This month, we set aside a week at El Jordan to take all of our Bible Studies OUT to serve rather than studying inside… My “new girls” decided they wanted to go to the streets… Matilde gave 10 bolivianos ($1.50 US) from her money from “watching cars” towards making a snack to take with us to the “woods” where I took “Christmas on the Streets” in 2014… I first met Alejandro, Cristian and Alejandra (in their early twenties) years ago on the streets sniffing glue… They now live in bushes, under bridges, withdrawn from society and addicted to cocaine paste… Matilde was the leader of our ¨pack¨ because we were on her old stomping grounds… Elizabeth, whose family has been involved in addictions but never on the streets, broke down in tears, seeing this sad reality for the first time… My heart was touched listening to Rocio passionately share her experiences and sufferings from the streets and how God was helping her change…
When we arrived back at El Jordan, we had a very special time praying for our new and old friends… It was Matilde´s first time praying… She stopped in the middle of her prayer to ask, “Am I doing it okay?”
My Tuesday girls decided to spend their afternoon helping at a home for 13 mentally challenged boys… (run by one man who has dedicated his life to the boys…) When we asked what we could take for them, the answer was “Ice cream!!!” My girls got quiet as they did the math of how much ice cream 14 people could eat… and how much it would cost… We get given eggs and milk at El Jordan so we decided to make our own…
It was SO good for the girls to see needs beyond their own… to be challenged by these kids who have learned to cook, clean, wash their clothes, look after each other, laugh, have good attitudes and be a family… Everyone LOVED the ice cream… they all (except one) waited to dig in until everyone was served and one of them prayed, thanking God… It was a great afternoon… and the girls would like to go back again sometime…
The other Bible Study classes went to the section for burned kids at the children’s hospital… and to help at an “old folks home¨… again, a place with barely any outside help, run by an 82 year old lady… I think it was a great week for all of us… and hopefully we won´t quickly forget the things we have seen, the lessons learned…
Why don´t you get to know God in a new way this week… Go somewhere , share God´s heart, help someone… Remember Jeremiah 22:16, “He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the LORD. (I love this verse!)
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Here are a few little updates…
The Fair: The 10 day International fair is done again for another year… We heard a lot of other vendors complaining that this was a really slow year, sales wise… Not counting the hours to set up and take down, volunteers gave over 180 hours to man our spot during the ten days… (from 4:30 p.m. until 1:30 a.m. each night) and yet we only sold a disappointing total of $US330… about a third of what we´ve sold for the last couple years…
Elias: yesterday at 3 a.m. there was finally room to move him to ICU… Up until then Elias was just in a corner of the emergency room… He´s been having really high fevers but a test for Meningitis came back negative. Elias nods or shakes his head when you talk to him… He still has muscle spasms but they seem to be lessening… Mariela doesn´t seem to know if it is really tetanus or not… The doctors just say, ¨We have to wait and see…”
Mariela says that Elias´ family blames her, saying that he would be better and they wouldn´t be spending so much money if Mariela had taken Elias to the hospital sooner…
Elias was the sole provider for the family while Mariela stayed at home with the kids… She doesn´t have much experience in working beyond things that she learned at El Jordán… We don´t usually sell things for girls that aren´t coming to classes, but we´ve made an exception for Mariela while she is in the middle of this situation because she needs to provide for her kids… plus have bus fare money to and from the hospital… She picked up a bunch of beads and other materials at El Jordan yesterday to start making beaded animal key chains… IF you want to buy some key chains, let me know…
Please continue to pray for Elias… I went to visit him the other day… and when I offered to read the Bible to him he nodded his head “yes”… Now that he is in ICU, visitors are more restricted so I don´t know when I´ll see him again… Pray for Mariela and the kids… 6 year old Maria Elena has been told that her dad is working far away... she woke up yesterday saying that she dreamt her dad told her that he wasn´t going to come back any more… to obey her mom, keep studying etc…
Thank you for your prayers… and I´ll let you know if there is any change in Elias´ condition…
There is only 3 months until Christmas! Wow... Before we know it, we´ll be in the middle of Christmas on the Streets… Our pigs are growing nicely… and we are trying to build a better shed for our chickens because the other one was small and rotting…
Anyhow… please pray for unity and strength for our team as the last quarter of our year at El Jordan is always heavy… …also that our activities would help fulfill THE MOST IMPORTANT and not distract us from it… Pray for God´s provision, especially because it seems like the government is going to require the 2 extra wages (bonuses) in December for the third year in a row… Yet even as I groan and try not to worry, God continues to show His forever faithfulness – unexpected gifts received like someone showing up with a bag of dried meat, regular donations of milk, tomatoes and eggs to help feed our boys at the shops…
Thank YOU for being a part of this ministry…
May God bless you richly…
Lots of love… from Corina for Marco, Keiden and Marlee…