Today was an amazing day as we woke up early to jump on an opportunity that Tim spoke of the night before. There is a private high school just across the street from were we are and we received an invitation to come every morning and have breakfast with the children. Most of the children at the school are from Juarez and it was amazing being able to get to meet them and hear there story. They were kids who all enjoyed music and dreams of the future. There was a feeling of being very content. We never heard one person complain about anything but they enjoyed the company of one another.
After breakfast we regrouped back at the base and headed out on the road to where we would be spending most of out day. We pulled in and were told this was the local Christian television station and we would be working on another building adjacent to it that would be used for storage of supplies and many other uses. As we walked in we were greeted and given a tour of the building and also the set where most of the programs are aired live. Its something very different to walk into a tv set with all the lights and different things that you done see behind the camera. It was just one of those cool, Ive never seen that before sorts of things. After that we went to the second building which was in really bad shape. We were cleaning and moving furniture and boxes. We had a team removing bad insulation that had gotten wet and rotted. We also had a group painting different areas of the 1st building were the tv programs were shot. We spent that time until lunch working away and you would not believe what we achieved in that place. It was completely cleaned out, sorted out and after lunch we spent a few more hours just touching things up. It was really encouraging to be a part of that project. One of the workers that was sort of directing us throughout the day I spoke with him a few times. One of the things that he spoke to me which stood out was that what we had accomplished in the one day that we were here is what they collectively have been trying to do for 6 months and could not even dent the project.
We step away from the factual things and go deeper to what God has been speaking to us. At the begging of the trip as I walked around the blocks in the neighbourhood I just began to ask God what is going on here? I was just confused because it just did not make sense to me. In Juarez there is this huge issue of murders, violence and drugs. There is poverty and a continuation of that. God began to stir my heart to see what was going on in this place. He began to speak of the potential of people being cut short; the plans God had for the people of this city. That although there were prayers rising they only went so far. There was a spirit of hopelessness in the air of this place. Our job was to bless the people around us and remove that feeling of hopelessness and show Gods hear t to the people of this place. Removing lies and replacing them with truth. We all are searching for truth, a hunger for what we are called to and created to be. And spending these few days with the people of El Paso and Juarez has shown us the humanity that is in all of Gods creation. There is a need to be loved. There is a need for community and unity. There is a hunger for the more of life. I stepped back to look at the parents of the kids as we played with their children. There heart is a heart for their children to grow up and achieve their dreams and desires of their hearts. For them to succeed and have an amazing life. I don’t understand it fully and wont until one day I will have children of my own. They smiled with joy because they live for their children. They would do anything for them and the pressure is immense. How much more so does the heavenly Father care for these little ones who are his children. How immensely does he love them and cries out against the violence and situation that these cities find themselves in.
But the Lord is at work here. The wonderful stories of faith that surround us here. We see people of faith that are a light in the dark. People who say no to the enemy and contend for the ones who cannot protect themselves. In impossible circumstance there is victory. On the verge of defeat the hero's rise up and charge in a fierce Love and passion that blinds the enemy. Light is brightest in the darkest places.
-Reubin-
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