Well… I’m still using the e-mail on the old computer… so… if you know someone who has a newer address that isn’t getting my updates, could you forward it for me? Thank you!
I want to thank you all again for your prayers and your support… you have encouraged us with your prayers, your notes, your interest in what God is doing here in Bolivia… You are special and important to us… Thanks!!!
We believe that we are in a spiritual battle… The Bible talks about it… that our struggle/fight isn’t against flesh and blood, but rather against powers and principalities. At El Jordán, we are working with kids and young people who have been on the streets, drugs or on the brink of slipping into this lifestyle… but who desire change.
What does the “thief” want? …to kill… destroy… and rob… This can be seen so clearly in the lives of the young people who we work with… destroyed lives… lives controlled by drugs, alcohol, and “easy money”… families damaged… ruined… future waning… lives being lost…
We have always seen this reality in our work with the kids… but it seems even more evident when God is at work in their lives… Satan doesn’t want to give up his “prey”… and puts up even more of a fight when he thinks he is going to lose one of his ‘own’… it makes me so mad when I see the enemy working so slyly… attacking from one direction and another… offering an ‘easy out’, pleasure, ‘solutions’… but what people often don’t take time to consider is the fine print… He never offers something for nothing… nor something for our good… Never…
Anyhow… we are in the thick of this spiritual battle at El Jordán… Everywhere I turn I see problems…
* our situation with the property for our boys classes still hasn’t been solved… The boys are still in a little corner of El Jordán… there are several different options but we really don’t know what to do… what option to pursue… please continue to pray for God’s guidance and wisdom in all of this…
In these last two weeks…
* Cinthia told me that her partner is drinking and doing more and more drugs… he leaves her with the four children… or comes home and is abusive… On Sunday he left her waiting for him all day in the main market with only 2 bolivianos (25 cents)… the kids got so hungry that they fought over a banana they found in the garbage… Alfredo doesn’t want her to come to El Jordán… but she says she needs to learn - from the Bible and practical skills… At El Jordán she feels at peace… It is a place where she can share her heart and problems… and get pointed in the right direction.
* Leidy, the nine year old daughter of one of our students, Valeria, had a strange health problem… where she had severe headaches… lost the strength and movement in her left side… She just got out of the hospital yesterday… but still isn’t completely better… and still needs more tests done.
* Mery doesn’t know what to do, Edgar is drinking almost every night… threatens to kick her out of the house… and is physically abusing her as well…
* Ruth is in an abusive situation where her partner doesn’t want her to come to El Jordán, he will hit her, take away her shoes or lock her in the room so she can’t leave… He is drinking and doing drugs - even in the house in front of her kids… she wants to get away but doesn’t know how… Her family says if she got into this situation by herself, she needs to get out of it by herself…
* …the recurring theme, Nelly doesn’t know what else can be done with her partner Omar… He continues to drink and be abusive… Nelly has gone multiple times to the police and the office that is supposed to defend the welfare of the woman… but they haven’t helped…
* Monica went to La Paz to pick up some merchandise for her dad… She met up with her mom… and ended up staying a couple weeks… She got home to find her room bare… and littered with empty alcohol bottles… the father of her two daughters had sold most of their things and binged on alcohol and infidelity… in front of her two daughters…
* Tania’s ‘partner’ lately has been talking about going back to occult practices and drinking… that things were better before showing interest in God… He is another one who doesn’t want Tania to come to El Jordán.
* there is a terrible situation of multiple incest problems within an extended family… Although everything (?) has come to light… none of the family wants to do anything about it… Two volunteers from El Jordán were able to talk to some of the other children in the home a couple days ago, but now there is a lot of anger against our place… and our volunteers…
* Rocio turned back to the streets, drugs and delinquency… She was detained yesterday and there is a possibility that she will be sent to jail. Jennifer, her youngest daughter, is in the care of another street kid…
* Paola finally was able to make a break from her abusive partner (we hope this is a long term thing)… but now financially she is in a bind… She suffers physically from her years of being on the streets… Her mom is also not well… and there are four children in the house (one is her little sister)… and really no one to supply the basic needs of the family…
* This past weekend, one of our most stable couples, went through a terrible situation and the marriage is on very shaky ground right now…
* Several of our volunteers and people who help out have been going through times of discouragement, problems, financial difficulty etc…
* to add to the problem in general, prices of basic foods have jumped here in Bolivia… Bread that used to be 5 or 6 for a boliviano is now 3 for a boliviano. Things like potatoes, flour, sugar, oil and rice have in some cases almost doubled… For people who live day by day, without a definite wage, selling this or that to “scrape by”, are finding it more difficult all the time just to feed the family…
…and that list was just off the top of my head!!! I’m sure I could remember more things from the last couple weeks if I thought a bit more… Wow… The thief comes to kill… destroy… and rob… and he has been very active in our sphere lately…
I don’t know about you… but I have a headache… So many problems… and not just little ones that you can give a pat answer to, smile, and send people on their way… They are complicated… and desperate… How can we help? What can we do? The situations of abuse are difficult… the legal channels to deal with these sound great in theory in fact aren’t so practical or helpful. Some of the girls are caught in a cycle where, even if they do “escape” from the situation, they go back to it… Sometimes it is because they really don’t have anywhere else to go… or anyone to help them with their kids if they are on their own… There is no easy solution.
