Often I share bits and pieces of stories… verbal snapshots that hopefully you can close your eyes and picture… trusting that God touches your hearts to care… and pray…
Their stories continue…ups and downs… very little “ordinary”…
You probably imagine those people like the “snapshot” you saw…
Here are some updated “pictures”…
Do you remember ROSALY… and her four daughters? …struggling to finish their little house before the government project took it away? SO many people prayed, gave… came together to haul dirt, stones, bricks… dig holes, paint, encourage, put in the grass… and on and on… The house was completed… the government people who came to do the final check applauded her accomplishment, admiring the little extras…and seemed more interested in the “tree” of pictures on the wall than in anything else…
However, sometimes our focus can be so intent on the urgent that other needs get overlooked… festering and brewing… growing into urgent needs…
When Rosaly and the girls finally got to breathe again – house done… nerve wracking inspections over - rebellion in the older two girls started rearing its ugly head again… Izamarra (17) ran away first… and then Tamara (14)… Lots of details in the middle there… hopes of living with the dad who never, ever reached out to them… wanting “freedom” to make their own choices etc… This all affected Rosaly´s health… and she was in the hospital twice suffering from stroke like symptoms… (once she lost consciousness… hit her head on a curb and had to be in a neck brace for over a month)… The girls haven´t come home… and after months of crying, searching for them, trying to convince them to come home, Rosaly has now decided to keep praying… and waiting… while trying to hold the rest of the family together… Not easy.
Also… while the focus was on construction, a situation developed in regards to Rosaly´s lot… The land owner´s secretary orally agreed to waive the interest for late payments if Rosaly got her land paid off in the allotted time… However, in the end, although all the payments had been made, Rosaly found out that she was owing a large amount of money in “fines”… Add to this not being able to work as much because of health issues and looking for your girls… and the money situation is even tighter…
But… in all of this, Rosaly pleads to God for His help, strength and courage… She is still thankful for all the blessings that He has given her… She still cries out to Him, asking that HE keep her from falling back into bad decisions from the past…
PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR ROSALY… IZAMARRA… TAMARA… LIZANDRA… and LUCIANA
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Do you remember MILTON AND DAVID? …the young uncle and boy… struggling against the odds to be a “family” and to study? Milton has been under a lot of pressure – his mom, siblings, nephews – all look to him: when the rent is due… when there isn´t any food to put on the table for lunch… or supper… when the kids need bus fares or shoes or a pen or pencil… and this burden fell on him day after day… month after month… He wanted to move out with David… but he also didn´t want to… What would happen to Miguel, Jairo and Milan (David´s younger brothers)?
His classes in the university were supposed to start this July… but they have been postponed again… this time mostly because of some unwise choices he made… with his girlfriend…and others he was dealing with…
Milton would disappear on and off from his house… no one would know where he was… Meanwhile… David´s “dad” (not his birth dad) gets put back into jail… and the mom (Vanessa) continues her downward spiral of drugs, abuse and irresponsibility… For some reason, Vanessa took David out of school to go live in jail with his “real” dad who he´s never lived with! He was there for 2 weeks… until the grandma got 5 policemen to go in after him… (but the mom had just left with David…)
David just turned 10… we picked him up for his class at El Jordán… had a special lunch… and Marlee helped make and decorate a birthday cake… He is the same size as Keiden (who is a lean, little 8 year old!)… I´m sure irregular eating habits has something to do with it… They had a great afternoon playing… David´s very unemotional exterior started to chip a bit… and fun lighten his load for a couple hours… His very tiny smile and wide eyes when he saw his cake were hints that the afternoon was “balm” for his broken little heart…
All of this, not to discourage you… but to ask you to please keep praying… for DAVID and his brothers MIGUEL, JAIRO and MILAN… who suffer daily due to the decisions made by the adults in their life… Pray for TOMASA, the grandma, a single mom with dependent kids of her own, that she´ll have enough bread on HER table to share with her grandkids (both families rent one small room right beside each other)… Pray for MILTON, that his dream to study would be renewed… but even more important, that he would have a hunger and thirst for GOD. Milton plans to take David to live at his girlfriend´s house (out of the city)… Undoubtedly it´d be a better atmosphere for David… but we´d have less contact with them. (But God´s arm is still long enough to reach them anywhere!)…
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Do you remember ROSARIO? …the 13 year old I met on the streets right before Christmas… so covered in scars… inside and out… the one whose mom had just been put into jail for a second or third time… the one who had nowhere to go… except the streets…
Rosario is now 14… her mom is still in jail… and as weeks and months have gone by, has sunk deeper and deeper into life on the streets…
Two weeks ago, she was hit by a bus… and was rushed to the hospital… It was her street “family” who took up “collections” to pay for her medicines and treatments that the bus driver´s insurance didn´t cover… her street “family” visited her… and brought her “home”… How do we as Christians look after our sick and hurting? Do we SHOW CHRIST´S LOVE… or do we just preach about it?
