“Let the little children come to me”

Facing injustice with Jesus

On Saturdays, Reindom has a ministry program in Santa Marta where they put on a program for the niños similar to Vacation Bible School. We host the program at the local escuala (school) for several hours. It contains a play with a lesson, songs and dances, and different activities to reinforce the lesson.

The other Saturday, the theme was on injustice. Several of my teammates and members of Reindom acted out a story where there was a race, and the main character loses because the other racers are cheating, and there is a corrupt judge that overlooks the whole thing. The main character gets frustrated and asks “will there always be injustice in the world.” He goes in a time machine to the future, to see if there will be a time with no injustice, and sees the coming of the Lord. He sees that Jesus will come to make all things right, and that He is the perfect judge. He sees all injustice, and will right every wrong.

After the play, we did an exercise with the kids, where they were asked to draw what they thought was unjust about the world. Some of the kids drew themselves getting yelled at, or their moms getting cursed out or beaten by their dads. Some drew themselves being mistreated. That was hard, and still is hard to swallow, and it hurts my heart that these children have seen so much of the cruelty and brokenness of the world at so young an age.

Techo Fuego

This past Friday, we had 19 of the older niños stay overnight at our ministry house so that they could leave early the next morning to go to a weekend camp where they were going to hear the gospel, play games, and run an obstacle course. That night, we all had dinner together, had an arm-wrestling competition, and then went onto the roof for a bonfire and a time of prayer and worship.

It was a powerful moment. I’ve never seen kids so moved and engrossed in worship for hours with tears streaming down their faces. The Spirit was truly moving. My team and I got the privilege to get to pray over them throughout this time. As I was laying hands on each kid and beginning to pray for them, I felt the Spirit directing my prayer to pray for specific things, and to give me words of encouragement to share with each child. And then I just got to hold them. The kids love hugs, and I try to be intentional with hugging them because many don’t get that affection at home.

What I love about my translation app is that it keeps track of everything that I translate, so I have a record of what God gave to me to share with the children:

“Jesus loves you. He is always with you. He will never leave you. There’s nothing you can do to lose His love. No matter what happens, you can always call on Him. You can bring all your hurt to Him. Lay it down at His feet.” (Jesus de ama. El siempre esta contigo. El nunca te dejara. No hay nada que puedes hacer para perder su amor. Pase lo que pase, siempre puedes llamarlo. Puedes traerle todo tu dolor. Ponlo a sus pies.)

“You are a daughter of the most high God. You are a princess. You are special and precious to Him. He loves you so much. And you can talk to your father anytime about anything.” (Eres hija del Dios altisimo. Eres una princesa. Usted es especial y precioso para El. El te quiere mucho y puedes hablar con tu padre en cualquier momento sobre cualquier cosa.)

“Jesus is always with you. He will never leave you. He loves you and He will always love you. You can never lose His love. Whenever you felt alone and unseen, Jesus saw you. You are so precious to Him. Whenever you feel sad, come and talk to your father. You can always talk to God. He always hears you. He wants to talk with you.” (Jesus esta siempre contigo. El nunca te dejara. El te ama y siempre te amara. Nunca puedes perder su amor. Cada vez que te sentiste solo e invisible, Jesus te vio. Eres tan precioso para El. Cada vez que te sientas triste, ven y habla con tu padre. Siempre puedes hablar con Dios. El siempre te escucha. El quiere hablar contigo.)

It was powerful to see God pouring out His love on these kids, and starting to see walls come down. I pray that God will continue to reveal Himself to them, that they can stand in unshakable confidence in who they are in Christ (that they are a child of God, that they are perfectly loved by their Father, that they never had to earn His love, and that they can never lose His love). I pray that they know that their Father is with them in every situation. I pray that they can lean into His loving arms, and can cry out to Him in their loneliest and most difficult moments and experience His perfect peace and comfort.

I also have the great joy in sharing that at the weekend camp, four of the kids gave their lives to Christ! Praise the Lord!

“Daughter”

One of the older girls, P*, in Santa Marta recently accepted Jesus! She’s so shy, and usually hangs back or off to the side, but I love her so much. My friend Kevin and I have been trying to be intentional to share bible stories with her, because she really doesn’t know the bible at all. The other day, I shared with her (through interpretation by Kevin – shout out to Kevin because he’s so awesome!) the story about Jairus’ daughter and the woman with the issue of blood, because it’s become one of my favorite stories.

After reading it, I told her that it was the woman with the issue of blood who stood out most to me in this story. She would have been considered unclean in her culture, and would not have been allowed in the community. She also wouldn’t have been able to go into the temple of God for twelve years. But, when all hope seemed lost, she heard that Jesus was there in her town. The man who had healed so many people. Maybe He could heal her too. So, even though she wasn’t allowed in community, she snuck in, and touched the hem of His robe. And she was healed! And what was Jesus’ response? To turn and ask who touched Him. Not that He was going to condemn her, but because He wanted to heal her truly and fully. She had been made physically well, but He wanted her to know that she didn’t have to sneak around anymore. She was no longer separated from God; she was no longer unclean. Now, she could stand before God with confidence, because He had cleansed her of her sins. He called her “daughter.”

And I told P, “He calls you daughter.” Jesus fully takes away our sins, and adopts us into His family. We no longer have to be afraid, but we can come before God in confidence because we are his precious children and He loves us. Nothing can separate us from His love. He wants relationship with us.

*Name not disclosed