It has been a while since I last posted an entry. Street ministry has never stopped, we go out every week each time praying for a God encounter for them, a victory to loose the chains of slavery to addiction. I may have been silent on the blogging front, but the work continues. It seems like we had been on a flatline for a while, trying to reach the street people while they didn't want to be reached. But tonight, it seemed like God reached down and something just happened.
Luis is 17 going on 18 in November. He doesn't know the exact date of his birthday. He has lived under the Atocongo bridge for 2 years now, since his mom died and his dad remarried. He has no siblings and smokes terokal once a day. I love honesty like that when they tell you that they are addicts and do not try to hide it. He hangs out alone, robs to feed himself. He was sooty black. Everything on him, his skin included, is black. Not because he has African descent, but because he has probably not had an encounter with water and soap in a long while. His shoes are wide open, with black toes sticking out of them. We had never met him before now and he was open to talking with us and talk we did. We wanted to convey that we care for him, that he can call us and not have to be alone. We talked to him and at the end asked if he wanted Jesus in his life to transform it and to be able to live an abundant life. He had tears in his eyes and he wanted to be transformed. We prayed and he prayed and received Jesus in his life tonight. And Jorge told him he will get him clean clothes and shoes for next week.
We talked to Jhonny too. And it turns out that he has received Jesus into his life before and had gone to church. That was before his addiction to marijuana and probably something else. He lives on the streets of Ciudad because he is running from responsibility; to his child and ex girlfriend and to his mom and siblings. He's 19. I started talking about the image of God that most of them have, that God is a God with a lightning rod waiting to strike down and punish, and he nodded at the picture. Then I told him that God is not that kind of a God, that He loves us so much and that He wants to bless us but it is us who decide to turn away from Him. Jhonny told me he knows the Word of God, having gone to church before. I told him it gives life, it never returns void. He said he knows. Then I said that he just needs to call on Jesus and right aways Jhonny quoted Jeremiah 29:12 word for word. We prayed for healing in all aspects, for his hand that was burned in a fight, for his heart that needs to be turned into a heart of flesh, for his mindset to be transformed by the living Word, for him to desire after the Lord instead of substances. He prayed with his own words as well. And promised to call with unshed tears in his eyes.
We then took a bus to the Hospital area as we normally do, to talk to the street women there. It's still in the area of Ciudad, just 5 blocks away. Jorge had decided he wasn't going to speak to the women tonight. Generally, the guys in our group leave the talking to the street women to me or whichever female is there just so that the street women don't think that they are soliciting them for their services. However, he made a joke in the vicinity of one of them who is named Karina. She then thought he was there for her services but he quickly told her he was there to share about God. She opened up and told him that today, she had wanted to kill herself. And in the taxi that she was in, the taxi driver turned out to be a Christian who started sharing the Gospel with her without knowing what her intentions were. The Word of God calmed her down so that she didn't throw herself in front of a car after being dropped of. She had wanted to throw herself off a building too. And now Jorge was there to talk about God. She wanted to listen because it had calmed her down in the taxi. He shared the Word and she received the Lord in her heart. And now she wants to go to church with us. She has my number and I have hers. I will be calling her for sure.
Coincidences? Not a chance. Not a one. God's presence tonight was so evident and so palpable that those hearts melted before Him. He had gone before us and He has given us His favour and grace. The feeling in my heart is indescribable. All four of us were so thankful to have experienced such an amazingly tremendous night as His instruments out on the streets. His strength is made perfect in our weakness.
