Her name is.....

One of the women who work the streets had called me last Thursday night in a panic because her family and neighbourhood had realized that she was working the streets and were calling her names and saying horrible stuff about her. I told her we would meet the next day, her and me. She agreed to call me but she didn't and I called her but she didn't answer the phone. I left a text message for her telling her I was praying for her and to let me know how she was. She never replied. 


Today I got a call from a man asking if I knew her. I said she is a friend. He was brusque and rather rude and I told him I counselled her and he wanted to know what I counselled her in. I told him as little as I could without giving her away. But I realized then why she never called me back. She couldn't because she is being scrutinized and I don't know how she is but I know she needs lots of prayer and she needs to know Jesus. But I am also concerned about how she is being treated by her family and neighbours and I'm praying for God's protection on her. 


Please pray hard for her. Call her FA.

So Vital

I don't know how many who read this blog realize that there is a page for this ministry on Facebook which constantly gets updated as things happen. It is called Siembra S.O.W. and is in English and Spanish. Look it up and if you would like to support us in prayer or know of anyone who has a heart to be a part of this ministry, please click the "Like" button and you will get updates regularly through your newsfeed on Facebook.


Prayer. So needed, so vital. An absolute necessity and life force. We at Siembra S.O.W. need it desperately for the ones we minister to. So many times, it has been so close with someone getting out of the vice they're in, then it's back to nothing again. Satan won't let go of them and they don't know anything better than to fall back into his trap. But prayer works. Prayer works miracles, continuous intercessory prayer can and will move mountains and make them into plains. We can't do this alone. We need you. We need you to pray alongside us so that the ones you read about in this blog will not be just mere names here but will be huge testimonies of what the Lord is all about: turning the impossible into the possible; bringing to life that which is dead. In short, miracles. 


Some may think that it should be enough that we as a team pray on our own and we shouldn't ask other people to pray alongside us as it shows a lack of faith. I don't care if you think I lack faith, that we lack faith. I don't care what you think of me. It is not about me. But I care what happens to the people you read about in this blog. I want them to be freed from satan's lies and traps set out to destroy their lives. I care about them to want them to live. I need you to pray for them. I need you to call out to the Lord fervently to save them because they need you to do that for them. And the bible says that the effective prayer of the righteous man (woman) can accomplish much ( James 5:16 NASB). 


So many have already given up on them in their lives; their parents, spouses, children, the society as a whole and even themselves. But we who know that what seems impossible to men is possible to God and if we pray and intercede for them, I believe God can flatten mountains to become plains, He can make a way where there is no way, He can make straight the crooked path, He can call forth that which is not as though it is and He can make that which is dead alive again. Do you believe? Will you believe? 


Will you intercede for these ones? They're not pretty to look at. They smell. They are rude and they lie. But Jesus died for them just as He did for you and me. They need you to care for them enough to pray for them. And if you don't know how to start praying for them, ask the Lord to put what is in His heart in yours to pray for them. I believe that you might start out thinking that you're blessing them but at the end of it all, you will see that you are the one who got blessed. 


God bless you and may His face shine upon you that you will know His goodness in the land of the living.

Despite.......

It's been a great summer. Still is a great summer. Thank God. Really warm, no rain (but then we are in Lima and it never rains), absolute beach weather. Jose Luis called today to ask for "help" for a friend of his who was supposedly stuck at a beach town somewhere and needed bus fare back into Lima. I told him to tell his friend to work and save his money to return, we don't help out with straight cash. I heard laughter in the background when he asked for bus fare. They think I am easy pickings. As we talked on, it turned out the "friend" was Jose Luis himself as he got caught in his own lie. Asked him how his hand was. He said it wasn't half bad. Which means he has probably taken off the cast and all. At times like this, I want to smack him upside the head really really bad. But then, I have to just keep praying for him and trust God to knock some sense into him. And keep loving him. And pray that his hand will heal well despite.....


Despite all.......God really loves us a lot, doesn't He? I can't believe how much baloney He has to put up with in us as human beings. I have a hard time with the people I deal with, how does God do it with the whole world and love them all unconditionally? I struggle to love people and I really, really want to hit them hard sometimes. Really hard, like punch them out. Honestly, most of the time it's not love that stops me from hitting them, it's the law.  I am not about  to go to jail just because someone is being an idiot and I have to hit them. Yup, that's me. I struggle to love and so I am in constant awe that God loves us the way He does, despite ourselves and our idiotic ways. 


