Picking the Caterpillars off the Seedling

Yesterday we went searching for EM on the streets and we found her. She was happy to see me as I was to see her. It had been a hard week. We had found her a possible job and she was unable to go to the interview because of feelings of unworthiness and we procured a second interview for her with the same restaurant and she was unable to overcome the accusations and the lies the enemy was telling her and didn't make the second interview either. Then she started avoiding my phone calls because she felt ashamed that she had let us down and didn't show up for her bible study session.


It was hard. I sent her text messages to let her know I didn't care about the job. I cared about her and even if she avoided me like the plague I wasn't going to give up on her as my friend and sister in Christ. Then Luchin and I felt it was best to let God work in her and for us to step out of the way for a couple of days. We prayed, others prayed and fasted. And God gave me the peace that He was in control and He was working in her heart. This past week, a friend and prophet from the US was in Lima preaching at several different churches. Luchin and I sensed that she really needed to hear him  and we planned on finding her on Saturday night to take her with us to his Saturday night meeting. 


On Saturday night we went looking for her on the streets and found her. I was afraid of her reaction, wondering if she would avoid us or be upset that we were there, but she ran straight into my arms and it was so good to know that she was as happy to see me as I was her. I asked her if she was doing anything that night (it was obvious she was working) and she said no. So I said, "Let's go!" and she had this big grin on her face and jumped into the van. She didn't even ask where or when or what. She was happy to get out of where she was. 




In the van, I laughingly asked her what had happened and why she didn't answer my calls. She said she was ashamed. We had to reassure her over and over again that she didn't have to be afraid that we would reject her. We cared about her. She didn't have to run away from us. We cared about her and wouldn't think less of her. What mattered to us was that she know who she is in Christ and learn to walk in freedom, victory and wholeness; not in fear and shame. I told her that we were going to go to a church to listen to a friend preach and we wanted her to hear him as well and that was where we were heading, was that ok with her. She had no problems with that. 


As it always is with God, the message was for her. Then the prophet prayed for and prophesied over her at the end of the service. We discussed trusting God in our lives on the way home and she demonstrated that she had indeed been listening to the preaching when she mentioned several key points from the sermon. She sat as close as she could to us, laughing and talking about God and listening to Luchin counselling her. We took her right to her house and she ran in to bring her mom out so she could introduce her to us. It was definitely a God night.


I know God has a huge plan and purpose for this beautiful courageous woman. I know she will walk in freedom, wholeness and total victory soon. It was so good to hear her laugh and know that she is loved and accepted. 


I just feel so privileged and honoured to be allowed to see how God is revealing His love and glory through her. Please pray for her, the others and for us to have wisdom and discernment and love to be able to reach them.


Your prayers are so appreciated and we are immensely grateful for them. Thank you so much for walking with us on this journey.

The Process

I'm realizing that the easy part is getting someone off the streets. The hard part is helping them win the battle in their minds. (Yes, I know Joyce Meyer's book, Battlefield of the Mind comes to mind) God opened doors for EM to have an interview at a restaurant to work as a waitress. I had gone with her to introduce her to the owners in the morning and they had asked her to come back later for an interview. I couldn't accompany her for the interview like she had wanted me to as I had another meeting elsewhere. But we prayed, she received Words of encouragement from the Bible, and I left her knowing that she was fine. 


I called her later to find out how it went. She had gone there, stood at the threshold to enter and couldn't. The enemy was hard at work throwing lies into her mind.


Luchin and I talked to the owner later that night about another interview and I went with her this morning. They could give her another one, again in the afternoon but again, she had to go by herself as I have another appointment at that hour. God really wants her to conquer this herself. 


We hung out for juice and talked. She opened up to me and shared about several things in her past confirming what God had shown me yesterday when I had asked Him about what had happened. I taught her more about biblical principals, reminded her how to combat the darts of the enemy in her mind. And kept reminding her how brave and courageous she is for taking steps  to change for the better and to follow God. She knows now what chains she has allowed to hold her back. And she also knows what she can decide to do to be free of those chains. We will keep meeting as much as we can so that her mind can be washed in the Word and that the Word will become what she walks in daily. It is a process but God is not going to let her go. He will heal her as she keeps seeking Him to be healed because He wants her to walk in freedom.


