A Recap of 2012

As 2012 comes to a close, I reflect on all that has happened this year and give thanks to the Lord of Harvest. For this ministry, it has been a year of harvest, of seeing God's hand in everything, of seeing the purpose of what He has called us to do. 

This ministry has never been easy, it's a ministry that needs a lot of patience, love and persistence. Looking back, I am awed by the faithfulness of my God. He taught me what it meant to plant a seed and to be patient while I kept watering it. How many times, like a curious impatient child did I want to dig beneath the earth just to see what was happening with the seed that was planted. How many times did I wonder if it was even alive, let alone, growing. And then,  in His timing, things started to happen. 

I must say that He broke all of my plans. Every one of them. He told me what He wanted me to do and I did it, but impatient daughter that I am, I started planning ahead and beyond what He had said to do in my own logic and that of this society's. I started thinking along the lines of what others have done, what is logical to do based on what this culture expected. God smashed them to pieces and shut several doors. I was left with the unorthodox and doing what others had not done before. We were also doing this alone with a couple of other people because most churches would not touch this type of ministry with a 20 foot pole. 

Our van became an office to disciple and counsel. As did other local cafes and we quickly found that all the places we had "accidentally" chosen were run by believers. So, not only were we doing ministry but also helping out their businesses. Unplanned bible studies sprouted in homes of the people we counseled. We even used playgrounds and parks. God showed us that we are the church, not any building and that ministry happens wherever and whenever. And we could still share and teach the Word even if we are sitting next to a rather huge pitbull like dog on a couch.

We saw how God worked and moved in hearts that were so hardened and hurt to transform them into flesh so that they could love again. Friendships were forged with people we never would have thought we would ever come to meet, let alone know. Trust was build. And people came to know the Lord and started living. 

I look back at 2012 and I am grateful. So grateful for this chance to have done what we have been able to do. So grateful because we have been so privileged to do all this on such a grassroots level. So grateful because He showed us His hand and how marvellous He is. So grateful for the lives who came to Him. So grateful for the people who walked with us in this ministry. The seed that was planted did take root and sprout leaves. Like the verse God gave me for this ministry, Mark 4:31,32 , God willing, it will grow to be a large tree to give shelter to many one day. 

This ministry is beyond us. It's not about us. The seed that has been planted will keep growing whether we are still here or not. It is all about Him. We do what He asks, and He will be faithful to accomplish that which He has said He will do. 

2012 has been extraordinary. 

One Woman

We received a call from JP's mom today after a long while. She had moved along with her husband and three younger children to a piece of  property that they had bought which is a testimony all by itself. Her moving there  became the excuse for two of her sons to return to their past vices on the streets, JP being one of them. This happened about 2 months back. 

If every person who decided to follow Jesus trusted Him and held onto Him like this woman does, this world would be transformed in an instant. She met Jesus at the lowest point in her life; the relationship between her husband and her was colder than icebergs in the Arctic Ocean; her kids except the youngest were rude and disobedient; her three oldest sons had been in drugs, with two of them still on drugs and she was at her wits end. She didn't know how to deal with it and the only way she knew how was to yell and nag which didn't help any. She had been at the point of walking away from all of them to start a new life for herself. Then she gave her life to Jesus. 

And something beautiful began. Her heart of stone started to become a heart of flesh. She started to react differently and stepped into her authority as a parent over her children. She went to church and gave herself completely over to Jesus and really trusted and held onto HIm with all she had. She learned that the bible says that Jesus is her husband so she took Him at His Word. She learned that the bible says that God is her father who will never fail her. She took Him at His Word. She learned to forgive past hurts and ask for forgiveness. She cultivated her relationship with Jesus daily and it grew and blossomed. And her faith in Him deepened.

Her greatest dream right now is to see her entire family worship the Lord together. She stands on Acts 16:31"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved AND your house". All her house in 6 short months have come to know the Lord except her husband. And her younger sons have changed. They're polite and obedient. Her husband has changed his attitude towards her and now seeks her out to share his day and to spend time with her. She told him that her dream is to see them all go to church and worship the Lord together. He told her that it won't be long before that dream comes true. And three days ago, JP returned home from living out on the streets. 

One woman. Holding onto God with all she had, believing that what He says is true because the alternative is not an option. One woman. Believing in her identity as a daughter of the Most High God and walking out her Kingdom heritage. One woman. Changing the atmosphere around her because of her simple, childlike faith. One simple, ordinary woman walking hand in hand with her immensely extraordinary God to see the supernatural happen in the natural. 

I'm not making any of this up. My husband and I were and are still very privileged to walk with her and her family to see God's hand in all of this and how the faith of this woman is bringing a real change to her family. 

A heart fully surrendered to the Lord without fear is truly an amazing thing. 

Talking Nice

Sometimes we have to be hard to be kind. Sometimes we have to stop mollycoddling so that people can grow and start taking responsibility for themselves. Oftentimes we don't do that. We think we have to be all "Christian-like" and be all gooshy smooshy and let people do what they shouldn't do because we think that is showing them that we are Christlike. 

Sin kills. Sometimes we water down the part that says the wages of sin is death. Sometimes we want to gloss over it and pretend that it really doesn't kill. I see the result of that verse. The wages of sin is death and too many play with it, like a child plays with matches and lights them without weighing the consequences. Can we say then, that we are like children? Oblivious to the dangers? Some of us, perhaps. Not all. Many of us know that we flirt with death and we play the game of Russian Roulette thinking that it will not touch us. And when it does, it's too late. 

Whoa, you might say. Girl, you're supposed to talk NICE. You're supposed to be dishing out how everyone is valued and loved. What is all this talk about sin? Sin tells us we're doing something bad. I don't want to hear that. I want to hear the good parts. 

The good part is this: Dude, we're all going down cos we're all doing something bad (yes, that thing called sin!) and yes, we were all created with a purpose in our lives. But, we ain't gonna get to our purpose or accomplish it if we keep on going down the wrong road doing the wrong things. The good part is that we can all get cleaned. Our bad record can be erased from the archives of the CIA and FBI on high. How? We need to believe and receive the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives. 

Cool, I done that, you can say. But I still like my badness, I still like my crack. My coke. My friends do it, girl, I gotta hang with my homies, ya know. Yeah man, selling my body ain't that bad either cos it's easy and I get fast cash. So, you say, the wages of sin is death? It don't apply to me, girl. I got there Jesus man in my life now. 

Dude, there's something called C-O-N-S-Q-U-E-N-C-E-S. Jesus will keep cleaning you up, will keep forgiving you. But what you keep on doing, the badness, that thing called sin; that will bring consequences upon yourself. You can O.D. Guess what, that means you die. Or you get AIDS, or you get beaten to death by some pusher or john. 

You got Jesus in your life. That's a great decision. 

Now, turn from the sin. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Dude, you have to take the initiative. You have to stop sinning. And turn towards Jesus. Completely. Because, the wages of sin is death and you know what bro? 

The devil is out to rob, kill and destroy you and yours. And he will succeed because unless you turn away from sinning, you are giving him total access to do what he wants to do in your life.

If you die, you will never have accomplished your purpose. 

If you are constantly returning to prostitution or drugs, you will never accomplish your purpose. 

The wages of sin is death. 

Dude, I'm talking nice. Because I want you to choose life. 

Nothing Stays The Same Forever

It was only a matter of time. Darkness always needs to feed off itself to grow. And it was no exception here. In the world of vice, there are no friends. There are companions who will play at being friends when all is convenient but when the tide turns, beware the ides of march....

