Here in Puerto Barrios we’ve been able to do a little of everything: door to door evangelism, the orphanage, the ‘slums’, construction, churches, and the bar/ port districts, etc. In my opinion it’s actually the perfect way to have started the race!
Last night was the first time our team got to experience basically what is the red light district here in town. As we planned for our time here, we felt that we should get some roses w/ Deuteronomy 31:6 attached to hand out to the women that God led us to.
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them,
for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you”
When we got to the bars we split up into three different groups and walked around as we felt led. My group visited a couple bars where we handed out a couple roses, but then we felt like we were kind of drifting aimlessly so we ATL-ed (Ask The Lord) it up and asked for clues on where we should go and who we should talk to. Dawn was given the direction we were supposed to go, Cara felt like she was supposed to leave bibles around as well as give a rose to a little girl, and I saw the color purple, a pepsi advertisement under a light, and some stars. And so, off we went.
As we walked down the street we continued leaving roses at places we felt led to, like a phone booth and a stairway. On one corner there was a food stand where the young woman working there kept looking over at us… I felt that she was supposed to a rose, and it turned out she had a purple shirt and was right beside the pepsi advertisement I had seen. As we left there, Emily felt like we were supposed to leave one in an abandoned hostel- looking building so as a team we went up there and then prayed over it.
Our biggest story from that night though came right in the middle of our time. We had been walking along and all of a sudden came to a stop at an intersection. A few feet away there was this white car with little kids in it and one little girls standing outside it. We all felt that this was the little girl Cara was supposed to give the rose to… she ended up giving it to her mom, who also had a purple shirt on! As we were standing there waiting on her, I looked up and realized we were under a sign that had the stars on it. At that exact moment this woman walked by and as we said hello she broke down crying.
Her name was Palluella, and she was an alcoholic struggling to keep her marriage together and care for her two year old son that has some sort of brain damage. As we handed her the rose, she started weeping telling us she was tired of drinking and wanted God to help heal her marriage and her son.
As I stood there listening to her story and seeing her pain, my heart broke. I prayed for Palluella. I prayed for the other girls and women we had come across. I prayed for the roses we left behind and for the people that would come across them later. I prayed that God would use these roses and the truth attached to them to break through the grips of darkness that permeate the lives of His children… that these roses would be anointed with His love that would completely set them free. And I prayed that ultimately…
He would trade His beauty for their pain