I do have to say that it is not because I am a martyr that I do what I do with the team out on the streets. It has to do with the calling the Lord put in me to work with them and some supernatural love for them. Because I truly love doing what I do despite everything. I love being out there. I love talking to them. I love that they are ok when I see them. I wonder about them when I don't see them. I do love them in my small, human way only because He put His love for them in me. 


Herman really tugged at my heart tonight. A forlorn, humpback figure, he walked right into the middle of traffic without a care for his own life to cross the street. He was drunk. It was a miracle he didn't get hit but to me, his physical state reflected his inner state. He's 37. He didn't care at that point if he lived or died. He has a mom and siblings who do care for him but had lost his spouse and son because of his drinking. His dad had died a drunk. He had called me last week but I had no idea it was him and couldn't understand him on the phone but he had called to see if we could go to his family home to speak to him the way we did on the street. I asked him to call me again when he wasn't drunk so we could meet up with him to talk more. He agreed. We asked to pray for him, he allowed us to and as we prayed I really felt that he truly knew he was trapped in a prison of his own making and didn't know how to get out. There was a lot of pain in him, not just in his heart but probably from his back that is disfigured. I was just glad we got a chance to talk to him tonight and I hope that he will call because I forgot to pray for healing for his back.


The women of the streets have loosened up more with us now. They might not trust us with everything and they might lie but they are less guarded with us now. While we were talking with two of the women, the police came by in a truck and it was a good thing we have our Siembra S.O.W. T-shirts now so they believed us for who we are but the cops still didn't want the women there, so they left. Jorge and I kept going to look for the other women and found two others whom we got to talk to. One talked about her past church experience and then started mocking it but the other said she wanted to go with us to church. I told her to call to let me know. 


There wasn't a whole lot of them out there tonight. Perhaps the guys had gone to the beach towns to look for easy pickings and that was why Jose Luis was there with friends. Perhaps the women weren't all there tonight because the cops were patrolling the area or perhaps they knew we would be there and would be bad for business. Who knows. But God led us to the ones He wanted us to speak to. And so we keep sowing, hence our name "Siembra" and God has to do the rest and someday Mark 4:31-32 will become a reality. The least of the least will become a shelter for many. It could be one of the many Luis', it could be Herman, it could be Oscar, Anderson, Henry, Gisela, Flor, Carolina, Vicky, Paola, Karina......it could be any one of them or all of them. 


Because God loves us despite ourselves, despite what we have done. He receives us as we are, makes us clean and then raises us up. Despite ourselves. Thankfully He doesn't punch us out. This is Grace.

An Answered Prayer and New Revelations

I had been praying for a while to see Luis again. Luis, the kid who had accepted the Lord and who had known nothing about Him before. The kid who had had an argument with water and hadn't met with it for a long period of time as could be attested to how he had smelled and looked the first time we had met him. The kid whom Jorge had donated clothes to and whom we had celebrated his birthday by taking him out for lunch. The kid whom I thought was darker than he was. The kid who had told us that he had quit smoking terokal when we had met him for lunch. That Luis. Who disappeared after we saw him last and after I took a picture with him. So, I had been praying to see him again because I want to know how he is, if he had indeed left terokal or had fallen back into it. 

I didn't recognize him. Jorge thought it might have been him and it was only because there was a mole on his forehead that he took a chance by calling out his name. He turned around and I still couldn't recognize him. The Luis I had talked to before was really  dark. This kid had really light skin. But it was him. And he was pleased to see us and started telling us all that had happened to him since we saw him last. He had quit smoking terokal. He found a job working at a flour factory in San Luis. He was back with the mother of his 3 year old daughter. He was joyous and couldn't stop talking. He wanted us to meet his family to know them and I now have the cell phone number of his live in girlfriend, Stefany. He truly looked good. Clean, as could be seen in how drastically his skin had changed colour. I have some doubts about him being entirely clean from smoking terokal but I will believe him because the Lord will reveal what needs to be revealed in His time and for His glory. We agreed to meet this Sunday for church with his family. I will call to confirm with Stefany. You have no idea how glad I was to see him. It was a really good feeling. 


