“I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed…Nothing will be impossible for you.” – Matthew 17:20
Merry Christmas dear friends!
I write to you from Lima, Peru where I have been for two weeks in early November. In Lima they bring out the Christmas wreaths just as the weather is warming up and summer is arriving. So it is quite a different climate here.
I wish I could share just a little bit of what I'm learning here. It's hard to know where to begin. I am reminded again just how important it is to always be in prayer. To communicate with the Father, and to acknowledge the spiritual battles that accompany the physical ones.
On Tuesday night we met the teens on the streets for a couple hours of hanging out, singing, eating and talking. Suddenly, one of the boys ran over to us with his hands on his face and with another angry guy running after him.
Leaning against a wall, he kept face covered, while someone sent the angry (and drunk) boy away. Blood began to drip on the cement, forming a pool beneath the boy with his face covered. “Bloody nose?” I thought. But no, this was too much blood. Someone hailed a taxi and one of the volunteers went with him to the hospital. The kids told us he had been sliced with a piece of glass.
We saw him later that night as we were heading home, stitched up with a fresh white bandage on the side of his head above his right ear. It was a relief to see that he was okay, and even smiling. Violence on the streets is not unknown to these kids.
At the drop-in center here in Lima, I began to look at the faces of the boys. I saw so many scars. I wonder where they came from, who gave them these scars, and who have they scarred in return. I also wonder how many scars they carry that are unseen, unspoken and unknown to anyone but them.
And I am reminded how important it is to pray for these boys. There is spiritual darkness that binds them to drugs, to violence, to street life. There are so many things fighting against them, only prayer can overcome the darkness that seeks to keep them blinded and in captivity.
So pray for an exodus for these kids. One by one God takes and heals them. And Jesus commands us to have faith for them. Jesus tells us that nothing is impossible for Him. And nothing is impossible for those who have faith, even faith as small as a tiny seed.
I have been encouraged to observe how the staff here in Lima really give their hearts to these kids, how much they love them and go to great lengths to help them get off the streets. Pray that God would continue to be with them and that He would call more people who would be willing to have their hearts broken and poured out for street kids who need Christ's love and healing so much. This is a need here in Lima as well as in Galati, Romania and in many cities around the world.
In early January I will be home in New Hampshire and Massachusetts for two weeks and hope to see many of you. Pray that my time home will be all that God wants it to be. Thanks.
Keep praying,
Rachel