Two nights ago (directly after an 8 hour bus ride from Armenia, Colombia to Medellín, Colombia) Teagan and I went with the team we are now visiting to their Wednesday night street ministry. The ministry is called Aguapanela, and is the cornerstone ministry of the organization they are working with this month, Foundación Ciudad Refugio. At Aguapanela the ministry goes out into the streets of Medellín, where the homeless line the streets openly freebasing cocaine, and give them fresh baked bread and a hot sugar water drink and share the love of Christ with them. It is from this Wednesday night ministry that they bring men and women into the drug rehab that encompasses the majority of Foundación Ciudad Refugario’s time during the week. I was super tired from my long bus ride and not super excited to be going strait out to ministry, but what I encountered was nothing short of amazing.
Needless to say those streets were spiritually dark. That place was basically a playground for demons. Drug abuse, prostitution, and hopelessness were rampant. The curbs were lined with people who had lost all sense of their self worth, picking through their drug stashes and sucking on crack pipes. There were loud arguments and some fights. There were people wondering around like zombies talking to themselves and screaming at the air. There were drug dealers cruising by slowly in their fancy cars taking fistfuls of change and tattered bills from people who haven’t showered or changed clothes in weeks, months, or even years. All rationality would say that as I experienced this dark scene, I would feel hopeless for these people or even triggered by my own past. That wasn’t the case though.
Yes, I did think back on the days when I would spend night after night with a needle in my arm and a crack pipe in my mouth. I did remember how much I hated myself and wanted to die or disappear. I remembered the sound of the voices of those demons that compelled me to seek comfort and sanity in any and all drugs I could get my hands on, and simultaneously told me that I had no business being alive because all I could bring myself to care about was those drugs. I remembered how completely hopeless that felt and I felt deep empathy for these people who were now surrounding me. But the Lord didn’t let me stay in that hopeless mindset for long.
The Lord reminded me of the people he put in my life to help guide me out of that hell. He reminded me of the way he came in when I needed him the most and shut up the voices of those demons. He reminded me that he gave me freedom even though I had done terrible things. He reminded me of how much he loved me through all of my years of darkness and he reminded me that he was right there with these people as well.
Immediately the sense of hopelessness left and the Holy Spirit compelled me to pray (out loud in tongues) as I walked through the crowd. I declared freedom over God’s beloved children and watched as those demons playing on their human jungle gyms stopped and backed up a few steps. I saw bits of clarity come over the faces in the crowd and I heard people speak of times in their lives they had been in relationship with the Lord. I heard people ask for prayers for the shame to leave them. I heard people ask for prayers for freedom. It was beautiful. It was joyful. It was full of hope. Jesus was right there in that crowd.
I wish I could say that Holy Spirit blew through the crowd like the freakin Pentecost and freed everyone on that street in a heartbeat. Man, that would have been super cool! That’s not what happened though. There was no mass exodus from seemingly hopeless lives. What did happen was we got to have conversations with people and hear about their lives. We got to pray with people and ask the Lord to protect them and help them through the temptation. My group even got to talk to a guy who had tried multiple times to stay clean for 10 days strait so he could enter the rehab program, but failed every time he had tried. He asked us to pray strength over him and said he was going to come this Sunday to talk to us and give it another try. That’s GLORY people!! A man with a full bag of cocaine in his lap and a pipe in his hand was interested in leaving it behind for something better. In my experience people don’t even ponder stopping their drug habit until they are at least out of drugs. We’re going to call that a win! Please join me in praying that he has the strength to show up on Sunday. His name is John.
Even in the darkest of places, the Lord is right there. Even when circumstances feel hopeless, there is always hope. Even when the voices are so loud that we can’t hear anything else, he is there speaking his love over us. He seems to keep calling me into some of the darkest places to be a shimmer of light. He seems to keep bringing me to the hopeless with a message of hope. He seems to keep putting me in places full of people who are stuck in all forms of bondage to share my story of freedom. He seems to keep sending me to the people who feel the most unloved to tell them that they are born to be loved. Please pray for me tomorrow evening as I will be sharing my story with 75-100 homeless drug addicts. Please pray that Holy Spirit speaks through me and that some hearts are softened when I speak of the love of the Father, which is the most compelling force in all of creation. If you would like to partner with me on this journey, there is a link to my support account at the top of the page. I’m almost halfway to being fully funded for this trip and would be honored to have you join my support team. I pray a blessing of hope over each and everyone who is reading this blog. Whatever there is in your life that may seem hopeless, these same concepts apply to you as well. God created you to be loved by him and that love doesn’t change regardless of what you have done or been through. There is always hope. Love Y’all!!!