The time we had with the street women last night revealed that it is not in vain going out to them even though sometimes it feels like it is because with the women, there is a barrier which they keep up to prevent us from getting any closer. However, last night, one of the women, Paola, took me aside and started telling me what was bothering her and shared some things with me and I was able to go deeper with her than I had been able to before. And likewise with Karina who was talking to Jorge and then later to me. Last night I had a revelation about the street women. None of them want to receive the Lord in their lives even as a free gift because they know that He will convict them to leave the street and with it the money that they earn. They believe that that is the best they can do. That there is nothing better for them that can help them earn that kind of cash. And so, they won't choose to receive the Lord because they don't realize that the small pebble they are holding so tightly to in their hands is preventing them from opening up their hands to receive the true blessing that the Lord wants to give them. They don't see the slavery they're in. I also realized that they smoke terokal not as addicts but rather as a means to numb the pain and shame they feel.  We have insight into what the barriers are that prevent them from coming out of the darkness. We now need  wisdom from the Lord on how to overcome that. 


Your prayers are desperately needed. 

He Takes Care Of Sparrows

I have learned to trust Him. I can only trust Him. I believe His Word and that is what I stand on. I cannot do anything else. His Word says that He takes care of the sparrows, that He clothes the lilies in the field, that if we ask for bread He will not give us a stone. His Word says that He loves us more than we can imagine and that nothing can separate us from that love. His Word never returns void. I believe His Word. I believe that He is the God who makes all things possible. I believe that He is God Almighty. I believe in the depth of His love for us. And so I will trust. 


I will trust Jose Luis to Him. I will release Jose Luis to Him and believe that His Word never returns void. I will believe that his heart of stone will change into a heart of flesh. I believe because my God never lies. The Centre called today to let me know that Jose Luis wanted to leave today. Luchin and I were supposed to go two days ago to take him to get his wrist looked at again but neither of us felt a peace to take him out of the Centre.  I called the Centre to ask them what they thought of it and they said that we needed the Pastor's consent to take him out and we tried calling the Pastor but he didn't answer. So we left it at that. The Centre is voluntary, so if any one wants to leave, they can just walk out. Jose Luis talked to me on the phone and said he had lied to me and he has an uncle whose home he could go to, etc. I know he is craving the drugs and he is desperate for them. Even if he has an uncle whose home he can go to, I doubt he is heading there.  He doesn't care where he can stay at or if he has anywhere to stay. He just wants the drugs. 


I can't make someone do something they don't want to do. Jesus doesn't do that, so how can I? Even though every fibre of my being wanted to lock Jose Luis up behind locked doors so he won't hurt himself again. But I can't. I had to release him. I had to tell the Centre it was ok to let him go if that's what he wants to do. It hurt so much. All I could do was tell Jose Luis that I don't hold any resentment towards him and no matter what, that we care a lot about him and I want him to know that,  that we want to know about him, about how he's doing, that he's not in the prison at Lurigancho or dead in a gutter. I told him he could call me again and we would still go and help him if he needed help. He asked when we go out to Ciudad. I told him. And then told him to take care of himself and blessed him.


The Word has been sown in him. It never returns void. Nothing was by chance from the time he called to now and beyond. The Lord loves Jose Luis more than I ever can and I have to trust that He will look after him as He does the sparrows in the air and the lilies of the fields. All I can do is keep loving him and pray for him. 


I have to trust that the Lord will never abandon him. I know that. Yet I want to go out there and drag him back into the Centre and put him in a place where he's safe. I want him and the others out there like him to live so badly. I don't want them to die or live half lives. I want them to know what it's like to really and truly live. 

Oh, How He Loves Us!