"Et tu Brute?" asked Julius Caesar to Brutus as his friend stabbed him. The women who work the streets have long told me they are friends, that they stick together. That was one of the main reasons EM kept going down to work from time to time; she said she missed the chatter and the friendship. Last week, so-called friendship went out the window when two women had a fight and one cut the other in the face. The good things that resulted from this are 1) the violence has caused the store owners to have the cops come and constantly get the women off the streets so that when we went down last Monday, there was not one woman in sight. 2) EM is sufficiently scared now to not go down anymore and to start going to church. On the other side of town, another woman who work the streets asked Jesus into her life. 

Nothing stays the same forever and that's no exception with JP's family. His mom bought her piece of land and moved the family. JP did not want to go as that would mean he had to leave behind his friends so he opted to go back to living on the streets and his old life. He had actually been clean for two weeks after a long lapse back into drugs. Meanwhile, his older brother who lives with his girlfriend and his child tried to manipulate their mother to make her stay close to him and not move by threatening to go back to doing drugs. He has also returned to the streets, and his old life. 

There comes a point when we have to let go. People are offered choices, options and a way out and it depends on them what they choose to do. We have offered everyone we have come into contact with, the same message, the same love, the same offer of time for them, the same help. Some, like JP's mom and aunt, have grown and keep wanting to grow in the Lord and move in faith. Some, like EM want to change and move forward but still need to have their hand held and be pushed forward a little. And some, like JP and his brother, want changes without them having to make any changes for themselves. 

For those who are now going to church and growing, we let them go so that they can grow more.  

For those who have returned to their old lives, we let them go because they have chosen their paths after knowing the truth. 

For the ones we are still walking with, we hold them lightly, ready to let them take flight and go when they are ready to fly.

We may not be able to help some of them anymore but the only one thing we are certain is that God will never leave them nor abandon them. 

Didn't Get To Say Goodbye

Kinda freaking out a little. Ok, maybe more than a little. I found out today that the foreign women at the jail that I counsel and teach got transferred to a new facility north of Lima. The opposite end of where we are. I did get to spend time with another inmate while I was at the "old" prison and she gave her life to the Lord and I'm just all over the moon on that. She's 62. Details on my FB status today. It's all good right?

Well, yes to the woman who gave her life to Jesus but the other part, not so good. Been doing research on the prison where they took the women to. A blog called Prisoners Abroad filled in missing gaps for me about what happened to the women. I got details from the other inmates at the old prison but half the time you never know if what you're hearing is the straight version or the slightly exaggerated one. Seems like I got the real version all round. The blog stated that the women were moved at 2am in the morning one day and some left with nothing as their clothes were still out on the line. Some lost their bags en route. It confirmed that the women have to fight for drinking water at the new facility. They're locked in their cells 24/7 and have no workshops to go to and nothing to do. I know, I know, it's a prison. They're not supposed to wander around free. But that's what they had before. They could attend workshops and learn as well as read and fill their time doing something useful that they can sell. They could encourage each other and pray for one another which was what the women I know were doing. And now, they're locked up in a cell all day long.

I know I have taught them hardcore faith. I have not held back from them nor patted them on the backs in the times when their emotions had gotten the better of them. I have drilled into their heads the need to know the bible just in case it ever gets taken away from them. Taught them they need to lean and stand on the Word as nothing before and to praise and worship and give thanks to the Lord even when everything around them is bleak and they don't feel like it. Taught them to see beyond the now and to know that this too shall pass and one day they will get out and that their lives have a purpose. Showed them that nothing is impossible with God and that He is bigger than the circumstances around them. I know that some of them were already training themselves. I am just concerned for one. And knowing that they have no contact with each other now means it's really a test like no other of their faith; to rely and depend only on God. Not their friends to pray with or encourage them, not their family, not their emotions, not anything that they knew before.

But even as I am concerned about one particular woman, I know her Father is more concerned and is holding her close. She has Him. And He will not leave her and He loves her more than anyone ever can. So with that, I will leave her in His hands, and know that He will take care of her. I have no idea if I will even see them again. We are trying to find out when visiting hours are there and if it's feasible for me to visit them even if it's once a month. But the consolation I get is that we will see each other in heaven even if I never see them here again.

 Bose, Birgitte and Rosana need your prayers in the new prison as well as Heila the one who became a Christian today. They need our prayers now more than ever.

Just Like Pizza

We were recently privileged to be able to help out with an organization away from here that works with exploited peoples; one of them being women who work the streets. It was so much  worse than what we confront here, one main difference being that a majority of the women there do not choose to be on the streets. Some have been trafficked, some tricked into it by family members or partners, some as young as nine years old. So many of them beautiful, with so much seemingly ahead of them. Their behaviour and speech demonstrated an outward normalcy towards us but their eyes reflected a tiredness, a deadness; in some, a hardness. In others, a desperation. 

Men book all inclusive vacations here with a twist. They book according to various personal specifications and delivery of girls to the doorstep is also included in some all inclusive vacations. Just like pizza. You order what you want and it can get delivered to your door if you so choose. Only that this is not pizza, or chinese food or an inanimate object. These are lives, countless lives trapped and enslaved by others who choose to make a living from them and use them. Broken lives, lost hope, trapped in a living death. I find it so hard to understand the perverse minds that can do this. But then, I realize that those perverse minds are also just as lost, used not only to enslave others but themselves as well so that all traces and semblances of their humanity are lost.

Yet, there is a beacon of light that shines within this perverse and sordid darkness. A small local church  that dares to defy convention along with a group of people who have chosen to follow Psalm 82 to rescue the exploited from the wicked quietly reach out to the ones who believe that they have no hope. We were amazed at how many women came to the weekly "get-together with sandwiches and munchies" gathering at the church. The first meeting they had, 25 women went. We were there for the second meeting and about 35 showed up, most of them, women who had gone the previous week. One woman even brought her boyfriend to get prayed for. Some showed up with children and babies. A small group of us had gone out a few minutes before the meeting started to invite women to come and it absolutely amazed me to find that it was not that hard to have the ladies come. I spoke to one lady to invite her and she immediately said, "Ok" even though she was sitting at a bar awaiting clients. We started walking towards the church and then she felt uncomfortable in her shorts and said she wanted to change. I told her the church people would accept her the way she is and more importantly Jesus accepts her the way she is but she was adamant she was not going to church in shorts so while I waited, she changed.

When we got back to the church with some ladies whom we had invited, there were already about ten women there from the previous week. After introductions, they broke off into small groups to listen to the Word. As one person from the group and I placed food on the plates, my husband served as a waiter. I realized later on how his servant heart and attitude probably impacted the women in a way that no other woman can. While the men the ladies of the streets knew used and exploited them, here was a man who didn't know them, serving them as a waiter and treating them with respect and dignity peppered with a little humour to break the ice. Here was one man amongst many other Godly men who did not see them as something like pizza but saw them as women with much worth. There was another man whose actions reflected how much he loves Jesus. It was a man from this small church who rode his motorcycle to invite and bring the women back to the church. He was like a lifeboat out in the open seas, rescuing each drowning person and bringing them to shore one by one and at times two by two on his motorcycle. To him, these women's lives were more important than his reputation or what other people might think of him. 

These women are reaching, grasping for a way out. And there is a way out, only one way. Jesus. Only He can set them free, wash them clean, make them new, transform their mindsets and heal their broken hearts, help them forgive and walk forward into the purpose and future He has for them. Only He can show them the value and worth they have in Him when they choose to receive Him and give their lives to Him.  

