I have now been in Granada,
Nicaragua for
three weeks. The first two I spent keeping up the base (El Puente), the Kayes’
home, looking at houses, getting to know new faces around El Puente and
reacquainting myself with familiar ones. It’s been great diving back into
ministry here.
This time around is quite a bit different since I am not
responsible (yet) for a short term missions team. Since the Kayes have
returned, my responsibilities have dropped even further. As details about what
should happen at what time, what might go wrong or how to fix what has, I began
to notice people I had seen but not really paid much attention to in the past.
I was standing next to Charles’ car, looking down a road, no
road in particular, at nothing in particular, when Jefferson
walked across my field of vision. Jefferson, a very rugged looking, insane homeless
man, used to show up for many Bible studies and church services. I would see
him on the street and try to befriend him, but at that point I was a policeman
with a computer in my fingers and too many eyes… he wanted nothing to do with
this kind of man. I left him alone for about a month and eventually I became
just a normal guy looking for a friend. He walked across the road perpendicular
to the one on which I stood and I wondered why he didn’t have his green
backpack. I wondered what stories he would tell about the last four months if
his mind was right.
A day or two later I walked down central park toward the bus
station and passed a young man sniffing glue. I had seen him before, but hadn’t
paid him much heed. The only time I did was when he sniffed so much he could
hardly walk and stumbled his way across the park. “It’s easy for me to point
the finger,” I thought when I saw him this time. “But where would I be if I
were born into his shoes? It has been easy for me… I was given a comfortable
life and a good education. What kind of hope does this man have? What kind of
pain is he trying to numb? What would it take for him to overcome it? Can I do
something about this?”
As I try to focus some more on Granada over the next year, the problems seem
endless. The grips of all kinds of addictions the devil holds over Granada is firm. Change
happens one life at a time, and often times it takes years for fruit to show.
God has called me here for a year, but often times it’s hard to see what kind
of change can happen in such a short amount of time.
Please pray with me for change over this city as the Lord
reaches out to his children and calls them back to himself. Many eyes are
opened, but strongholds are hard to overcome.
