front of them. I learned today that it costs only 1 sole (about 30 cents) for 1 square (1 queso) of pasta which is cocaine sludge. There was a white guy buying weed (marijuana) out there today and he got super ripped off cos he didn't know the actual price. I was scared for him because he stood out, every one knew he's a foreigner and he was sweating profusely cos he was probably high already and he was putting himself in so much danger buying drugs out in the open and being high.
Met 2 new guys today. Luis and Jerson. Luis smokes pasta and Jerson is a thief who already spent 6 years in the jail in Lurigancho. He has a 11 year old daughter and Luis who is 21, has a 1.5 year old daughter. Jerson works with Luis Enrique and doesn't do drugs. Both said they want to change but then we'll see if they're serious or not. We asked about Roberth, Carla's husband, the 16 year old who was shot twice in the abdomen. He is fine and out of the hospital. Thank you Jesus. I made an appointment to start working with Luis and Jerson for counselling and teaching the Word for Saturday when we go out there next. Let's see if they are serious about changing their lives around.
So while we were talking to them, another robbery took place around the corner from us. I want to take pictures of them, of what goes around there but I can't. It would be just asking for it if I tried to take photos. Our guys might not steal from me, but there are others who do not know us and we would be fair game. Oscar and 2 other younger ones showed up for a short while, looking really bad, smelling of terokal fumes and just plain high. I saw Oscar last Friday when I was waiting for a bus and he was fine and normal, that was because he was not high at that time. I hate what these drugs do to them.
They think they're in control of the drugs and can quit any time they want to. I told Luis straight up that he is not in control of the drugs but that he is being controlled by them and if he was in control, then just walk away and leave it and see if he can do it for one day. He looked at me and the truth hit him. At the end of our time there he said we had brainwashed him and made him think. We told him it was the drugs that brainwash him, not us. We're just presenting the truth and that the only person who can really transform lives and ways of thinking is Jesus. I prayed for him at the end and he was like, "man,that was heavy".
Generally, they don't like me praying for them. I tell it like it is and ask God to make the drugs taste absolutely disgusting to them so that they can't even get anywhere near it. Please if you read this, pray for them, pray that they will encounter God supernaturally and get to know Him as Saviour and Lord and be set free from the addictions. And please pray that we will get more labourers and funding.
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