Some of us cannot be out on the mission field physically to serve. But we can all pray and we can all sow financial seeds. If this has touched you, please pray for these enslaved women and men as well as for the ones we have been walking with listed in previous blogs on this blogsite. If you choose to give financially as well, please contact us for details. 

Thank you.

Know The Truth And It Shall Set You Free

I'm physically tired. Been needing a night guard (bruxism guard) for a while as I grind my teeth while sleeping and I haven't changed my night guard for about 6 years and half of the acrylic has been eaten off by me and now, I'm feeling the consequences of that. My next appointment with the dentist is on Friday and I'm really praying he has it all ready for me because with excessive grinding, my TMJ tightens up and I end up with headaches throughout the day. And yes, that gets me tired, on top of the various things that's been happening.

One thing that really impacts me more and more is how the social economic classes here in Peru are so marked. Mentalities and ways of thinking are so extreme, it's absolutely crazy to me to try to comprehend how it's possible that one section of society can be so well educated and cultured and the other section completely the opposite. During sessions of counseling and discipling, I realized that the lower economic class had the erroneous thinking of what constitutes being a part of the higher economic class and one of them is that legal marriage is only for the rich. The poor co-habit. They don't even realize it's a sin. The other is, if you're born in the slums, you belong to the slums and you do not try to get out of there because you'd better not think that you are better than your family and your peers and you find someone to marry within the same social class. 

With the same erroneous thinking and habits handed down from generations to generations as well as accepting behaviours that are unacceptable, the lower economic class have formed a culture all of their own, creating their own truths and beliefs that can only be transformed by the constant washing of the Word of God and a lot of patience. We have found ourselves teaching parents how to parent, to not just hit out of anger and impatience but to discipline, instruct and educate their children with consistent correction, love and affirmation. We have had to teach the children and the parents that it's not acceptable to hit each other; the children their parents and vice versa; that it's not okay for children to get what they want all the time just because they have temper tantrums. We are constantly teaching the adults and children about the magic words. No one in the lower economic classes know what they are nor how to use them. 

One of the little girls whose mom we are teaching the Word of God to is learning how to use the magic words and her mom proudly tells me that she's using them quite a bit. I'm proud of her. We also tell her and her mom that they're beautiful and that they can achieve greater things than what they think they're limited to. Today, we counseled a young couple and we're doing discipling/marriage counseling with them. It somehow evolved that way. After listening to them today, I asked if they used the magic words while asking each other to do stuff. They both stopped in mid-sentence and stared at me, as if there truly were "magic" words. I had to explain that those words are "please" and "thank you". And they're learning, bit by bit, to ask for forgiveness, to affirm someone, to learn to take responsibility and admit fault. It's a huge step.

Parents learn from their parents who learned from their grandparents and even though each generation talks about abuse, lack of love, rejection, etc, and holding onto resentment that their parents did not treat them well, they themselves have never attempted to try to break the chain. And so it keeps going on. When we told one mother that if a child is left undisciplined and allowed to do whatever he/she pleased and never learned the consequences to his/her behaviour because the parents constantly cover up for him/her; when the child grows up, they will think they can break the law, cheat on their spouse, abandon their kids, do drugs, etc because every time they had done something unacceptable when young, it was allowed and they had never been taught it was wrong, she was absolutely shocked. She said she had no idea that there was a correlation between disciplining kids, teaching them to obey and be kind, loving and to share and not be selfish to how they would turn out eventually as adults. 

Lack of education. Ignorance. The Word says, "My people perish for lack of knowledge." It is so true. Generations after generations stagnate; live in cycles of pain, trauma and abuse, impeded by wrong mindsets and a lack of knowledge. We have to keep reminding them every time we see them of who they are in Christ. It is easy for them to spout off John 1:12 but it is another thing for them to believe it in their minds and hearts so that it becomes the pivotal point on which they think from. I recently used the real life story of Prince William marrying Kate Middleton, a commoner not of royal blood, to help one of our friends understand who she is. She had no idea who they are but she was absolutely amazed that a prince could marry a commoner. We constantly have to wash their mindsets with the truth of the Word of God. 

It takes patience. Even she said that to us, "You guys really have a lot of patience with me."  We tell her that we want her to realize that God is very patient with her and if we can show it a little through how we are with her, then it is our hope that she can understand how much more patient, understanding and loving He is towards her. We recently asked her who God is to her. Her answer showed us that she was taking heed, learning and absorbing the Word of God. We couldn't be happier. If it takes only one person to be completely transformed by the Word of God to be able to break the lies of the enemy in the mindsets of generations, 

It is worth it. 

The Way of God

A few things are on my mind today. First, I should follow through with what I had mentioned in my FB post about the testimony of the women in prison. They're literally taking the Lord at His Word (the way God likes it!) and seeing Him come through with His promises. One woman who shows herself to be super tough told me that she had had a molar extracted the day before. And in her signature way of speaking, she said," And you know, I was so afraid of pain, I know I look tough and I'm big but I really don't like the pain, and so I told Jesus that He had to go with me to the dentist, He had to be there to take the pain away because I don't like the pain. And you know, He took our pain and sickness and sin on the cross 2000 years ago, so I knew He would take my pain on Himself. That's why I wanted Him to come with me. And you know what? I could hear them making horrible, horrible sounds in taking out my tooth and pushing and pulling and then it was over. And you know what, (she smiles really wide) there was no pain." Another huge smile. And me, being the doubting Thomas (because I've had all 4 wisdom teeth out and used to work in a dental office) asked, "So what happened after the anaesthetic wore off?" She smiled again. "No pain. There was no pain," she gestured widely with her hands. "There was no pain because Jesus was there and He took my pain from me and onto Himself." Then she looks at me like, so, which part of this didn't you get? No pain means no pain. Doubting Thomas reared up again, "So, what about today?" I asked. "Did it hurt today?" Again there was that look on her face of, so why are you in here teaching us the Word when you don't understand simple English?  "There is no pain. The hole is closed up. I'm just taking antibiotics because I have to for 5 days. But there is no pain. No hole."  Forgive me Jesus for doubting that You can take our pain upon Your shoulders. This same woman is awaiting amnesty from the President and she is at peace waiting. She was told recently by her embassy that the money for her flight ticket back to her native country is already there, anonymously donated and specifically for her. And her embassy will issue her a 24 hour passport the moment she is pardoned so she can just fly home. She just applied for amnesty last week and doesn't even know if they will grant her that. But God has already taken cared of the rest ahead of time. 

 The other woman who was with us is reflecting Jesus so much that she is constantly getting prayer requests from the other inmates in her cell and outside of it. Her love for Jesus is so evident
that the other inmates seek her out before they have to go for their hearings and sentencings and after prayer, they go with peace and joy in their hearts and when they get back to the prison, they still have that peace in their hearts and all they say to her is, "I have peace because you prayed for me." She is learning Spanish now so she can better pray and share Jesus with her cell mates. These women truly show faith in the Word of God. They know the Bible is true and so they believe it literally. And God is showing them that He too, holds His Word at its literal value and honors it. I just love going to the prison because these women really encourage me so much.