God, you are beyond amazing. I had thought that my last post was the last post for 2011 but I can't not blog about what God did today. Today, Luchin and I had stuff to do and we were on our way to catch the bus when my cell rang. In the depths of my cavernous purse. The first miracle was that I heard it ring and answered on time. I ususally never hear my cell phone ring in my purse. Jose Luis, one of the youth from the streets was on the other end in a panic. He had just been kicked out of his girlfriend's family's home and now had nowhere to go. Luchin and I delayed our plans and went to meet him in Ciudad. He told us parts of why he was kicked out but it was no surprise really, as his breath reeked of alcohol from the night before and he regularly smoked pasta and snorted coke. We fed him, made him drink jasmine tea to sober him up a bit and just listened to him and counselled him. He wanted to change, he said. We counselled him, spoke to him at length about real change and not just temporary change just to get a bed for a night. We sat there wondering where we could have him stay. 


Luchin had to go get something checked at the hospital so we decided we were just going to take Jose Luis with us until we could figure out where he could stay and he seemed to like the idea as his face lit up when I said, "well, you're coming with us and hanging out with us until we find a place for you". Enroute, he mentioned that his wrist hurt a bit as he had fallen about 3 days ago. Since we were headed to the hospital anyways, we figured he might as well get it looked at. We spent the entire day at 2 hospitals. The first one to get xrays done and to have the doctor do a diagnosis. Jose Luis had been drunk when he fell because he couldn't remember and had been high and drunk for most of the time so it hadn't hurt too much. However, as the day wore on and he being with us, and having had no access to drink and drugs started to feel the pain on his wrist  as the effects of the drugs and alcohol from the night before wore off. It became evident why the pain was unbearable when the xray showed that his wrist was broken in 2 areas. We then got sent to a state hospital where they set his wrist. I was just in awe at the fact that we were going to the hospital anyway and he mentioned that his wrist was hurting and so we got it  checked. I shudder to think that if he never called today, that the probability of his wrist getting set would be zero and the chances of him getting it infected and not being able to use his wrist properly would have been really great. God was definitely taking care of him. That took till about 6:30pm.


 Our next problem was finding him a place to stay. Luchin had called several rehab centres but they cost more than an arm and a leg per month and we could not register him as we are not family. The only one we know of that is Christian and does not charge was not answering our calls. Since Jose Luis does not have a DNI (ID), we could not get him a hotel room either and since he was fresh off the streets, we did not feel at peace to have him stay with us at our home. I kept praying that God would give us a solution, that He who takes care of sparrows would find a place for one that He loves to have a place to stay. At that moment, we were close to the church of a friend of ours, Pastor Juan and I knew that every Tuesday night his church has a prayer meeting. Luchin and I figured that at the very least we could take Jose Luis there and have others pray for him and a solution and maybe Pastor Juan would have a connection somewhere. We went in and after the meeting ended and we had talked to Ps Juan about the dilemma, he mentioned that his mother-in-law would most likely be able to help as she is very much in the know regarding rehab centres as she has had to deal with them personally. Another miracle? She was there at the meeting when she normally does not go and she told us later that she wasn't planning on going tonight but felt to go. We followed her home and she gave us some phone numbers and connected us to several people on the way, all of whom laid hands and prayed for Jose Luis. We kept telling him that God was showing him how much He loves him to create all  those connections so that he could go where God wants him to go and be safe. We finally got to Victory Centre, the Christian rehab centre that does not charge, but only asks for a minimal donation, at 10:45pm and finally registered Jose Luis at 11pm and left him in the capable hands of the people in charge. It is a centre that does not believe in capturing people against their wills to be rehabilitated and totally uses only the Word of God as their primary and only method of therapy. 


Luchin and I felt at peace and promised to come back for Jose Luis on the 3rd to take him in for the check up on his wrist. He was scared we were going to leave him there and never see him again. I told him no, we would be checking up on him and making sure he was all right and we would visit him once a month according to the rules of the centre. At 11:30pm tonight, Luchin and I headed for home, totally in awe of how God had put everything in place to bring about this miracle in the life of one he loves so much. Please pray for Jose Luis Arcos Tito that he will perservere and allow God to work a real change in his way of thinking and in his heart. 

Looking Back To Look Forward

Ahhhh yes, the close of a year and the beginning of another. 2011 has been a year of many miracles in my own personal life and also in the life of Siembra S.O.W., the ministry the Lord has called me to start up here in Lima. This blog was started with the intention of it becoming a personal blog but, because my life is so intertwined with that of the ministry as well as the fact that I'm not Shakira or Kim Kardashian  whose lives are so full and interesting, it ended up becoming a ministry blog with splatters of my personal life sprinkled into it. 