We have talked about hiring a social worker for El Jordán… to help us with family visits, follow up… and someone who has the diploma and a signature that means something – someone who could make up official reports to present to authorities… someone who has the time, just to dedicate themselves to the legal side of these issues… A couple things hold us back from this… one, it would increase our monthly costs and also, it has to be a very special person – not only professional… but also a committed Christian with a heart for the needy – specifically street kids… you can pray about this with us…
Anyhow… back to the present…
At El Jordán, although at times we get weary in the midst of the fight, we are still convinced that we are moving in the right direction. We know whose fight it is… and we also know the final score… We have a renewed commitment to holding the Word of God up high… The Word of God leads, guides, increases our faith, guards us from sin, transforms and renews the mind…we know that God is Able… and that it is in Jesus Christ that we can have life…and life in abundance… so… we are dedicated to “keeping on”…
There have been amazing things happening at El Jordán… After months (years?) of talking about it, three months ago we started a monthly chapel meeting at El Jordán. It is the last Thursday evening of every month… Unfortunately, in most churches, our kids don’t feel very comfortable or welcomed. (There is one church where several of our families attend that is the exception.) Our kids aren’t terribly formal… nor are they used to sitting and listening to messages… Most don’t have very much education… so the teaching at church isn’t the blessing it should be… they often don’t understand very well or after a while they just “tune out”… Some of them are embarrassed to go to church because their kids don’t know how to behave well… and they feel like they are disturbing or being a bother… Anyhow… it is a two way process… of the church becoming more aware of their responsibility and our kids feeling a bit more comfortable within “society”…
Anyhow… we decided to bridge the gap having this chapel meeting… where the kids (big and small) feel at home… so much so that they get excited about inviting their family and friends to listen and learn as well… We have people to teach all age groups… We have Bibles for them to use… and the volunteers who also attend help people find the references etc…
It’s been great to see more people come… we have between 80 and 90 people (big and small) attend… In our first chapel we only had a few couples and men - mostly women and children. For the second chapel, most of the boys from the leather class came… but they sat hunched over, their baseball caps pulled down over their faces, in the back row… I loved this last chapel - all around I saw the men sitting with their “wives”… some at the very front… some in the middle… some at the back… Families!!! How beautiful!!! …together… to praise the Lord… and learn from His Word… There is such a “community”/family atmosphere… And together we share a time of prayer, singing and teaching… Anyhow… we are really excited about this… and feel it is a way to reach beyond our students to touch the people who surround them…
The boys’ leather workshop/classes add so much to El Jordán… extending our work beyond the women and children to include the men as well… My “list” at the beginning of the letter reminds us that the home situations of our kids are incredibly messed up… We have girls who are trying to follow Christ and His teaching… but it is more difficult when the family is pulling in the opposite direction…
Please pray for us as we try and reach families for the Lord!!! We see some really neat things happening in some of the families where the men have “turned around”… Saúl who used to be so physically and emotionally abusive to Maria Luisa is now dedicated to studying the Bible, putting it into practice… and leading his family. He is the one who encourages and uplifts Maria Luisa when she is tired and discouraged… Sandra was thrilled when Ronald made a decision to believe in Christ in our second chapel… “It is what I’ve been praying so long for… it is what I wanted most in all my life!!!”
The girls who have been studying the Bible with me for a couple years are excited about putting what they learn in practice… Three of them meet on Tuesday afternoons, taking turns to teach the Bible to each other… “practicing” so they’ll be able to better teach others… María Luisa’s spiritual gift is “helps”…or service… She herself has 3 children of her own, 4 stepchildren and 2 of her husband’s nephews to cook, clean and look after… Her favorite memory verse is Colossians 3:23 and 24, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men… It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Maria Luisa has such a beautiful attitude serving her Lord… as she daily tends to her large family… She offers to help clean El Jordán twice a month… and even offers to clean for the volunteers so they can better fulfill their service… (Kind of sounds like Acts 6, doesn’t it?) Wow…
Even after accepting the Lord as her Savior, Janeth struggled with a certain sin… One of our memory verses is 1 Corinthians 10:13… that talks about God ’s faithfulness in not allowing us to be tempted beyond what we can bear… but when we area tempted, He provides a way out so that we can stand up under it… At the beginning of our class this past week, she was so excited because, with the Lord’s help, she was able to resist temptation…
Another of my students asked to talk to me this past week… she cried as she said, “I want to respond (to a certain situation) in a way that shows that I am a child of God. I want my life to reflect that Christ lives in me!” She sometimes has to leave her room to find the strength to go back in and respond in the right way. Others think she is being “wimpy”… She finds it difficult to put into practice the Truth she is learning… but it is her heart’s deepest desire… As I witness this maturity, this humility and obedience, I myself am challenged in my own walk with Christ… and am so grateful for what God is doing in lives… once so lost… but now growing, developing and producing fruit…
Do you remember the ‘simmering situation’ we had at El Jordán? In a situation where I thought repentance and restoration was doubtful… there has been confession, repentance… and a humble attitude towards dealing with the sin… ‘No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.’ Hebrews 12:11 It has been so exciting to see God working… in the lives of our students and volunteers… and I’m excited to see how God uses this volunteer mightily in the future…
There are other examples of what God is doing… but they’ll have to wait until another day… It is already Sunday… and I started this on Wednesday…
Please continue praying… and please pray especially for direction and wisdom in the decisions we have to make regarding the property for the boys workshops…
Lots of love, Corina…
Just a little P.S. …an update on Rocio… She has been sent to jail… We are praying that being in jail will allow Rocio to reflect… and reconsider the way she has been living… and that she will choose to come back to the One who offers Life! We are worried about little Jennifer… right now we don’t know where she is… Please pray!
Thanks!