Please keep praying for her to decide constantly to walk in freedom and to keep remembering who she is in Jesus and how God sees her. 

A Seed Sprouts Roots

I think I'm dancing on cloud 9. Today was phenomenal. EM had agreed to meet me at 10:30am today for her first bible study. I had called her yesterday to confirm and when I got to the meeting point, she wasn't there. I waited 20 minutes then decided that I was going to leave. As I was about to cross the road, I saw her and her little boy on the other side crossing over to me. It felt so good. So good to know that she really wanted to know the Word. We went to the food court of a nearby mall so we could be in a relatively quiet place to do the study. 


We started off by her giving me a recap of what she understood from the first 3 books of the Gospel that she had read on her own. She understood a lot more than I give her credit for, a person who has never read the bible before and only went to the occasional mass. God really doesn't need us, His Holy Spirit is indeed the best teacher ever. We started today's lesson from the book of John, verse by verse. When we came to John 1:12, I had her read it out loud and then asked her according to what the verse says, who is she? She looked at me puzzled. Then re-read the verse and looked up at me and timidly said, "Daughter of God?" I asked her then who Jesus is. And she said, "Son of God" and I told her that she is co-heirs with Jesus and that she is a princess of the Kingdom of God. Her face lit up into the biggest smile when the Word became revelation in her heart and spirit. At this point, we were so intent on the Word and she was just absorbing it all that we didn't realize her little boy had wandered off. It wasn't until the security guard came over with him asking if he belonged to her that we realized we had lost her son for a moment. Oops. Thank God it was still early in the day and there wasn't anyone in the food court area.


The whole scene described above was a miracle. It was a miracle that God had been working on for a while, only that I couldn't see it in the natural. What I saw today is a result of what He had been doing in her heart all this time. As we wrapped up today's lesson, she said right aways, "I need to hear the Word more so we will meet again next Thursday?" As if I was going to say no. She told me how the other girls on the street laugh at her and mock her saying that she was a hypocrite for wanting to know the Word more and yet is still on the streets. I told her that the Word and the grace of God is what will give her the strength to leave the streets because it is what will transform her way of thinking and doing things. She really wants to leave the streets but she has no job, no way of earning money apart from how she knows because she has been doing that for so long. I told her we would help her look for a job to get her off the streets.


God has brought her this far. He is the author and finisher of our faith and He will complete what He has started in us. He loves her too much to leave her now so I trust and know that He will keep on working in His mysterious ways and will also provide a job for Elizabeth so she can get out of the streets. 


Please pray for her; to persevere in faith, for a job that will enable her to support her 2 little ones and her mother and the house they live in, for her to learn to believe the truths of the Word and not the lies of the enemy and for me and the team to have Godly wisdom and resources to be able to help her. 


I just feel so blessed to be able to witness this and thank you for walking with us on this journey.

We Have Not Seen Our Greatest Triumph Yet

I had a raging headache today. And throughout the day every person on the team except my husband, Luis, called to cancel out on street ministry tonight. Honestly, it was hugely tempting to just say, well, I should just stay home then and sleep away the headache. But then, there's always the "what-if's" that haunt me and keep me pushing on and perservering. Stuff like, "What if the breakthrough is tonight and you will minister to that one person who will make it all so worth it?" "What if someone was going to die tomorrow and needed to make a Jesus decision tonight?" "What if you meet one of the guys from before like LE whom you have been praying for for months and he tells you he is on the right track now and is working a normal job and he is back on track with Jesus?" The "what-ifs". 


Last week, the Lord had said to me, "You have not seen your greatest triumph yet" regarding the street ministry. I took that to heart and that encourages me to keep going. There will be triumphs (Thank you God, cos I need to see victory) because to have the "greatest triumph", there has to be several smaller triumphs. So, headache or not, with other people or not, I will keep going and I know that my husband stands with me on this. Neither one of us are quitters and his ministry  attests to that too. 