Siembra started out the year thinking it was headed in one direction, and even though I felt uncomfortable with some of the projects we were going to embark on, I kept going instead of stopping to take stock and see if that was what the Lord truly wanted because it was already on the agenda. And despite all that I was doing, the Lord kept shutting doors. I had moved to Jose Galvez, this area on the southern outskirts of Lima which to me might as well have been the ends of the earth, to live in a house that was seemingly perfect for the ministry and myself. It was, at the beginning and God brought the first Siembra team together during this time. I was starting to feel that perhaps the area was not the best area for the type of ministry we were doing when we couldn't find any homeless drugged out youth. I believe I was the only person in all of Lima at this time constantly begging people if they knew where the street youth lived and hung out. Most people ran the other way, I wanted to run to them. People thought I was nuts. Helpful neighbours introduced us to drug addicted gang members but they had homes and jobs. Not the ones we were looking for. The Home Refuge part of the ministry never flourished despite the fact that the Lord kept downloading ideas on how to sustain a Home as well as to teach the youth practical ways on how to manage small businesses. Yet, everything except the street ministry was a flop. Later, as I prayed into it and surrendered the idea over to the Lord, I realized that He never asked me to do the Home Refuge. He asked me, however, to do a Drop In Centre. The idea of the Home Refuge was originally that of a friend and I had taken on that idea believing it to be the logical way to do things as things are done here. At this point, things started to close drastically in terms of having a home refuge for street youth. The house became a hazard when water started pouring in through electrical outlets and the main box during the rainy season. The landlords started becoming odder. I made the decision to leave the house and felt like a total failure. The saving grace for me was that the street ministry was going well. 


I learned many things, however, when I lived in Jose Galvez. I learned how to use praise as a weapon against stuff that made the hair rose on the back of my neck at nights in the house. I learned how to not be afraid because the Word was in me and it came out through me as a promise for me and a weapon against the enemy. I learned that if God is for me, no one can come against me. I also made good friends with the people around me and saw what community was all about. The day I left for good, the lady across from the house who runs the little store received Jesus into her heart. My being in Jose Galvez was not in vain. God had used me to sow the Word there even though my original intention of being there never materialized. I knew in my spirit that the Lord wanted a drop in centre in Ciudad itself but with the failure of the Home Refuge fresh in my mind, I was reluctant to jump into it. That was 6 months ago. 


Today, I know the Drop In Centre is an idea from God. Confirmations come when I see the need for discipling and a quiet place to sit with the guys or women to listen to them; when they ask me where there is a place that they can come to talk to us; when I watch a movie that I know will touch their hearts and I have no place to be able to play it or to have a place to hold events or workshops for them. I have submitted my plans to my lawyer so he can draft up a good write up to present to the mayor of the district so that the Municipality will know what we are about. Yet, there is a voice in me that goes, "What if, you rent a place, put in money and time and no one comes? Isn't that a waste of money?" And then I also hear, "Obey me and you will see what I will do. Your job is just to obey me." So, I push on and up because I know whose voice I will listen to and obey. I have made mistakes but I will not let those mistakes keep me oppressed to the ground. I will push on and push up and keep going and rise up so that I can keep running the race that is set before me. I will trust that the Lord will lead me and keep shutting doors and opening doors that need to be opened and shut. It has been 6 months and I keep checking to see if He truly wants a Drop In Centre and the sense I get is that it is needed and so step by step I will take with the Lord holding my hand. He leads and I follow. 

So as one door shuts, I look forward to other open doors and windows for the year to come. We've seen guys come to the Lord, kick their habits because they want to, heard women say they need to change their lives when they thought we weren't listening, guys out of the blue telling us they want to change and accept the Lord. Sometimes, we take one step forward in victory and it seems like two steps back after. But all I know is that we are just to obey the Lord and follow His plans and designs for these diamonds in the rough. The Lord will touch the hearts of those He came to die for. I can't wait for the day when I will see them rise above their addictions to finish school, have a job and serve the Lord with all their hearts, minds and strength.