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.
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.
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