We are watching God's miracle unfold in the lives of JP's family members. Meanwhile, JP is resentful towards us and won't talk to us because he has the erroneous idea that love means you never discipline or tell someone off when they're making an idiot of themselves. The last time we saw him before he completely took off for the streets and lived there for a week, we drew attention to many things he didn't want to deal with in his life. He has since returned home, told his aunt and brother that he really seriously wants to change and last we heard, is now going to church and cell group meetings with an older brother who is a believer. Meanwhile, his mom is walking strong in the Lord and has risen up, taken on her role as the matriarch of the home and is using her authority along with the Word to get all her kids in line. When we were there last week to disciple her and the 3 youngest sons, we walked into the living room and were faced with 10 family members including JP, all waiting to hear the Word. That night, another one of JP's older brothers broke down weeping and repented of his drug addiction. We started discipling and counseling him and his live in girlfriend the very next day. I spoke to him today and he is clinging onto the Word and fighting to stay on the right track. Meanwhile, JP still won't talk to us. But it's ok as long as he is going to church and hearing the Word because that is what will transform his way of thinking and later, his habits. We will not stop loving him or praying for him, regardless.

We have moved on to new territory in terms of the street women. I believe we were in the old area for a purpose, to reach EM and she continues to be discipled on a weekly basis. She was telling me the last time I saw her that her spouse would like counseling too and would like to speak to my husband, Luchin. That's how God works, with families!!! Anyway, the women we had been bringing the Word to over there have totally closed us out and now we're in a different area with really tough women. Last week, being the first day in the new area was a little scary because I wasn't sure how we were going to even start talking to them. They made the other women we had been talking to before look like the Ingalls girls from Little House on the Prairie. But we prayed. And tonight, we managed to have a conversation with 2 of them. Coarse jokes, vulgarity, all of that. (Not on our part, we just listened politely) However, sprinkled softly in between the exterior of coarseness, toughness and vulgarity, like tiny petals softly floating down in the breeze through heavy smog and pollution were bits of softness, sadness, wistfulness and pain. It was a breakthrough. And so we will keep praying, for their hearts to be softened and yielded to listen to and receive the Word when we start to sow it. And for us to have God's wisdom, strategy and discernment on how to speak, what to speak and when to speak it.

Working with street women in Lima is not easy. Mostly being that the majority of the women standing at street corners all chose to be there. I haven't met a single woman who hasn't chosen to be there and I'm learning that the reason is not about them not being able to get a real job. It's because this profession is easy, with minimal work and most of them don't like the discipline and rules of a regular job. A few do it to support a drug habit. And also, for some of them, it has become an addiction in itself. Many of them have been at it for years and years and not one of them have any savings to show for it. They will say that they make oodles of money so it seems like that's why they're there but when you start talking with them, the truth starts to show and the truth is, they really don't make that much. EM earns more as a housekeeper now than when she worked at the streets. But it's hard for her to adjust to it because she doesn't like the discipline of working a real job with defined hours and having a boss. Granted, if the women let you dig deep enough, the psychological aspect of why they're there on the streets start to show. And I believe that for a majority of them, the psychological aspect is that they don't believe that they are capable of doing anything else. That is why they need the Word of God as it is the only thing that can transform lives. 

It renews the mind and way of thinking so that we start to see ourselves the way God sees us. And when we do, it frees us from the lies we believe of ourselves so that we actually realize that we have value, a purpose and that we are absolutely adored. And when someone realizes how much they are valued and loved, they can reach limits and heights they never thought was possible before.

JP

When God called me to do this ministry and I said yes, I didn't know how much of my heart I had to give away. I didn't know how much it would hurt. How a huge chunk of me grieves because one teenager decides to turn his back on everything and everyone to return to the garbage. It's not about all the time invested or money. I will never regret that. I would spend as much time and money needed just to have him come back home. But I know it's not the money or time or force that will bring him back home. I know he has to hit his rock bottom and realize that he desperately needs God to save him. He has to let go of his pride and not just admit that from his lips but from the depths of his heart. He has to let the God he invited into his life on May 1, 2012 become the only burning desire in his heart, nothing else. But he is not there yet.


So I, my husband, along with the rest of this teen's family can only stand aside and watch and grieve and pray like never before. Trusting that the God who loves us so much and who hurts even more than we do, will work in this teen's heart like nothing else can and that this encounter with ultimate love will break his heart and pride. Trusting that the Word sown into him will not return void.


Not by might, not by power, but by MY SPIRIT saith the Lord. So through tears and a broken heart that continues to hold onto and trusts in the power of my God and King, I claim this, I pray this as well as other verses for this one child of the living God. And we will not stop praying until he decides to return. 


Please help us pray for JP.

Old Faces

I had been praying for a long time to at least know what's happened to so many of the guys we hadn't seen for so long. Luis Enrique, Jose Luis, Luis Gustavo, Henry and his girlfriend Jessica, to name a few. Well, we ran into Jessica and Henry tonight with their 3 kids, all looking good. Henry's working at a cleaning company and Jessica has stopped hanging out on the streets. They gave us the lowdown on Luis Gustavo and Jose Luis. 


Jose Luis was the kid we had taken to the hospital to get his wrist set and then to a rehab centre in which he lasted only 5 days. The last time we saw him, months ago, he was back on the streets,  the cast on his wrist prematurely off. And the last time we heard about him, he was heavily drinking. He is now in a rehab centre again, voluntarily. Luchin found out the directions on how to get there so we can go visit him this week sometime. 


Luis Gustavo, Henry's brother, had checked himself into a rehab centre after the Word hit him hard. He spent some time in the centre but is out now and I'm not sure about the details but he now wants his mom to send him to a centre without an open door policy. I am praying that we get to talk to him before he convinces his mom to do that as the majority of private rehab centres here charge a lot of money and treat the patients horribly. In any case, the fact that Luis Gustavo is seeking help is really good. 


It was good to find out about these whom we hadn't seen for so long. I keep wondering about Luis Enrique, and praying that he has returned to the Lord and that he is working and is being a proud dad. It scares me to think of the alternative.


We need prayer for :


- provision. 
- JP who left home last week without telling anyone and is working as a bus conductor. He had been slipping into his old habits and we need lots of prayer for him please.
- EM who is walking with the Lord and needs provision as well as strength and faith to keep walking the narrow road; her kids and their dad to know the Lord and to learn to be a real dad.
-SP who just received the Lord an started her first discipling session with me last week. Pray for her to find a job and persevere in kicking old habits and addiction.
-Felicita, JP's mom who is hungry to know more about Jesus.
-Ytalo, Jean Paul and Arturo; JP's younger brothers who are all coming to church with us along with their mom to give their lives to the Lord and to follow Him.
-Luis Gustavo, Luis Enrique and Jose Luis.


The Word doesn't return void. Seeds of the Word have been sown into all of the ones mentioned above and for so long we saw nothing. The fact that we are hearing now that they want to change for the better and are seeking help to change makes me realize once again that it's not by might, nor by power but by His spirit that people's hearts are touched and changed.

Not Too Short

It says in the bible that God's arm is not too short to save. I used to gloss over that verse wondering why in the world would the Lord use the allegory of an arm. I knew it meant that God is able to save anyone. I guess I'm a little slow on the uptake but I finally saw the arm allegory as an arm extended to rescue someone in dire straits; like a drowning person or a person half falling off a bridge or building. An arm, strong and with a hugely tight grip holding with surety onto the arm that we extend to Him. His arm is not too short (will extend as much as is needed) to save (rescue us from death). I claim this verse for the ones I work with and their families.

Learned to let go a bit. Had to trust the Lord that He loves His kids more than any one of us could and stepped back a little.

JP had been slipping back, lying to everyone and mostly himself. Scared us all so many times not returning home some nights. But what the enemy intends for evil God will turn around for good and in this case, the situation brought us closer to his mom. And she ended up going to church with us...and loved it....and decided on the way home that night that she wanted Jesus in her life and so she asked Him into her life. We got her a bible, and she asked if she could take JP's younger brothers to church too. They all went to church with us last Sunday. I believe this week the whole family's going to go to church again. Perhaps, God had us know JP so that He could reach his family. But I also know God loves JP so much and that He won't give up on Him. All we can do is pray and love him and be there for him. God's arm is not too short to save.

