Walking into church this morning, I spotted Gabriel sitting with his Bible open! He had been walking along the road, the other day, as I was praying that God would open the door for the Gospel. He walked through our gate as we were working, and asked if where we’re staying is a church. Julio, who has been hanging out with us every day, sat down with Gabriel and found out that he needs a job. So we prayed for him. We offered him a Bible, and his coutenance brightened! He thanked me so much for it, and gave it a hug! A few minutes later, he came back up to it and said, “Wow…” So there he was at church this morning, and he sat with us. His Bible looks like it’s been through ten years of use, when actually he’s only had it for a few days. He showed me that he’s underlined Scriptures, and he said, “Thank you so much for the Bible!!” He counted on his fingers: “I read it in the morning, at night, when I WORK!” (So…apparently he has a job now too??) “It’s the reason I live,” he concluded with joy in his eyes. He asked me to write “to and from” on the back of it, but…not knowing Spanish, I wrote, “To Pamela, from Gabriel”. Moving right along, I’m ecstatic that he has this Bible!
I got so excited yesterday when my team and I and Julio went to the park to put on a kid’s club! I knew there would be people there who might receive Bibles. Soooo many kids came, many with their mothers and grandmothers. We played games with them and gave them a craft with a Bible verse on it. I sat down with Esmarelda and her family. Esmarelda and her mother had come to our gate the night before, and we invited them to the park. Heart-breaking fact: we actually suspected that their outing may have been a trip to sell Esmarelda for the night, and just the thought of it makes you want to pull her inside to keep her safe. To be sure, it happens all the time here. Esmarelda hugged me, and my heart went out to her. At the kid’s club, I talked to her mom and gave her a Bible, which she accepted.
I sat down beside fourteen-year-old Fanny, who speaks English well. I asked her if she is a Christian, and she said yes, that she is unique in her family because she is a Christian. The pastor’s wife led her to the Lord four years ago, and this girl has the joy of the Lord all over her face! When she left the table, I was surprised to be in a conversation with the girl across from me. She only knew a few words in English, and unfortunately my Spanish is no beuno…or non-existent…so I got Julio to translate for us. Here’s her story: she is pregnant. Four days ago she left Nicaragua to leave her family because her father is mad that’s she’s pregnant. He told her to kill the baby, she said, but that when she went to the hospital, she couldn’t do it. She said she saw a “photo of the baby on the computer”, and she loves the baby. Her mother just had a heart-attack last week and is now in a hospital in Spain, and her father blames her for it. Three times she (we’ll call her “Jennifer”) got a passport, and each time her father destroyed it. Finally her friends smuggled her into Costa Rica, and now she lives with them. She has no job, and no one will hire a pregnant woman or someone without papers, unless she’s willing to get basically no pay for it. She is eighteen years old. She said that her relationship with God is not good right now, and my heart went out to her to help her understand that God is ready to forgive her. She said, “My mother taught me that God hates when we do bad things.” Yes, that’s true; but look at how much He loved us to pay the price for our punishment! We talked for a while, sharing Scriptures and encouraging her in her situation as best we knew how. Before Julio prayed for her, I said, “Even though your father doesn’t care about this baby, our heavenly Father, LOVES your baby!” And she smiled.
Later that evening, several teenagers came to youth group at the place where I’m living. Jennifer was there, along with many others who my heart went out to at the park. And with a ton of joy in my heart, I got to share my testmony with them through a translator, emphasizing that Jesus truly loves them. I think it registered. This last week in January marks the seventh year since my Dad passed away, and I wanted to tell the teens the message that so often burns on my heart: God is your loving Father who will never leave you or forsake you. Praise God for these opportunities! I’m asking for more…
Jill from our team decided that it’s best for her to go back home because she didn’t have peace about being here at this time. On Tuesday she flew back to Oklahoma to see what God has for her next.
