This month has been quite different from the others. For starters, we are matched up with team tonka. We are working with the Alex Rocha youth center. It is located in the “hood” of Cartagena. Literally the most dangerous neighborhood here. There are shootings often, gang fights, robberies, you name it (also extreme amounts of animal abuse). There are 13 year old girls walking around with their babies, kids doing drugs, drunk people all day… Side note* music is huge here. all day, everyday you will find people blaring it. 8 am on a Sunday or 3 pm on a Tuesday, its non stop. These people love their parties. Due to the culture and also the poverty, which doesn’t allow for technology, people are very social. They love just sitting outside and talking to each other.
Alex started the center to encourage kids, to teach them about God, to teach them English, and to show them that they are loved. The goal is to prevent and discourage kids from wanting to join the gangs or behave in the sinful behaviors that are so common here. Alex himself had been involved in a lot of those behaviors but at 24 found God, learned English, and changed his life. He is now married with six children, going to school to become an English teacher, works fulltime as a tour guide, is a mentor to several men who have been involved in gangs, and oversees the foundation. Quite incredible. His love for this area and the people here is contagious and the community really respects him.
Our job here is to love on the kids and be role models to them. We gather them in the streets and then play soccer and kickball with them, we pray with them and have vacation Bible school with them where we teach them stories, sing songs, do crafts, and play games. We also teach English and just minister and interact with them as much as we can. We aren’t allowed to walk around here without a local adult with us but some of the kids act as our “security guards”. It’s not just the kids who need love and encouragement, its also the adults. On Saturdays we have an English class and this tiny room is packed full of adults anxious to learn. The atmosphere is so exciting and its probably my favorite time of the week. We also use this time to share our testimonies, which is great for them to get to hear. We also spend a lot of time with the men who Alex mentors. They are still caught up in destructive and sinful behaviors but they yearn for change and actively pursue God. We enjoy getting to show them a different and healthy way of life while also showing them that they are loved.
So the point of the title is that even though we are in the most dangerous area, there is still a sense of safety here. The community respecs Alex and it is evident when he walks around. There is hope for the growth of the foundation and it is already changing lives. Pray that more and more people will come to it and find the truth and safety that is only through Christ. That their lives will be changed and they will find the true meaning of it, and with that, joy. Please pray for Alex and his family and the San Francisco community as a whole.
“For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners” Matthew 10:13