EM has had some pretty hard stuff thrown at her lately but she's persevering and going forward. The Word keeps her strong and as long as she stays in it, she is fine and unafraid. She needs prayer to keep her focus on the Lord and His Word and to trust that He is her provider. We keep walking with her, teaching her, loving her and praying for her. God will never leave her nor abandon her.

Out on the streets this week, two women told me they needed to find jobs to get out from what they're doing on the streets. One of them, not because she wants to change but because her boyfriend gave her an ultimatum. But all the same, we are helping her in that area. The other has seen the change in EM and told me she wants to change and get a job. We talked about change and the only real change is through Jesus. She decided she wanted to know Him and asked Him into her heart. We start discipling on Wednesday and she also wants to go to church with us. God's arm is not too short to save.

The foreign women at the prison really balance it all out for me. They make the sometimes 2 hour line up wait to get into the prison and the humiliation of the body search every week worth it. They love the Lord, and they hold on to Him and have their hope in Him. Some more than others but they do encourage each other and as it is, they are pretty honest with each other and hold each other accountable. It's also cool to see that some of them have giftings that God is cultivating and God is already using them to reach out to the other women in the prison.

God is faithful. We are seeing Him move in ways we never thought of, seeing Him touch people we didn't know we were supposed to share the Word with, showing us that this ministry He has called us to is not just about street guys and women but their families as well and beyond. We are amazed at how He has opened doors for us to be involved with the families of these dear ones whom we are walking with.

I am just privileged and honored that He would consider me for this work. And so grateful that He gave me an awesome husband who loves people so much. The harvest is white, the people out there are searching, seeking to fill empty spaces in their hearts and they're filling it with everything but Jesus.

Will you believe that God's arm is not too short to save and share His story and who He is with the people around you? You only need to show up. God will give you words and wisdom  and do the rest Himself.

Will you?

Not By Might, Not By Power But By His Spirit

One soul is worth it all. And if we hit the streets just so one life can be transformed by the Lord Jesus Christ, then it's worth it. However, I know I want more than one. I want them all to be transformed, to be freed from the chains that bind them, to live a life in abundance. I want more than one. And Ephesians 3:20 says that He is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to the power that is at work within us. And John 14:14 says that I may ask Him for anything in His name and He will do it. My God doesn't lie. I will ask and I expect to receive more than I have asked for. 


What seems impossible to man is not to my God. El Gibhor. Mighty God. With Him, all things are possible. More than one. I believe that they will return to their Father, all the prodigals, all their hearts will be turned back to their Father. We will keep building them in the Word, we will not stop, we will sow the Word and He will do the impossible. He is El Gibhor.


I met up with EM on Saturday. I pray that one day she will travel the world to share her testimony of how her God got her out of the muck and mire and placed her feet on His solid rock. She struggles, struggles to go to work because it takes her away from her children and there is no one for her to talk to there. Yet every time when she wakes up and doesn't feel like going and sees her two kids, and all she wants is to stay home and be with them, she decides to go because she recognizes that this is what will help her get ahead. The tears poured down her cheeks as she shared this. She gets calls from the other women on the street asking her to go and join them. Yet, she keeps holding onto the Word of God and praying for strength to be able to go to her regular work every day. She has rejected the other women's invitation to go back to the streets to work even though she hasn't any money as she hasn't completed her month of employment yet and hasn't been paid. I asked her how she has been feeding her kids if she hadn't any money and she said, "Funny how when I don't go to the streets, the money comes somehow. My mom decided to give me money as she said I had been the one supporting her before, so now, she will help me out." Another time she decided against going to the streets to work and her kids' godparent showed up to visit and took them all out to eat. 


I told her that's how God is. He's in the business of providing for His kids. When we walk right with Him, the blessings come. 


On the other hand, with JM, God keeps reminding me that it's not by might, not by power but by His spirit that levels mountains into plains. JM has been working as a motortaxi driver, driving his family's motortaxi with their permission. The unfortunate thing is that he has been in contact with his old friends through working the motortaxi route and he's sinking back into his old lifestyle. He's in denial, trying to convince all that he is in control. We can only pray and trust God for him and keep being there for him, knowing that God loves him more than we do and that His Word doesn't return void. It's not easy watching JM sink, but he has to want to surrender completely to God because in his own strength, he won't be able to change his own life. 


The women in the prison are so hungry for the Word of God. What amazes me is that they don't even care about what I bring in for them, the cookies or the muffins and fruit. They have me sit down and then they just talk about and want me to talk about God. They can't wait to share about what God has been doing all week long, what they've learned, etc. I come out of there so encouraged and blessed by these women. 


Your continued prayers, support and encouragement are very much appreciated. EM, JM, the women in prison and the guys and women on the streets really need us to pray for them even if they don't realize it. Thank you so much for caring and standing alongside us.

Faithful God

I am thankful that God is in control and loves us more than we could love each other. Honestly, if I didn't have that knowledge, I would be constantly in a state every time I didn't hear from one of two we're discipling. Funny how when you walk with someone so closely through all their ups and downs, help them get up and go on and cheer with them when they take steps of victory, they get into your heart somehow. And the first time you don't hear from them, especially since they've just come off the streets, your heart hits the floor and you start to pray like crazy for God's protection over them and everything else. That's when you know they're not just people you're teaching the Word to. That's when you know they've become people you care and love so much that you're willing to hit the streets to look for them should they not return home. That's when you know you would do anything to help them get back up and keep fighting, even fend off a bear. That's when you know they've gotten into your heart. 


I remember the first time JP left home after he had gotten off the streets. Luchin and I went to look for him and Luchin even disguised himself should JP try to run and hide from us. I remember once when we saw him on the streets at night and we followed him and how my heart just took a nosedive to the ground wondering if he had returned to old habits. Through it all, we've prayed hard for him, kept telling him how proud we are of him, reminded him of and highlighted every tiny accomplishment in the face of great temptations and a few stumbles, told him we love him and we never think badly of him, and generally been a thorn at his side. And through it all, I would have been a complete basket case had not my so amazing God kept reminding me that He loves JP more than Luchin and I ever could. That has sustained us and helped us release him into the Lord. We pray constantly for him knowing that God will work all things out for good for JP as he asks the Lord every day to help him overcome. We are seeing how this young man is starting to think in a different way. Starting to learn responsibility, integrity and patience. We are seeing how he really wants to change his life around and struggles against temptation. We see how he perseveres and fights against his emotions to do what is right. We are very proud of him. But we know that even as we are proud of him, his heavenly Father is prouder still. 


EM is also making us so proud of her. She has struggled with erroneous thoughts and beliefs, but with the Word of God, she is learning to overcome. I wasn't able to contact her at all all last week and wondered what had happened. She has a new job that she had said yes to when she saw it as an opportunity to get off the streets and I knew we couldn't meet as often as we had before but not hearing from her scared me. But she called and we got to meet and listening to her just made me want to cry. She said she almost quit her new job twice because it called for regular hours and it was kinda boring as she works as a domestic help. But then she talked to her sister who encouraged her to stay and she got a hold of the Word because she knew that she had to overcome her feelings as this job is a blessing from God and she needed His reassurance and strength to stay. I was so proud of her when she said that. It showed that she was now not just acting by impulse and emotions. She is also learning new things as her employer teaches her and instead of saying, "I can't", she keeps declaring Phillipians 4:13 over and over while she learns. At the end of our meeting, she told me her hours and how much she earns which are excellent. Aside from that, her employer is going to add her on a medical insurance plan. No one does that for domestic help here! God is so blessing EM's socks off!