PRAYER REQUESTS: For the first time, ROSARIO is showing interest in going to a home… Please pray for her hand to heal completely… and that she will want to go to a home this next week… (and that the home will want her!)…
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You might not remember PURA… I´ve known her since she was 8 or 10 years old… the little girl with huge eyes… a beautiful smile and a great laugh… who used to sit on my lap whenever I´d visit her family that lived as “caretakers” in an empty shipping container on a huge, empty lot…
Her older sister, LILIANA was one of our first students…who recently came back to El Jordan after years of being back on the streets…under bridges… in jail… A while back, Pura came to El Jordán with Liliana… wanting to talk… frightened of who she had become… realizing how hard it is to stop the slide down the dark, slippery path of lostness… Her pain and frustration screamed from each self-inflicted slash on her arms… and legs… Some so deep they have affected the movement and strength in her hand… others still red, painful… Pura caressed her scars… the diary of her pain… “I was 10 years old the first time I cut myself… when my dad came home drunk and beat up my mom… I didn´t know what to do…”
Maybe that is why she became so “strong”… and dominating… not wanting to get hurt… yet getting hurt all the same…
Please PRAY for PURA… that she will keep coming to El Jordan… that the Holy Spirit would continue to tug at her heart (give it a big yank!!!)… until she realizes that ONLY CHRIST can fill the void in her heart… Pray also for LILIANA and MARY CRUZ (her two sisters who are coming faithfully to El Jordan)…
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Do you remember little JOSE ARMANDO? …the 10 year old who saved his little brother from choking on a marble? Since he started coming with his mom to El Jordan 5 years ago, he has encouraged his mom with the Bible truths they learned at El Jordán… He often cared for his younger siblings while his mom wandered, selling on the streets to bring home food for the family… Lately, José Armando has been more disobedient and disrespectful… spending more and more time on the streets…
Could you pray for JOSE ARMANDO? He longs for a father´s love which he never has felt… His mom has been making very poor choices lately, fuelling his rebellion… Please pray that God would protect José Armando and give him a strong desire to do what is RIGHT even when the example around him shrieks the opposite…
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Do you remember PEDRO/JOSUE? - the man who lived on the park bench, who my kids and “Aunty” Heidi befriended during our first FRIENDSHIP ON THE STREETS last year… My kids would remember him… pray for him… and visit him…
In March, as I drove by the park, I saw Josue´s motionless body sprawled out in the middle of the sidewalk… His skin was almost black from not being able to protect himself from the sun day after day… He couldn´t move… he couldn´t get up… His eyes brightened a bit when he saw me… and I had to lean really close to understand what he was saying… pain medication… a hat… something to drink… I said I´d be back in a bit… we had to hide the hat under his coat and tie up the juice in a black bag under the park bench so no one would steal them…
I went back with Heidi… I knew there wasn´t much time left... “Have people told you about Jesus?” I knew they had… we had… I leaned down to hear his whisper, “Tell me about Him.” With a knot in my throat, kneeling on the dirty, stinky sidewalk, I talked about Jesus… I tried to talk simply and clearly, explaining who Jesus was… what He had done for us… the wonderful place that He was preparing for those who accepted His forgiveness paid on the cross... I wasn´t sure how much he could understand with the pain he was feeling…
Josue tried to nod… and say he believed…
That was the last time we saw Josué… Apparently the municipality picked him up… took him somewhere… and he never came back…
I trust one day I will see him rejoicing… on heaven´s gold park bench.
