Have you ever been were the sun doesn’t shine? It’s dark… damp… and gloomy…
On Thursday, I went to where the sun never shines…
For the last couple years, we devoted (without much success) the month of November to bringing in new students… This month we’re going to the streets once a week to invite girls to come to classes on Fridays… On Thursday, Nelly (an El Jordán student, made 4 banana cakes to share with her friends on the streets), Gladys (our volunteer whose physical handicaps don’t get in the way of her huge heart…), Wilma (who came along to hold Marlee) and I went to the streets…
Our first stop – a drainage canal under a major intersection… Who would guess that in those shadows a couple dozen people made their home???… little girl’s clothes were drying out in the open … My heart was sad… it meant Miriam/Lidia was in hidden in the darkness…with her 5 year old Dayana…
Nelly and I climbed/slid down the inclined edge of the canal… As our eyes adjusted to the shadows we could make out piles of garbage… and equally scattered, people lying here and there… A few struggled to sit or stand up to acknowledge our entrance… others completely ignored us… a few, without taking the glue away from their noses, raised their eyes a bit to say hi…
In the middle of the “living area” was Liliana… sitting on a piece of filthy cardboard… not even a shadow of who she used to be when she came to El Jordan with her huge, contagious smile and jovial spirit… She winced as I lightly touched her arm… I didn’t notice her bruises on time… Her “partner” stayed low in the shadows… obviously not liking that Liliana was talking to us…
Lidia was hiding behind a little curtain… not that she was really “hiding”… she wanted to be looked for… asked for… cared for… As soon as I asked for her, she rushed out to give me a rib-breaking hug… Dayana was farther “in” the tunnel… having her nap… There was only one other girl – maybe 13 or 14…
In Bolivia, street kids like these are called “moles”… the animals that live underground…in darkness… where the sun doesn’t shine…
We invited them “up”… to where Wilma and Gladys were waiting… Liliana came, hobbling, limping… ignoring the threats from her boyfriend that he would beat her… We showed them the things they could learn at El Jordan and invited them to come to class the following day… Nelly shared the banana cake she had made… and we went on to our next “stop”…
Liliana, Lidia and the others went back into the canal, under the intersection… into the gloomy darkness… where the sun doesn’t shine… Sigh…
PLEASE pray with me for these precious ones… oh… that one day, they could live in Light!
Many are asking, "Who can show us any good?"
Let the light of your face shine upon us (and on them…), O LORD.
Psalm 4:6
Light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the upright in heart…
Psalm 97:11
We continued on to the place I always take “Christmas on the Streets”… I recognized an older prostitute sitting under a tree… She motioned up a side street… the other girls were all in a “meeting”…
We crossed the busy avenue, onto the median where we saw some street kids… We met Mercedes for the first time… with her little girl… She was hanging out with “Gordito” (Doña Gorda’s middle son), “Cadaver” and another guy…
We sat down on the grass to chat with Karina, Estrella and her little daughter Blanca… Estrella, probably in her early twenties, is basically immobile because she is so weak with tuberculosis… She couldn’t walk to the “meeting” so Karina stayed behind to accompany her…
This famous “meeting”? They were having ELECTIONS! – choosing the “president” of their “corner”!!!
We were about to share Nelly’s banana bread when the meeting must have gotten out… because a whole line of girls came walking towards us… One of them was Alison… for those of you who have REALLY, REALLY good memories of my letters from years ago – this is the third sister from “the 6 sisters...” or “Laura and her sisters” (6 sisters that grew up together… while their mom was on the streets) Alison must be 14 or 15 now… pregnant with her second baby… living on the streets… forearms covered with scars from self-inflicted cuts… marks of deep pain and desperation…
While we were on the median, a lady from some non-Christian project came up to the girls to remind them of their outing to the pool the next day… Inside me my heart sunk… who’d want to come to El Jordán instead of the pool on such a hot and sticky day??? I’d love to go to a pool… I told the girls we would totally understand if they couldn’t come on Friday to El Jordan… that we’d be waiting for them the following Friday…
We were on our way back to the car… when we met up with the new “president”… still giddy with having won… she came up to me and hugged me tight… they call her “Soledad”… I know her as “Pura”… Liliana’s sister… who I’ve known since she was just a little kid…
Well… I honestly didn’t expect many (if any) girls to show up for classes the following day… Estrella phoned us from the streets… and we sent a taxi to pick her up… Lidia brought Liliana in a taxi as well because she can barely walk… let alone climb on a bus… In the end we had 10 girls come out…
Coming to El Jordan for one little class isn’t much… but its something… and we’ll continue to pray that God will soften their hearts… and draw them back to El Jordan where they can hear His Word…
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.
Isaiah 9:2
May the Light reach… even where the sun doesn’t shine…
We go back to the streets tomorrow afternoon to invite the girls back for class on Friday… please pray…
Thank YOU…
Only because HE is faithful…
Corina for Marco… Keiden and Marlee…