God is so good and faithful. I have also started to go to the Women's Prison to minister to a small group of foreign women and it is a joy to be with them as they are truly a fun group. It is a huge blessing for me to be able to minister the Word in English after such a long while. 


We appreciate your prayers more than you know. So, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. May the Lord guard and keep you, may He shine His face upon you. 

5 Traits

The 5 traits of highly successful people, paraphrased from the Washington Post:

1. Stray away from the norm. It takes a major cognitive shift to understand that the way things are, and have been, can be challenged.

2.Perservere, be passionately committed even when you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel. Accept that you won't see any return on it for years.

3. Take the initiative to problem solve.

4. Take risks to create value.

5. Be disciplined.



I believe this can be applied to anything in our lives. The worst thing that can happen is if we sit on our butts and do nothing because our reasoning for it is that it's never been done in such and such a way before. God gave each one of us creativity and ideas and if we walk in His Spirit, we will get insights on how God wants us to do things. If we read the Bible, we will see that God is hugely creative in how He problem solves. We need to realize that we don't need to conform but rather, we need to transform ways of thinking. And to persevere to walk by faith and not by sight. Taking the initiative to do something when we see a need and not wait for someone else to do it and actually stepping out to do it. Above all, disciplining ourselves in the Lord, in our daily lives so that we not only talk the talk but we walk the walk as well.

...But the GREATEST of these is Love.

The deeper we get into this ministry, the more we realize one thing; that people desperately need to be loved, especially by their parents. Over and over again, those whom we are counseling tell us how much they long to hear words or see an act that show them that their parents love them. And some of them are crying out for attention with their actions, even if it's negative attention, just to get a reaction from their parents even though they are now adults. The horribly sad thing is, they get no reaction and their despair and pain propel them deeper into the vice that they're in.


Fathers, you have no idea how much you impact your children; whether it is by your absence or your presence. Your absence, whether  literal or in the form of apathy, kills the tender hearts of your children. Being a father is not just about donating sperm and then ignoring the offspring thereof with the excuse, " I have no time for you because I have to work to provide for you". Your children need you to love them, to protect them, to teach them values and morals, to hear you say that you love them and are proud of them, that they are priceless and to see you live out the actions of your words to them. Look around you, look into the faces of your children and see the emptiness and waning hope in their eyes waiting, waiting for you to just tell them that you love them and to spend time with them. Raising children isn't just about providing for their material needs. They need you emotionally and spiritually. Your children are not puppies that can be thrown out on the streets with the expectation that they can raise themselves, teach themselves morals and values and survive without being watered and fertilized by your love. 


Mothers, so many of you have been so hurt by the men in your life but please, please don't bring that hurt and pain into your children's lives by ignoring them and passing on what you had received to them. Show them love, protect them from those who would abuse them and please, please treasure, value and respect yourselves so that your children will learn to do that as well. Don't believe the lie that you are not able to live without a man in your life and seek only  to link yourself at whatever cost to any man that you believe you can get and thereby place your children's lives at risk. Respect and value yourselves so that your children will learn to value and respect themselves. Spend time with them, learn to talk and listen to them so that they will tell you their fears and hopes. Fan into flame their dreams so that they can see that they have a hope and a future. 


Build a home on the solid rock of Christ and walk in the role that God has given you; to be responsible guardians of your children so that they will  know love, security and companionship within the home and not feel the need to look for it in the streets, with those who would seek to harm them. In your hands you hold the future. Guard and treasure it well. 


You influence your children more than you think you do. 


"Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." - Ephesians 6:4 

Light Will Push Back The Darkness

I love my job. It's not a high powered executive job with the benefits of a picture window overlooking miles and miles of skyscrapers nor will it make me a millionaire; it doesn't make me a person of influence whereby to know me is to have a ticket to move one step up in life; it's definitely not glamourous and it sure takes up a lot of time and tests your patience. Health benefits? Well, does feeling good watching God transform lives count as a health benefit? I honestly don't know that I can do anything else after having God as my boss. It's a job that is so worth it, so tiring on the body and mind at times but so absolutely amazingly worth it to see people's lives get transformed by the redeeming love of the Lord Jesus Christ. 


Before we went out last Monday night, God gave me Psalms 121. As soon as I read it, I knew something was going to happen but we would be covered. No worries. I was on my own with 2 other girls from the team, no guys out with us that night. And everything that could possibly happen, happened. Kinda funny actually. Everything was normal until we went up to where the women were. As soon as we got off the bus, it felt really oppressive and heavy. We greeted the women, and Carmen and Elizabeth stayed with the main group of women to talk to them while I went on further with some sandwiches to see if there were any women at the end of the block. When I got to the end of the block, there wasn't anyone there and I was about to walk back up to where everyone was when I decided to turn back to look again. As soon as I turned and walked back to look, I heard this really loud explosive noise of glass shattering behind me and saw this tall man running in my direction with all these glass shards flying in every direction just behind him. I thought some drunk had thrown a bottle down from one of the rooms above and was just glad that I had felt to turn around instead of walk back to where the women were as I had started to do, because had I done that, I would have been hit by shards of glass. When it was all clear, I walked back to where the women were and saw some of them running towards me with FY leading them looking really frazzled. I asked if she was ok and she said yeah and shrugged me off. They stopped a cop car that was patrolling the area and the tall man who had been running from the glass bottle shards was suddenly being questioned by the cops. 


It turned out that the tall man was a robber who had posed as a client to FY and had ended up robbing and beating her. She had chased after him and thrown the bottle at him and because the cops were there, the guy got caught and had to return the stuff he had stolen from her. However, since she was not of reputable character, he got off free. Carmen, Elizabeth and I stayed on to talk to FY and some other women after, and while Carmen and Elizabeth prayed for one of the women, I paced behind them interceding. The atmosphere was really heavy, heavier than it had ever been before. While I was interceding, two men came up to where the women were and started talking to them. One started flashing his gun at them and Carmen saw and motioned me aside to let me know. We motioned for Elizabeth to leave and left but not before warning FY to go home because we did not know if the guy with the gun was a friend of the thief who had attempted to rob her.  We  found out the next day that nothing happened, thank God. 


On the discipling front, we are going forward step by step with EM and LJP. The Holy Spirit has been touching and convicting EM more and more to completely leave the streets. She told me today that she is going to take the step no matter what hapens because she is going to trust God. God's lesson for her today was about restoration. That He will restore all and more that she had lost when she follows Him completely. She eagerly wrote down the verses and passages. LJP is fighting hard against the dirty ways of the enemy. The stuff the enemy has been throwing at him is ridiculous. But he keeps going and believing in God to have complete victory. God keeps telling me He has a hold of LJP and that LJP belongs to the Lord. I take heart in that as we keep counseling him and teaching Him about the Lord and the Word. 


We need your prayers. Your intercession. These two, EM and LJP, have a huge purpose in the Lord and they both know it so please intercede for them. Right now, EM needs to overcome fear to leave the only thing she knows how to do to earn money and LJP needs God's favour to move men as in the Judge and the police to extend pardon to him. He needs to go to the police station to sign in every month just to demonstrate that he is complying with the law and not in hiding but like most of the street guys, while he was on the streets, he didn't go and sign in for the last 3 months. If he gets questioned on the streets he can be taken directly to jail. He told us this today so we went to the police station but it's something his parents need to do for him, to explain his situation, tell them he is off the streets and ask for pardon for him not signing in for the last 3 months. So, please pray for God's favour to be extended to the cops and all involved in this scenario. Thank you.