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Years ago… maybe in 1997 when I officially joined Avant… I travelled around North America… talking about the “kids” God engraved on my heart… I gave out pictures… asking people to pray for specific kids… Sherri Cook started praying for MIRIAM/LIDIA… Miriam – her street name… Lidia – her real name…
There was never a letter from Sherri that didn´t ask about Miriam… never a letter that didn´t say she was praying… Years, decades of praying… Wow…
Sherri is Chantelle Plant´s grandma… (Tim and Chantelle are Avant missionaries at El Jordán) She came to Bolivia to help Tim and Chantelle settle with their three little ones… We were able to travel 3 hours to finally meet LIDIA in person… What an amazing moment… all around…
The spiritual battle for Lidia´s life and the fight for her soul has actually been tangible at times… I believe Lidia is alive today because of Sherri´s prayers… The battle isn´t done yet… but I believe in the power of prayer…
THANK YOU SHERRI!!! You are a warrior.
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If it seems impossible to pray for so many needs, could you choose ONE person to pray for… to fight for? Please.
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DO YOU REMEMBER OUR TAX SITUATION? (where they updated what we owed on our taxes… charged it backwards five years… and added fines to it…) Every time we scraped money together to make a payment on our tax debt, it multiplied, and it was as if we hadn’t paid anything at all… It was so discouraging… In the end we borrowed money to pay it all… and now…THANK THE LORD, WITH EXTRA GIFTS FROM YOU, it has been paid in full.
I´m not sure if it is because we used all our buffers to pay the taxes that now it has been difficult to “get out of the slump”? Things have been very tight financially… while needs abound… My heart wants to stress about it even though I am witness that God has always provided for our needs. Could you pray that I could trust… and have peace in the midst of this? Of course, this is when El Jordan´s 17 year old washing machine dies… when there are maintenance needs that can´t be ignored… health situations in the “El Jordán” family etc…
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One of El Jordan´s desires is to be a two way bridge… facilitating and encouraging 1. the local church to reach out to the “LEAST OF THESE” that are on their doorstep… and 2. that our girls and their families become a part of a church family… Two specific ways we tried to do this was through our annual Pastor´s Breakfast and inviting the church to participate in opportunities for outreach.
Over the last years, we´ve been making a point of evaluating and adjusting our activities so their purposes can be met… and without taking unnecessary toll on our workers… CHRISTMAS ON THE STREETS has been narrowed down… and FRIENDSHIP ON THE STREETS (Christmas in July) was born… Our Pastor´s Breakfast and our Soccer Tournament (Fundraiser for Christmas on the Streets) were both nixed this year… and replaced with “The Mercy Table” (in June) where we shared our heart and needs with the people in the local church who silently serve or practice mercy… One of our missionaries (Thanks Annemarie!) spent HOURS making up a video to show that day… and to send home to each church… (We are working on getting a copy to you as well…)
At just over a week away from FRIENDSHIP ON THE STREETS, we are still praying that those people would be catalysts in getting others involved in reaching out… Two churches have “adopted” one of the meals for Friendship on the Streets… committing themselves to buying the ingredients and cooking… Others are looking for the addicts close by with whom they can initiate a relationship… PLEASE PRAY for all the details that need to fall in place by next week!
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OUR FAMILY… It’s hard to believe that MARCO and I have been married for 10 years now! We were able to get away for two days and a night… (Thanks Heidi for being with the kids!)
KEIDEN LEE is 8… and is going into 3rd grade… God has gifted him with a very strong sense of JUSTICE… His loyalty for his few friends comes out loud and clear. He loves soccer… (Cristiano Ronaldo)… Nexo Knights… and his best friend Caleb.
MARLEE JAE is now 5… trying not to act excited about going into kindergarten… God has gifted our passionate, brown eyed girl with MERCY – which overflows when there is a need… sickness… or a stray animal…
Marlee has the same birthday as 6 year old Bethany at El Jordan… Bethany was sad because she really, really wanted a dress for her birthday… but gifts were out of the question for her mom when she was struggling to put food on the table… Marlee heard about this… didn´t think twice… ran to her room… chose not one, but two, of her dresses to wrap up for Bethany… It does my heart well to see how God works through my kids to answer others´ needs and silent cries… God is good…
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Thank you for your patience and your time… Thank you for your prayers… May God bless you richly…
Because HE is faithful…
Corina (for Marco… Keiden and Marlee…)