While in Colombia, we assisted with a program that allows kids in the community a safe place to go after school.
Gangs, drug use, and pornography are some of the biggest threats to the lives of these children.
A few days after my team left, we were told men were going house to house and robbing families at gunpoint. On top of poverty and hunger, fear is making its way into the neighborhood.
Please be in prayer for our brothers and sisters at Santa Cecilia. They have requested prayer for the wisdom needed to combat the effects of pornography on young minds, that these children will not be controlled by drugs, and they will not fall into gang activity.
Absent and apathetic fathers also run rampant in Santa Cecilia’s neighborhood. I was told if a girl is not pregnant by 20 she is an anomaly. It is unusual for a man not to get a girl pregnant by the time he is 16. As a result, women have many children and no support from the fathers.
The Lord is doing incredible work, despite the challenges in Bogota.
We worked with three children at the foundation whose mother came to help us serve meals. She typically came with a baby on her hip and a smile on her face. This woman eats at the foundation because she is not working and cannot afford food. Her husband, *David, is a loving man who cares deeply for his children. He is a hard worker and is determined his children have a positive life.
Years ago, the family lived in a community saturated with demonic activity. David himself practiced witchcraft and the children grew up witnessing spiritual evils on a daily basis. Recently David found the Lord and moved to Bogota with his family to escape the oppressive culture. They have been attending church and growing in their relationship with the Lord ever since.
Jobs are scarce in the Santa Cecilia neighborhood. When David was let go from his job he sought employment in Medellin, 10 hours away by bus. His goal was to make money and send it home to his family.
David has been working hard as an electrician in Medellin for a few months. He is able to communicate with his family and with the pastor of the church through texting. What he has communicated is not what anyone expected.
David has not been paid for the time he has been working. He is kept in a storage room with other men, and is not able to come home to Bogota because he has no money. This is not what concerns David most, however. There is a man trapped in the storage room who is possessed by demons. This man came from a culture of witchcraft, similar to David’s own background. David recognizes the demons oppressing this man. He has asked the pastor what he can do. He wonders if he has the authority to pray or cast out the demons.
Lucy, the pastor, encouraged him in the authority he has in the power of the Holy Spirit. She spoke truth into his life, encouraging him to continue praying and to cast out the demons possessing this other man.
While David’s family and church community are praying for his safety and return, please join us in praying for these things as well.
Pray for the family; for food, finances, and safety.
Pray for David to stay strong and not enter back into witchcraft.
Pray he will act with the the power of the Holy Spirit and will lead his friend to freedom from torment
Please pray for the man possessed to find freedom from those keeping him physically trapped and from the spirits keeping him enslaved.
The Lord can use any situation for his glory, no matter how hopeless it may appear. Though David is trapped physically, he has been brought to a place where he can bring eternal freedom to other men.
Let’s bombard Heaven so both men will be free and can holistically return to their families.
Thank you.
Ephesians 6:10-12
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
**Name has been changed