My job is definitely not boring. It  has all the elements of  an epic movie. And just like in any epic movie, good triumphs over evil. So too, are we seeing and will see victory upon victory in the lives of those for whom God is battling. Light will push back the darkness.

Deeper Roots

I don't know how to begin. Where to begin. I guess I can start with tonight. There was a huge police presence in Ciudad tonight. Not just the regular police but what looked like SWAT teams as well. Running all over the place. I hope the President isn't putting into play what he had proposed to do before he became president and that is to round up all the street guys and enroll them forcibly into the military. It's not going to change their mindsets if they don't want to change and all you'll get when they get out are street guys who already know how to assault and rob people harbouring repressed resentment and rage and who will now also have the bonus knowledge of using weapons issued by the government. Thrilling. 


Aside from all that, we met some new girls, teenage girls; some prostitutes, some candy sellers, all really young. The one I talked to, AT, is 17 years old, 5 months pregnant and quit smoking pasta (cocaine sludge) 2 weeks ago. Her boyfriend is 23 and in one of the worst jails in Peru for robbery. AT lives alone with her mom and I believe she was on the streets prostituting herself. Her mom isn't happy about the baby (not because her daughter is so young, unmarried and the dad is in jail) but because of economic reasons. I hope AT calls so we can start talking to her and see how we can help her. 


There was another kid, about 12 years old, hanging out there in his school uniform. I asked him why he wasn't home, he gave me a whole bunch of lies. It really makes me mad to see how parents just allow their kids to be in the streets and then wonder later why they're drug addicts. So many people know how to get pregnant or get someone pregnant but they have no concept of how to raise children or be a family. Somehow they think that the kids will raise themselves like puppies on the streets and learn how to behave themselves without anyone teaching them. Education on parenting is definitely needed.


Luchin and I spend a couple of hours every other day at LJP's house. We go there to encourage him, to tell him we love him and are proud of him and to counsel him with the Word of God as well as to listen to him and have him just share his feelings and cravings and how he is dealing with them. Lately, I had the opportunity to talk to his mom and aunt and after listening to his mom complain about him and saying that he won't change his behaviour, I started counselling and teaching her basic parenting. Yes, from me. Funny, huh? First, I told her to stop saying in his hearing and to his face that he isn't going to change because he will believe that and he will doubt and get despondent and will not change. I told her she needs to encourage him by saying that she believes he is changing and will change and that she loves him and is proud of him putting in the effort to change. And most of all, to just thank him for the little things he does for her to help her out instead of looking for all the stuff he doesn't do and yell at him. Today, the mom and LJP both told us separately how they've both been putting in the effort to change their behaviour and I am so in awe of my God in how He is working in this family and so proud of the family for making the effort. LJP is learning to think not just of himself but others and his mom is learning to appreciate and encourage him and to stop saying negative things about him. God has such a huge purpose for this family. 


EM has been selling cakes to start earning money from a different source other than the streets. She still goes to the streets to pay off a debt that she will finish paying off at the end of the month and says that after that she won't be going anymore. She has been coming regularly to meet me for discipling lessons and knows that she needs to obey God to get off the streets completely. I have just been teaching her the bible and what it says without condemning her or judging and just letting the Holy Spirit work in her and she told me that she hasn't been able to make any money on the streets these last 2 weeks as there is no work. And her being there is a waste of time when she can be at home with her kids. She said that she knows that it's God's way of getting her off the streets completely by stopping the "work" flow there. Hallelujah God! Only He can do what no one else can do. 


God is really working underneath the surface and as we keep walking each step, He meets us and shows us what He wants us to do. I see the way He has us work with LJP and I can only fall on my knees in awe. Our human idea was to get him into a Christian drug rehab, isolated from the "world" where he is "safe". God's idea was to have him still be in the world and restored to his family, learning how to make tough decisions daily, falling and then getting up and learning how to go forward each day; and also to have his family learn how to be a family through him. Can we say God's ways are higher than ours???


Your prayers in these areas are truly appreciated: 

• a storefront so we can have them come to talk with us, for discipling sessions, etc.
• supernatural strength, wisdom, discernment and a strong sensitivity to hear the Holy Spirit for how God wants us to move next.
• LJP to be able to have Godly friends his age who will not judge him.
• LJP's family.
• EM and her family and for God's provision for them.
• AT and for us to be able to help her. 
• All the others whom you have read about here.

Thank you for your prayers, your financial support and your words of encouragement. Just knowing that you are walking with us in this helps encourage us a lot.

The Fight

EM has been regularly showing up for her discipling session and we talked about her leaving the streets and trusting God to provide for her as she takes this step of obedience. She told me that she has made nothing on the streets the last week and is thinking that perhaps God is making it so that she will leave and look for another job. I definitely agree there and told her so. She's scared, never having done any other work before and thoughts of inadequacy paralyze her. She also has a debt that I know God will pay when she takes a step of obedience to walk away from the streets. She wants to meet twice a week now so that she gets more Word in her as she still has a hard time battling the thoughts that come and tell her she is a fraud. 


LJP is fighting hard against addiction to drugs. He is the one who had left the centre but has been staying at his mom's house this whole time and he has called us or we have called him to maintain contact and accountability. His aunt is helping him as well by teaching him the Word and the alphabet and he started his first discipling session yesterday. He too wants to meet twice a week as he wants to be accountable and more in the Word. For him, the fight is also sentimental as he is in love with a girl who doesn't seem to be in love with him (I will meet with her tomorrow to talk with her) and he is calling on God for help him every time the anxiety to look for drugs come. The hard part for him is that he can't read (we are also helping him learn to read along with his aunt) and we have to really make the bible as simple as we can for him because he has a short attention span and also a brain that needs to be healed from years of abuse. He wants to and he fights to learn but we also need to learn to help him learn in a manner that is simple but impactful so that he can retain all in his memory. 


We really need your prayers for these two. They both have huge purposes and they know it and are fighting hard to walk on the narrow path. I have told them both that many people are praying for them so they are not alone in their fight. They need to know that, need to know they are not in this alone.


Thank you so much. 

Topsy Turvy

Ministry life has been trippy. Really trippy. And I'm realizing that I'm trying to do things in an orderly fashion (well, according to Peruvian society and the Christian community) but God keeps messing things up! Something really tells me that He has more grace and love than we give Him credit for. Seriously. 


The youth, LJP, whom we took to the church/rehab centre stayed for 5 days and made up his mind he was out of there. Luchin and I had gone there for a "pollada" which is a chicken BBQ fair that you sell tickets for to raise funds. And as soon as we got there, we saw the glum faces of the people in charge and you kinda know they were avoiding telling you something. So I asked how LJP was. And it all came out. They had counseled him, to no avail. We ate and counseled him. To no avail. He wanted out. Since it's not obligatory to stay, and rather than have him escape, we signed his release and took him to his mom's house. He called us last night to say that he had gone to church with her and we met with him today to set a time for teaching him how to read (he is illiterate) and to learn the bible later on this week. Eventually, we will need to meet with his parents to talk about him and also ways of preventing his younger brother from going the same way. So here we thought we could just get the guys off the streets into a Centre which deals with addiction and here he gets given back to us to be watched over. He needs a lot of prayer please. And we need lots of prayer too, please.


