Wow… we are only 10 days from officially opening our doors again at El Jordan… pondering, planning where should we put emphasis… how to reach those goals… how to maintain a strong team and family as we move forward… trying to make wise decisions as time, opportunities (and our kids and youth at El Jordan) keep slipping away…
…but before getting into 2018, I’d like to record my thoughts and feelings from Christmas on the Streets.
In 2017 we had our graduation at the end of November - back to back with our fund raiser for Christmas… December came before we were ready for it… overshadowed with stress over money: mandatory Christmas bonuses for our workers (and if you don’t pay this extra month’s wage by December 20th you have to pay double)… extra expenses with Christmas celebrations for our students and their families… and Christmas on the Streets… Remember last year our saga with our taxes from El Jordan? This year we were breathing “easier” until we got the bill for some mandatory updates in the El Jordan paperwork… $2000 US… Sigh… As much as I humanly would love there to be a ton of money in El Jordan’s bank account and not have to add…subtract… and try to do the impossible math to make ends meet, I thank the Lord (now that it is over… hahaha) because it is in the impossibilities that God’s Faithfulness, Goodness, Kindness, Provision are crystal clear, unclouded by our own “sufficiency”…
It was God’s PROVISION that sparkled through this Christmas… the 100 great gifts for our children between 0 and 11 were found in the “special donations” that we save up over the year…. (each gift specifically chosen and wrapped for each one…) I got a phone call from a lady who we had lent our tables to one time this year… “I’m sending some things you might be able to use…” There were several dozen NEW women’s pyjamas… still in their packages… that plus our “stash” covered our gifts for moms… The only gifts we had to buy was for our workshop boys…
At our Christmas celebration for our families, we give out a food basket to each student from the years’ “winning team”… In 2016, we were overabundantly blessed with foodstuffs from businesses and others who had excess… (afterwards we were able to bless other ministries with our abundance)… In 2016 we had more than enough to make overflowing baskets of food for not only the winning team… but the other teams as well…
This year we were getting painfully close to our Christmas celebration and there were no baskets… and nothing to go in them... Hoping that the same businesses might have excesses again this year and remember us… nope… Numbers bounced around in my head… but no solutions… Then just days before we needed it, things started coming together: unexpected offerings… a bag with some noodles and rice in it… the “plastic man” arriving at El Jordan with 48 gift baskets… a bag of sugar… a bag of special cookies “for your families”… Can you feel it? The amazement… the awe… GOD’s huge, almighty hand bringing us enough groceries, kilo by kilo, to make up food baskets for ALL of our families… (not just the winning team…) Wow…
We had an amazing time together… we estimate 270 people – our volunteers, students, workshop boys and their families… together to celebrate Christmas… playing… singing… thanking and honoring God…
For the last year or two at the Christmas celebration, we’ve raffled off special donations we have been given… This year we had a big oven… a kitchen sink… and an extra food basket for the draw… The oven went to one of our newer ladies… it was handpicked for her… I know there were quite a few wet eyes over that one… Beatris just started coming to El Jordan in June… she is the mom from a family (probably 20 some people live in the same house…) where we had sent Christmas on the Streets for the last 12 years at least… and finally mid-2017 she, her daughter and niece started coming to El Jordan… She loved her Bible studies… learning… and being a part of a new family… She came faithfully to her cake making and decorating classes… This year she bravely stood in defense of her family to finally try to put an end to abuse that has been going on for decades… She still struggles in certain areas… but we see God working in Beatris and her family… and we see their hearts softened towards HIM… (When we were dealing with stealing at El Jordan, Beatris’ niece came to talk to me, tears in her eyes… saying sorry… and returning a Bible she had taken from El Jordan when she so wanted a Bible to read especially seeing other ladies with their Bibles… She also promised to pay back 10 Bs. – a dollar fifty – that she had found – and not returned - on the ground outside the office one day when she really needed bus fare… God is working in hearts…)
The extra food basket was won by a kid whose mom was also new in 2017… a widow who has 5 kids under her care… a family where I’m sure that food was needed… where the mom has given up easy money to be obedient to her Saviour… Once again… that mighty hand, caring and filling our needs… Who are we, that HE should care for us??????
LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
in the heavens… the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them? Psalm 8:1,3,4
The bigger expenses – the paperwork bills… the extra wages… Christmas on the Streets… - they were all covered by that same loving Hand… through unexpected places and people… from students… supporters… family… coworkers… How can we thank HIM?
I believe we should thank Him by living out HIS heart while we are here on earth… Look at 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. Knowing God goes hand in hand with reaching out to others… We are HIS handiwork… created in Christ Jesus to do good works… Ephesians 2:10 Isn’t faith without living it out, dead? James 2 I get frustrated and sickened by my own selfishness as God reminds me that it isn’t about ME… Oh God, remind me of YOUR MAJESTY so my life and service will be an overflow of YOU and your glory!!!!
