My current location is surrounded by dormant volcanoes, a huge lake, taco's, Spanish guitarists and amigo's- Guatemala. For the past two weeks some of us have been building a house for a family. The family originally all stayed in a one room house and the problem comes in that the uncle and one of the daughters both have epilepsy. When the uncle has fits he becomes very violent and for this reason we built another house where he can stay. These past two weeks have been extremely tiring as we wake up early, walk about an hour to the building site unless we catch a lift, walk back in the afternoon and then walk to the church where we have teachings each night with the Pastor. However during this time there was an event that rejuvenated me from top to bottom.
On one of the evenings we were challenged as a team to bring people from the streets to church. As three of the girls and I wondered
the streets looking for who we could invite we heard some guys shout "hey babes". Just a short extra note about the town we are currently in, it is a huge tourist town and the town is full of drug addicts and drug dealers. Each day as we walk the street I am offered to buy some weed or any other drugs all the time. So anyway we turned back to see who was calling us, all I saw was two guys totally bombed out and my first thought was "let's just keep walking because we can't invite them to church". As we started to talk to these alcoholic breath gangsters from the street I started to realize that there was only one thing on their mind and that was to make some love with the girls! As these guys just tried their luck with the girls we invited them to church and said that if they wanted some real love they need to come. So we said we would meet them at a certain spot and time to take them with us.
When we walked back to fetch them they were nowhere to be
found so we just continued to go to church. To our amazement during the service our two friends walked into the church. Another girl from our group dragged them along.WOW. They came and sat next to me, stinking like weed, eyes bloodshot and listened to the video that was playing. To me the video that was playing was extremely boring and I was just praying that they would not leave. I looked next to me and saw them slowly but surely dosing off and then I decided to pray that God will just keep them sleeping until the video is finished so that they can hear the Pastor's message. I promise that this is the first time that I have prayed for people to sleep in church. Well they slept and once the video had finished they woke up when the Pastor started to talk and listened very carefully. When the Pastor made an alter call at the end of his talk, Leroy the one guy stood up and encouraged Carlos his friend to come up with him. There they stood in front of the whole church having just made a commitment to Jesus
Christ. WOW I could not believe what I had just seen and was amazed how God was working. After praying for them we started to chat to them and find out more about them. Leroy was from Panama and Carlos from Mexico and they travel around from city to city playing guitar and rapping to make money. We were able to get them accommodation for the night and the next day they came to work with us at the building site. For the next few days they moved in with us and it was an extremely challenging time for some of the girls to have these "gangsters" in our house.
What a privilege it was to spend time with Leroy and Carlos. I got to know Leroy's background how he has grown up on the streets, how he lived in the Bronx in New York, how he was deported from America. He shared with me his drug addictions and how he clings to alcohol to take away all the pain that is going on in his life. He also shared some shocking stories with me how he had been shot and man I was just completely stunned to
try and grasp how someone's life can be so messed up.
On one day we made special time in our group to pray for Leroy and Carlos and share more about who Jesus is and what He has done for us. As we worshipped with them the Holy Spirit was present and Leroy a hard, druggy, street homey burst into tears. It was such a blessing to share the Gospel and see that there is huge power in it and that God is still working in people's lives and wants us to be a part in it. After a few days Leroy and Carlos left us and went back to the city to Leroy's three kids and three girlfriends. I urge you all too please join in and continue to pray for both of them. That God will continue to meet them and that they will be able to change their lifestyle. There is power in prayer!
Adios Amigos