We saw the street women tonight. Had more headway with one of the transvestites, but I'm still learning how to share with them. EM was there and she was kinda happy to see us and embarassed at the same time. I asked why she was still on the streets. She's been regularly attending discipling lessons with me and she knows that what she does is wrong. She explained that she is deep in debt as she, along with most of the women on the streets are in a money pool and she has to keep paying into it for 3 more weeks and the only way she can pay it off weekly is to work where she does as any other type of job pays at the end of the month or bi-weekly.  I told her as did Carmen and Luchin, to not get into it again after the 3 weeks are up. She agreed with us but had said that the reason why she had joined it was to be able to pay for her daughter's school uniform and books. EM also told us that her daughter, who is 6, has been making sure her mom gets into the Word as she makes sure they pray together before bedtime and that her mom reads the bible to her (the big adult bible, not kid version) and explains what it means so that she can understand. Wow.


Another woman, P, told us the same thing about her daughter separately from EM. Her daughter is 10 and wants to be baptized in a Christian church as she has been going with the neighbours and she has been telling her mom to get closer to God and to heed our counsel. She doesn't know what her mom does but she knows that her mom has been talking to us and that we counsel her with the Word of God. So she has asked her mom to invite us to their home or to take us out for chicken so that she could get to know us. Wow.


God is using children to save. These children want to know Him and He will use them to bring their mothers to Him. Topsy turvy. EM wants to follow God but can't leave the streets yet because of her debt. The general thinking would be, "What? She has to get off the streets if she is truly following Jesus". I agree with that. I agree with Jesus saying, go and sin no more. Yet, in this case, I am confronted with so much love and grace on His part. I see Him working deeper than just  getting her off the streets. I see Him showing her His love and acceptance even though she is still on the streets. I see Him loving her and loving her and loving her as no one has ever done before. Because the truth is, no one has ever loved her before. I know her story, it is horribly ugly and no one should have to go through what she did. And I see my Jesus loving her so much, He keeps cleaning her and loving her so that she knows deep in her heart, that she is accepted and truly loved. I see the same with LJP. 


Through this all, God is teaching me and Luchin more about His love and grace than ever before. By having to constantly pick them up, clean them, love them, spend time and money on them over and over and over again, we are learning His love and His ways. This is what God has to keep doing with us. All of us. Over and over and over again. This is His Mercy, Grace and Love.


We also looked at a place to rent as a place where we can have discipling, prayer, coffee, counseling, eventual church and hang out sessions and it has a lot of potential and the price is right. We're now just waiting on the owners to agree or not as to what we want to do with the place. It's up to God now. If it's where He wants us to be, it will be ours. If not, he's got something better. Your prayers on what He wants for us and where He wants it to be will be appreciated muchly. 

More Seeds Grow Roots

Last night and today have been off the charts. God is taking Ciudad de Dios back. And that's all there is to it. 


Last night, we found  JP and he had been saying he wants out and needs help and we had told him how we can help him, by taking him to a place called Victory Centre that is a church and a rehab centre. For the last 2 weeks, he has been telling us to pick him up at a certain day and time and has never been there although when we see him every week, he said that he was there, just late. Last night he mentioned that he never had any affection and love from his mom and family. He has been on the streets for 7 years and he is only 19. We told him that we care for him and that's why we keep coming to look for him every week, only that he is looking for love in his druggie friends and girls and not recognizing that God loves him and that we love him and that is why we are constantly there even though some of us live really far away. A lightbulb turned on in his head. He said he would call us to let us know when we could pick him up. We said we would be waiting. He called us at 1pm today. 


We were in another part of town and we told him we would be there at 2:30pm. We got burgers to go and went to get him. We got there at 2:40pm and he wasn't there. Luchin was about to give up thinking it was another false alarm but I asked him to go look for Luis JP again. He went and then said he's not there. I said, no, he called us which means he wants to leave this place. We need to look for him. Luchin went again and came back saying he saw a guy sleeping on the pavement of the street divider but his face was covered. Could I come with him to see if it was  JP? One thing that needs to be told about  JP is that he hadn't been near water for months. He was filthy and only had the clothes he had on. Which were beyond filthy. The only way I recognized him was by his brown jeans. The guy sleeping on the ground had on brown jeans. I knew it was him. We called his name. No reaction, he was sound asleep. Luchin took off the cloth covering his face and it was  JP. Luchin shook his shoulders.  JP woke up, saw us, jumped to his feet and said, "I'm ready, I'm ready to go!!" So off we went. 






On the way there, I talked to him about what it means to give our lives to Jesus, what it meant when He died on the cross for us, that we are all sinners not just him and the guys on the streets, etc. We share the Gospel when we go out on the streets too but many times, they are in a drugged up state or drunk and don't understand what we share. But this time, JP listened. He kept saying over and over before I finished, "I want to change, I want to give my life to Jesus" and so he did, with his heart. We talked to him about his decision and who he is now in Christ. He listened. When we finally found the church/centre, he was so shocked to find out that the people there who were talking to him and looked so normal had been addicts and alcoholics themselves and who now are healed because of Jesus. It was hitting him that change is possible. The person in charge told him he was a druggie for 24 years before his Jesus encounter and decision to change and told him the house rules and then asked if  JP wanted to stay. He said yes and then hugged us before going with the guy who led him inside. I could see through the partition later that he was being hugged tightly by the same guy after a brief conversation. Luis JP needed that, he needed to be loved on and to know what love truly is. We then left to go buy toiletries for him and socks and underwear and also some stuff that we are required to buy for the centre to help them out as they only take donations and money that the rehabilitated guys receive when they go out and work to help the centre out. 


When we got back with the stuff for JP, Luchin brought it all inside and when he gave JP the stuff, it finally hit him that we truly love him, not just in words but in deeds and he put on the socks right aways as he never had socks before out on the streets even though he had been given  clothes by Jorge. Then he gave Luchin a great big bear hug while saying humbly, "Thank you brother".  He had showered, shaved and they had shaved his hair off, which is a rule for a newbie and now he is a new creature in Christ in all aspects. We left, assured with the  knowledge that he is cared for. This Saturday, there is a "pollada" at the centre where they will be selling fried chicken and fries to raise funds and we will be there to see him and to also help out the centre. He is our spiritual kid, we won't leave him. 




Last night with the women, we had victory as well. EM knows that God is calling her to share His Word and hope out on the streets with the other women and she is now fighting hard against the lies of the enemy to keep walking forward in victory and the knowledge of who she is in Jesus. Luchin told her that he senses that she is being called to do that and she said, "Yes, I know. I sense that too". I don't think she's gonna be struggling with an identity crisis for long. I love it!!!  The victory last night was P. P had been one who had treated us at arm's length, kinda like LG did when she was alive. She had been one who had mocked us and even treated us with contempt because she had believed that we would never be able to help her. But with EM's conversion and change, the women are seeing that change is possible for them too. 


P opened up and talked and talked about what she was going through all last night. She told a john (guys that solicit the girls) to go away while she was talking to me. When a new girl came by to ask her for help, P told her that she was conversing with me and could she wait and that if she wanted to talk, she could also talk to us cos we were, "cool". When we had to leave, she was making plans to meet up with me to continue talking later this week. Can we say our God is beyond awesome?


Breakthrough. We are seeing breakthrough and victory in both areas, the guys and the women. God is super amazing and I am so humbled by Him. We definitely need to rent a place out there so that they can come and find us during the week and possibly start up a church for them. We have a few possibilities of places to rent so please pray for us in that area as well.


Words can't express how we feel about last night and today. Just this immense gratitude that God wants to and is using us to bring hope and life into the ones He loves out there on the streets. 


We are so privileged and honored to see the miracles that He is doing.