At the last minute Jorge and Elizabeth called to let me know they would come out after all. Good, that was good. The first guy we saw was JP whom we had met months back and whom Jorge had donated clothing to. He was the one we took out for chicken dinner for his birthday in November. We hadn't seen him for a while and we weren't going to let him out of our sight this night. He said he was sinking and that he needed to change. This time, I was a little harsher in my words with him. He had already heard us talk about how God loves him, what God wants for him, how He sent Jesus to die for him and that he has a definite purpose and future and that only Jesus in him can truly change him around from the inside out. He had made a decision to receive the Lord into his life, but the call of the streets is too strong for him and without constant sowing and teaching of the Word, he allowed his vice to overcome him. Tonight, I was direct with him and just told him that satan wants him dead and God wants him to live and he has to decide if he wants to live or die. I am normally softer with people I have just met or in whom I am helping build up self esteem but with Luis JP, we have known him a while and he knows we want to help him for real. We gave him the lowdown on what the centre is like and that it is compromise and he needs to do his part to get himself free of the drugs. But he just has to decide. No one can decide for him and no one can help him until he decides if he wants to live or die. He told us to get him tomorrow to take him to the centre. We need prayers on that; that nothing will thwart him from being there for us to take him to the centre. 


When we went up to where the women are, EM was there after 2 weeks absence. I talked to her and we got to the Word of God and I asked if she was reading the NT bible we had given her. She said yes and I asked in what book she was in and she said, Luke. We talked a bit more and I said that the Word brings life and I told her my testimony. I guess maybe that made her realize that God had to save me from myself and that I wasn't a sheltered person like she thought. She decided to want to study the Word more and we will start our bible study this Thursday. Please pray for this as well.


One thing I noticed is that when we talk with the women, how I know that they are really listening and are captured by the Word is when the johns come by and try to solicit them, the women actually tell them to get lost because they want to talk and listen. Tonight, there was a swarm of johns around the women we were talking to. And they were all told to get lost by the women themselves. 


Thank you for perservering in your prayers for each of the ones you read about here. They really need you more than you think. 


God is working in the unseen parts of the hearts of each one of them on the streets. With God, NOTHING is impossible. And, we have not seen our greatest triumph yet.

Setbacks Are Meant To Be Run Over & Flattened.

JR. First time we met him. Lives on the streets, inhales drugs, drinks, does magic tricks on the buses to earn money. When we asked him if he was hungry and launched into conversation with him, he was at the point of robbing someone. He said that would have been the second time that he would have done that in his life, rob someone; but when he talked to us, he felt he had to tell us what he was about to do. He told us about his life on the streets, how his life means nothing to the people walking by and how people ignore his pleas for food. Then he says that he had asked God at one point in his life why did God allow him to inhale drugs and live a life as he did on the streets. After that, he said he stopped talking to God. 


I told him simply and clearly that God loves him too much to let him live a life like that. That JR is worth the life and blood of Jesus and that God wants to give him good things. That the reason he is living the life that he lives has everything to do with the decisions he made and how he chose to live his life. The reason that he is living on the streets, homeless and inhaling drugs, etc is a direct consequence of the decisions he had made. God doesn't want him there. God wants to bless him and give him good things but JR has free will to choose and God, being a gentleman, will not force his way into JR's life. I talked to him through the Word of God, and then told him that it was obvious God didn't want him to rob to protect him from what could possibly happen. He could get badly hurt in the process, thrown into the worst jail in Lima and killed there, the possibilities were endless. He listened. He said he felt bad. I gave him my card with my phone number and told him to call when he wanted help to change. We prayed for him and then he said he had to go work the buses. I can only pray that he will feel the need to repent and not just feel remorse. That he can only change from the inside out with Jesus at the helm of his life. 
As with all the others who have heard, we can only pray that their hearts will be softened and be sensitive to let God work in them. 


