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Poor Pockets. Rich Spirit.

We’ve all seen those commercials on TV about sponsoring a poor child from a different country that show tough living conditions and children running around barefoot. Never in a million years would I have thought that I’d be walking amongst such a poor community such as Los Pinos. There are homes that are smaller than the size of an average US kitchen that house a family of five. There are no separate bedrooms, but just a few mattresses put together where the entire family sleeps.

One of the street kids that I have gotten close to is named Roni. Roni is 19 and just a few months ago that kid was high as a kite 24/7 on paint thinner. By the good graces of God he found the Lord and quit the thinner. We invited him out to the farm for a week and we just really spent time hanging out and getting to know each other. He taught me some reggaeton dance moves, I showed him photos of my family and friends, and we listened to A LOT of Michael Jackson (kid loves MJ, especially Thriller). He has helped out with our outreach program in Los Pinos by reading Bible stories to the little kids. Oh and he is a great prayer warrior. I may not understand Spanish that well, but I can tell that when he prays it’s intense. Roni is part of one of the few “complete” families in Los Pinos. He has a papa and mamma, one younger brother, and two younger sisters. Sounds like a normal family right? Well, Roni’s papa is quite the drunk. From what I’ve heard his papa is also abusive when he drinks. I’ve met Roni’s papa once before and he was a nice guy when he is sober. One day while we were in Los Pinos, Roni asked me if I wanted to go see his house (Roni doesn’t speak any English, but I was able to understand him with the limited Spanish I know). I said sure and we walked up the hill to his house. Once we got there I thought in my head, “this is it?” I’ve been in college dorm rooms that are bigger than this, and you’re telling me six people live and sleep in here? Roni’s papa was there and he seemed normal and invited me to sit down on one of the mattresses. We hung out for a bit and watched and old Hulk Hogan movie on the scrambled TV. We all talked for a little bit and then we headed back. On a side note, as I was in Roni’s house, he offered me some water. I kindly declined because it wasn’t bottled water. The way the people of Los Pinos get water is that a water truck comes once or twice a week. It’s not purified water by any means, and I think it’s actually water from the river. It’s just dirty water and there was no way I would’ve been able to drink it and get not sick. Anyways, when the water truck comes, people bring buckets down from their homes and purchase the water. They bring the water up and keep the water in one of those 55 gallon drums. I’ve actually looked in one of those drums of water and I seriously could not see the bottom because it was so cloudy. Sad situation, I know…..
(Me and Ron-Dawg)
 
One of the biggest steps we’ve taken this month is that we’ve been part of Tony’s “One Family at a Time” program. This program focuses on meeting basic needs of a family by blessing them with food and what else is needed. Most importantly we want the families to know that these are not hand-outs from North American Gringos (and one Chino Gringo), but are gifts from our God. The first family we are working with is the three boys we’ve been hanging out with and their mother Lilian. The situation with Lilian is that she lives 20 minutes away from her kids in La Kennedy. She lives in a tent basically with four men next to a dump. For money she digs through the dumps to find plastic bottles. She also does the same for food sometimes. Through the tough situation she faces she absolutely LOVES the Lord! When we take her to church on Sundays she is absolutely incredibly during worship. She prays with such a passion for the Lord it’s just so amazing to see someone in tough a tough situation still have so much LOVE for the Lord. Poor Pockets. Rich Spirit.

Lilian’s Plastic House
 

As previously mentioned in my last blog, the boys are hungry and go without food for days. We have developed a plan to bless this family with food. Our plan is to bless them with:

·         1 Pound of Rice Per Day

·         1 Pound of Beans Per Day

·         20 Tortillas

BUT, in order to receive these blessings from the Lord, the boys must:

·         Attend school 4 days a week (They have permission on Fridays to miss school to come and work on The Farm

·         NO more drugs, especially paint thinner

·         Continue to follow Christ and attend church every Sunday as a family

We asked each individual family member if they would agree and every single member happily agreed to those terms. Lilian also shared part of her testimony with us. I didn’t understand much since it was all in Spanish, but part of what I got was that she had the chance a while back to give her boys away. She was going through a really tough situation with the boys’ father and just couldn’t handle it anymore. But she knew the right thing to do was to continue loving and trying to care for the boys. At one point I her say something about a pistol, but I didn’t want to even know about that. As part of the project for this family, they will be blessed with a new house which will be in same location they are at now. When asked what Lilian wanted to do with the materials of their old house (brick walls, tin roof, ect.), she told us that God told her to DONATE the items to a family that she knew that was living in a plastic house made of tarps. She stood outside the door and pointed across to another hill nearby and we could see the blue tarps of that house. Carlos was even like, yeah that family is really poor! I mean c’mon, when you have someone who is dirt poor saying that another family is even poorer, that’s got to mean something. Lastly, Lilian said that once the new house is complete, if God calls her to live back her with boys she will move back in.

Thank you to all of those who have supported me so far in this race. Your financial and prayer support has allowed me to witness LIFE CHANGING events such as new hope for families. I have already been impacted in a way indescribable and I never thought I could feel so happy in my life. I can’t imagine doing anything else but being out in the mission field right now. I also can’t imagine being sent home so early on the race due to lack of financial support. As previously mentioned I had a fallout with some support the day before I left town. The lesson learned from that was that I think I was becoming too dependent on ways of others providing for me instead of the Lord providing for me……through His ways. As of right now I need about $2,1xx to stay on the field in the next few days otherwise, well…it’s not going to be good. So again, I ask that if you or anyone you might be willing to give to the Lord and help me on this amazing journey, please pass my blog on or click on the “SUPPORT ME” link on the left hand side. Every cent counts and please know all the financial blessings go directly to the Lord. He has called me on here and has shown me that the mission field is where He wants me right now. Some of my lovely squad-mates have even created an INCREDIBLE video to help me out…..

 Thank you so so much for stopping by and taking time to read my blog. I know it was long, but since we rarely get internet a lot can build up in a week! Have a fantastic day!