I think the other feeling I had this Christmas on the Streets was frustration with local churches… I think our old way of doing things – reaching the hundreds and thousands – was easier for them than sitting on the park bench two blocks from their church building beside an alcoholic or drug addict, asking his name, being God in person for him… I had been trying multiple times to encourage, motivate the churches’ involvement… About a week before Christmas something happened in my heart… Right or wrong, I still don’t know, but I gave up... I decided not to beg them any more... I decided to write them a last note on the day of Christmas on the Streets… and ask for their prayers… but not for their involvement…
Please pray for our churches… that our hearts would beat with God’s heartbeat… that we would be clearer pictures of community, family, love… so that more would be drawn to us… as we point to HIM…
Back from the rabbit trail to Christmas on the Streets… Our focus has become more and more narrow each year that goes by… Our desire is not to just to go “the streets” but to go to the most forgotten…
Well… things turned out a bit different than what we planned… It rained…and rained… and RAINED!!! Rain soon forces the people under bridges to climb to safety, looking for shelter under any overhang… In rain, street people don’t congregate in plazas, street corners or medians… they search for any place where they can keep relatively dry… The group of people who go out to street corners to beg or sell prefer to stay at home (however precarious that might be…)
The rain complicated our cooking… cleaning… and made deliveries a lot slower… On the streets we had to give out 2 meals here… 3 meals there… and yet another single meal farther over there… Was it discouraging? Actually, it felt as if God allowed us to fulfill our purpose of reaching out to “the most forgotten”… With a small group of El Jordan ladies and others, I went into the “bushes” where there are usually up to 40 addicts… That day there were only 3… shivering and completely soaked… their hands and feet prune-like from being wet for so long… They were the ones who directed us to another small group of four… There I met “Daniel” who has been on the streets and addictions for over 20 years… He wants to “get out”… he is tired of suffering on the streets… I trust that one day we will meet up with Daniel somewhere other than the streets… We had such a good talk with Daniel and Luis… he was “new”… had only been on the streets for 8 months… We were welcome company in the rain… there was no where better for them to wander… they seemed more willing to listen and converse…
Under yet another overhang, I met up with Gabriela… now 20… who I knew when she was only a few years old… “I want to get off the streets hermana Corina…” There was Wilson, only 15 years old… who actually had a “home” and “family” just blocks away, but preferred to be on the streets… with people who seemed to accept and care for him… I met up with Claudio, the street man who a month ago gave Marlee a notebook from the garbage he was going through… “Your daughter shared her cold drink with me….”
Maybe that show of kindness in the middle of the rain softened hard hearts… brought them a bit of light or hope that maybe they had lost… a reminder that God does exist… and He wants to reach into their lives, forgive and bring new life…
Lincoln, who took Christmas on the Streets to a different group in the city wrote this when he got home that day…
“Are you going to go? It’s raining!” “It doesn’t matter… I’m going to go…”
There are many people on the streets who need to see and feel the love of Christ…and yet we are a church full of excuses….
* A church that says, “God takes care of us” yet is afraid to go to the streets…
* A church that says that God is the owner of all the gold and silver, and yet complains that they don’t have the resources to help others. Brother!!! God provides!!!
* A church that preaches of a God of love, and yet who is unable to give a handshake or a hug to a street person.
* A church who says they have a God who heals… yet they are afraid to get wet for fear of catching cold…
* A church who believes that God changes lives, but maybe only certain lives…
As a church, we lack faith in God. Church, let’s trust in God… let yourself be used by HIM. Hebrews 10:35
Please take some time to pray for our street people.
…and so ended another Christmas on the Streets… It always amazes me how everything comes together… how God provides… the people we meet… the seeds planted… how my own heart is always encouraged… Thanks to every one of you who participated alongside of us… whether through your prayers… giving… or interest in how it went… We appreciate you…
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A couple updates from the last letters…
*** Our German volunteers, David and Nele, were able to arrive back in Germany while David’s dad, Joachim, was still in surgery… They were unable to get all of the brain tumour out, but David’s dad woke up after the surgery, was able to talk and go home after a few days. They have meetings with the doctors on January 17th to talk about the surgery, test results and further treatment… please continue to pray for the Mallek family during this difficult time…
*** Our little cat Annie still is going strong…
*** We are still in the process of getting Marco’s truck in order to be able to sell… and buy a newer vehicle that will spend less time in the mechanic shop…
* * *
A few prayer requests:
*** Pray for us as we plan and prepare for our year…
*** On December 29th, Carlos, our administrator, resigned. He is a full time pastor, has a family… and is a member of a music band… He needed to dedicate more time to his church… God knows who we need in the office… please pray that HE will guide us to the right person… It would be wonderful to start off our ministry year with an administrator… but if not, we need wisdom to know how to fill the gaps…
*** We are also in need of someone to live at the workshops and help us tend the soccer field we rent out at nights (to help pay for the expenses of running the workshops.)
*** On January 1st and 2nd, our city had about 11 inches of rain over a period of 18 hours (but mainly in 6 hours)… There was a lot of flooding, affecting many people. Keiden and Marlee’s school (Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center, run by South American Mission) was flooded badly and suffered $US 35,000 in losses and damages… Please pray for this ministry!!!
*** Politically in Bolivia there has been a lot of unrest… There is no easy solution in sight… please pray for Bolivia… and the Church here…
God bless you for your faithfulness to HIM… and trust that 2018 will be a year of seeing HIS MAJESTY and glorifying HIM…
Thanks again for being a part of El Jordan…
Lots of love,
Corina… for Marco, Keiden and Marlee…