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It has been nine months since I started my internship here, and there are many things that I am grateful for during this time. The Lord has protected me and helped me during my service here. I am very thankful that the Lord has done many things in my life through the people that are around me. I am also very thankful that I am learning to listen, to see, and to understand more of what people need.
One day, when I was attending church online, there was a missionary speaking named Jim Yost. He said in his sermon, “Do not come to a ministry trying to be a savior, but come empty handed and try to learn about what people actually need.” I was very struck by his words. What touched me? The concept of not coming as a savior.
When I first came to this place, there was only one thing that I asked of the Lord: Lord, show me what you want me to do. When I was praying to the Lord, the Lord showed me a very clear picture: Jesus was standing and holding my hand, like a father holds the hand of his child. Jesus was standing on a road, looking at the road and holding my hand. At that moment, I realized what the Lord wanted from me: it turns out the Lord loves the area where he was standing [a particular part of our slum community]. In this place, there are people with a variety of different backgrounds, youth using drugs, involved in prostitution, drinking, fighting, dropping out of school, and coming from broken homes.
I did not know how I could try to reach out to this area, but I praised God that He opened the way for me. There are two young women that teach at House of Hope, and they come from this area. Through them, the way was opened; they helped me to meet a lot of young teenagers from this particular part of the slum community. To make a long story short, we finally started meeting once a week to work our way through a Peacemakers curriculum. I’m not sure why, but when I am with this group, I really enjoy it—especially hearing the girls’ stories. They are good kids and I am very thankful to be able to meet with them. I did not want our gatherings to end, and kept coming up with ideas of how to gather together.
But not all was easy. At one point, I felt like giving up. I felt like I was not able to do what God wanted me to do, I cried and surrendered to God. I told the Lord, “Lord, I am a failure. I am not able to do this ministry. I cannot accomplish anything. I surrender these kids to you—it is so hard to reach them. I give them to you, as I fail.” I felt like I no longer wanted to lead the girls’ gathering. But as I was praying and crying, I suddenly saw another image—this time very clearly—and the Lord spoke to me: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.”
As I heard these words, I saw once again the image of the Lord standing with me, holding my hand. But this time there was a house. The house was like a prison with children inside of it; they were imprisoned by economic difficulties, violence, disappointment, traumas, and broken hearts. After that, the Lord opened the house and brought the children outside, and the Lord moved them into a new house. In this new house was Love, and Joy, and Peace. The Lord healed them.
I took up a pencil and a piece of paper and started to draw. The Lord said to me as I was praying, “These youth are my students—my disciples—and their names are written on my heart.” What surprised me from these words was that as I counted the youth, there were twelve. There were three youth that I did not know, but the Lord told me that these were his disciples in this place.
When I finished praying, I realized that the Lord is at work amongst these youth. I do not know the future, but I want to hold on to the belief that through these youth, they will reach out and help others in their own neighborhood. At the moment when I felt like giving up—felt like a failure—the Lord helped me and was really with me. And I believe that the Lord is with them, too. I always tell the Lord that I want to meet him. And the Lord is actually present every day, He is standing on the road, smiling.
Please pray for us. We are going to begin studying some Bible stories with this group of girls. Pray that the Lord would give me courage and that the youth would want to listen to the stories.
*Name changed to protect privacy
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