Dear Family and Friends,
This is my first prayer letter of 2008, so I want to begin by saying that I hope that your Christmas and New Year were exciting, fun, full of Love and Joy as you celebrated the birth of our Savior. I spent Christmas and the New Year eating and watching the most amazing fireworks show I have ever seen. The whole city of Lima lit up at midnight on Christmas Eve and then again on New Year's Eve. It was amazing. It is now the middle of summer and I am sweating like crazy as I write this letter. I hope you guys are enjoying some cold winter nights by a cozy hot fireplace.
I recently had to write a report for the WMF board in the states and I wanted to share it with you. In the report I had to explain how I was emotionally and spiritually over the last year. I hope you find it interesting.
Emotionally: This has been a very emotional year for me and the community with many ups and down. The year started with lots of joy as we welcomed Natalia Langley into the family. That joy was quickly followed by lots of sorrow as we unexpectedly had to say goodbye to two Peruvian staff Samuel and Techy as they moved to Israel. These months were a difficult time for me. We lost Samuel and Techy, Brian and Rachel were on paternity leave and Sebastian was on vacation, leaving a much depleted staff to carry out the work load. These were also my first few months as coordinator of visits and I remember feeling like I had no idea what I was doing. With the lack of male staff at this time, I remember feeling pressure to step up on street nights, which at this time were very crazy. I remember two nights during this time that had major effects on me. One night had a fight between one of our older youth and his partner and the other night was a fight between a group of our youth and some young men from another area. Both of these events had emotional effects on me. I doubted my ability to minister and interact with the youth and was constantly watching for fights. For a couple of months each night I went out I would have fear and anxiety causing lots of stress. One event helped relieve some of that stress. A few months after the fight, between the young man and his partner, the young man came to me asking for forgiveness for his actions. He took responsibility for what happened that night and explained how he wanted to change. After forgiving the young man I could see how God used such an ugly event to bring about His mercy, love, and forgiveness. The fear and anxiety left with time as I continued strengthen my faith and trusted in God's presence with us on the streets.
In May I found myself grieving for the loss of my Grandfather. My Grandfather was a major inspiration in my life and not being home with my family during this time of loss was difficult and challenging. I do not regret my decision to stay in Lima, but it was hard being so far away. There was healing later in the year when I returned home after the staff retreat.
There were also times of peace and great joy this year. The staff retreat was a great time for me to stop and seek Jesus. God also showed His faithfulness as we purchased the new ministry center here in Lima. There have been many other ups and downs emotionally this year and God has been faithful to me and walked me through them. One thing that has made a difference for me both emotionally and spiritually this year is that I have made more time to be silent. I have taken a number of silent days or half days to go be alone in a park and listen for the whisper of Jesus.
In 2008 I hope to make this a much more frequent habit.
Spiritually: There have been a couple events this year that have opened my eyes to the spiritual warfare that takes place in our lives. For years I have believed that there are demons in this world, but I have never seen or experienced anything that I can say was a demon or spiritual warfare. Twice in 2007 I was in the presence of some kind of evil spirit. The first experience has to do with the young man from the story above where he was in a fight with his partner. That night this young man was out of control and there came a point that the only thing that was between him and his partner was me. The anger and hate that was in his eyes and the fact that 4 strong men were trying to hold him back and he was still gaining ground on them makes me believe that an evil spirit was inside him. I have never seen such hurt and anger in my life. The other incident took place with a young man (age 18) that now lives with me and my other roommates. One night while Sebastian (Peru staff) and I were on the streets, a demon manifested itself in our young friend in our home. Mike (age 37), our other roommate and closest friend of this young man, took our friend to his church and with his preach prayed over this young man. After the streets, Sebastian and I went over to the church to see what was going on. The preacher and Mike were unable to cast out this evil spirit, so the preacher and Mike made the decision to meet with the young man on Sunday, so they could fast and be better prepared. It was around 2:00 am on Saturday morning so Sebastian, Mike, Erick (Peru staff), and I stayed with our young friend all night in the church and in the morning took him to his mother's home which is in a poor part of Lima. This young man had a difficult childhood, he grew up in different homes for kids and his relationship with his family has been difficult due to alcoholism and other difficulties. To shorten this story, everything turned out fine; the young man accepted Christ on Sunday and is now getting treatment from doctors and the evil spirit has left. We have opened our home to him and have made a commitment to walk with this young man for the next year. But for me, that night was very disturbing. I have never experienced anything like it. This evil spirit could sense fear in us, it would yell lies and scream at us as we would read scripture and pray. It would claim control over our friend and say that God did not love our friend. I could visually see and hear the struggle that was going on in my friend as the evil spirit fought to destroy him. I share this story because it was a wakeup call for me. I now have a better understanding of the spiritual warfare that goes on for the lives of our friends. It is something very real. These events have made me stronger and more aware of the spiritual battle that is going on around us. It has encouraged me to seek and listen for the Lord. I am learning to be more sensitive and obedient to the Holy Spirit.
As for the community, I feel that we have had some struggles, but we are in a very good place. I feel that God is unifying us at this moment. We recently had a retreat where we talked about boundaries and communication. I believe that we were all open and honest during this time and learned a lot from one another. We are learning to better communicate with one another and be vulnerable and speak the truth with one another. I feel my relationships have grown stronger over the year with the people in this community, especially with Sebastian my roommate. We had a rocky time the last few months of 2007 because of a lack of communication between us, but we have learned to be honest and open with one another creating a better atmosphere in the home and workplace. I am so thankful for each person that God has brought into this comm
unity. This community truly is my family away from home.
My relationships with the youth we serve have grown, specifically with the group of youth that are back in their homes. Between coordinating visits and participating in Celebrations (a ministry that celebrates youth that have returned home) I have created stronger bonds with some of the youth and with their kids. I have completely fallen in love with the children of these youth. I live for the moments when I get to chase, hug, and play with these little kids. They bring so much joy into this world even in the very darkest of places.
Sebastian and I have started opening our home to some of the younger youth (12-17 years old) that we work with. Every few weeks we invite a couple of youth over to spend the afternoon playing cards, watching TV, or going on bike rides. Having them in our home opens up different opportunities for them to relax, take down their guard and be themselves. This group of young boys really seems to be open and hungry to learn more about Jesus. It is an honor for me to know them.
One thing that I am excited about for 2008, besides all of the changes that will happen now that we have our new center, is in our visits ministry. This year we will be working to connect the youth that are in their homes with local churches in their areas. Some of the youth come to the churches that we attend, but it is very hard and is really impossible for some of the youth that have kids to travel that far for church, so we will be searching for and hopefully connecting these youth with a church in their local area where they can find support, love, and encouragement from people that live in similar situations.
For me 2007 was a difficult year, but I am blessed from the challenges that it brought. I give thanks to the Lord for putting me here and allowing me to serve among and with such amazing people, and I look forward to what the Lord has for me here in 2008.
Romans 8: 28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His Purpose.
Love
David Smith
Belisario Flores 841 3er Piso
Lince, Lima
Peru