SJ had a black eye and tried to tell me she hit her face against the bed. I shook my head and told her I am not dumb to believe that. I could only tell her she has much value as a woman and as a person and that no one should be permitted to do that to her. And that it's not love no matter how much they tell her they love her. She smiled and nodded. And said that she's getting back with her husband and going to counselling. I still don't know if it was her husband who hit her or her boyfriend that she had left her husband for. EM wasn't there but had been there other nights. I had sent her text messages as her phone ringer isn't working but she never replied. As it is when the Holy Spirit starts to convict, the person runs and hides because they are still in sin. All I want, all we want, is for her to know we want to help her walk through this, teach her the Word and disciple her and help her get another job when she is convicted enough to leave. 


I have stopped getting disheartened when what seems like setbacks come our way. I just keep going forward, keep doing what I have to do. God told me to do this. And so I will. What seems like setbacks are only bumps in the road that we need to run over and flatten.  The results are not up to me. I just sow the Word, His love, His grace. He has to prepare the soil and work the results. I can't convict, only the Holy Spirit can. But I can love, I can teach them the Word, I can be there for them each time they fall to accept them and love them again. And it's really amazing how my Spanish flows like a river unblocked when I teach or counsel the Word. It's definitely not my own doing. 

So, here's to God! To what He's doing unseen in the hearts of those in the streets, to resurrect them from being the walking dead into huge living trees strongly planted and rooted by streams of flowing waters! He and only He can give breath and life to the dry bones. 


And I for one, am excited to see what He will be able to do. 

The Impossible is Possible with God

T'was a good day today. For the last four weeks, I have been witnessing God's miracles. First, my cousin's wife got healed of advanced bone cancer, then my husband got healed of an aneurysm and a migraine, my friend's mom got healed of kidney stones and yesterday, one of the street girls called me to let me know she was going to come to church with us today with her kids. Hallelujah! To be honest, I was kinda flatlined in dealing with the news yesterday, scared to hope too much, just praying and letting God take over. However, I passed the message on to the team to pray and intercede that nothing would stop her from coming.


This morning, Luchin and I were a little late getting out the house and I called her cell phone but she didn't answer. We were still going to go and get her, irregardless. Then as we were on the way, she called me to let me know she was already there, waiting at the place we had agreed on. Suddenly our feet had wings. We just prayed on the way there that the Word would land and grow and take root in fertile ground in her heart and that she would in turn become a huge tree that would give shelter to many. We got there and she was there with her two kids. The other girl who had said she wanted to come didn't show up. But EM was there. And to me, that was a miracle of God; that the sowing of the Word every week had brought her to this point of hunger for Him. We got to church early today on account of her. Indeed, she was already a good influence!


God had really worked all angles today. The pastor had no idea she was going to be there and that the message he had prepared was tailor made for her to a T. She was listening with rapt attention and at the end, she said the sinners prayer again. She had said it on the streets but I think today, it took on a deeper meaning for her, a wanting to really change and be a new person and not be a victim anymore. The message had been about how we can allow ourselves to be victims and stay victims forever or we can get up and keep fighting, if not with our right hands, then with our left. Whatever it was, we need to keep fighting and going ahead and not let life's hurts and wounds leave us cowering in a corner believing that we are victims. I saw her wipe away tears at the end. 


We sometimes go out to eat as a group of friends and today was one of those days. All three of them went with us and I am thankful for friends who know how to love. They just treated her normally. And it was good for her to see that her life doesn't have to be what it is now. It can be better. We asked her later what she thought of church. She said, with a big grin on her face," I wasn't expecting this, I have gone to church before and this is so different, not at all like church...I like it!" (Our church is based on the Hillsongs format of church and our pastors are Americans)


We told her on the way back that she needed to just let us know when she wanted to go again and she was always welcome. She nodded her head vigorously. We didn't have to tell her she needed to stop doing what she does on the streets. She already knows that she needs to. We see it on her face every week and she knows we want her off the streets. She now has to trust God to open up doors for her to have a real job that will support her family. As she grows in the Word and in Him, the Holy Spirit will convict her to leave what she does. 


And God willing, we will be there to help her be able to find an alternative job when she does. Your prayers are needed immensely for us to be able to help in a practical way to help them look for jobs or help them get training while still be able to earn money to support their families without having to work the streets. 


I am just in awe of how big my God is. We definitely serve a BIG GOD.