To reach someones heart, meet them at their feet.
To reach someones heart, meet them at their feet.
A certain prison we have been working in is so far in the middle of nowhere that most of the prisoners never get visitors. The conditions are horrendous. It is considered one of the most dangerous in the region and when we first approached the director, he said there was no way we would be allowed to get in because they could not secure our safety. After a long time of explaining to him what we do, who we are and by the mercy of God, the director finally allowed us to enter.
When we came in with our all our equipment to perform, an entire swat team went in ahead of us with weapons drawn to sweep every area and cell, it was really incredible. God gave us the grace, wisdom and most of all compassion to reach the men. The smell was so terrible because there is no system for the sewage. I know this can seem distant and irrelevant, but try to imagine if your brother, son or father had to deal with that every day. If you or I were born into another life, we could easily make a mistake that would result in us being where they are. No human being should have to live in these conditions, most dog shelters are in better shape. The prisoners looked so weak, thin and sick. Many were holding their heads from the dizzy feeling the mold gives you. A lot of these guys are in here for petty crimes and then once they are in they just disappear in broken "justice system". My family and I are working in the prison to install pipes for a septic system.
When we came in with our all our equipment to perform, an entire swat team went in ahead of us with weapons drawn to sweep every area and cell, it was really incredible. God gave us the grace, wisdom and most of all compassion to reach the men. The smell was so terrible because there is no system for the sewage. I know this can seem distant and irrelevant, but try to imagine if your brother, son or father had to deal with that every day. If you or I were born into another life, we could easily make a mistake that would result in us being where they are. No human being should have to live in these conditions, most dog shelters are in better shape. The prisoners looked so weak, thin and sick. Many were holding their heads from the dizzy feeling the mold gives you. A lot of these guys are in here for petty crimes and then once they are in they just disappear in broken "justice system". My family and I are working in the prison to install pipes for a septic system.
We always want to bring the men a snack or treat of some kind but to get anything in this large of a quantity is expensive. So we came up with the idea of making large batches of pop corn (since its cheep) and bagging it into 300 or 400 bags. It takes a lot of time on a small stove and obviously in the big picture, its nothing in comparison to the immense needs they have but at least for a moment, it really cheers them up. We also give out reading material, Bibles, and inspiring posters as well as care packets to various men. When they are brought down from their cells to the court where we are set up, they have no idea what they are coming to see. When someone greets them with a smile, a bag of pop corn and some cool music, they relax a bit and let their wall down.
We were able to communicate so much to them and really touch them in a big way. Sometimes people say that you can't really change a life in a short encounter and you would have to be continually working with the same people to make any real difference. But if you look at the life of Jesus, He constantly met with individuals for a short time, sometimes just once and changed them forever. Look at the women at the well (Jn.4), the thief on the cross who exchanged one sentence with Jesus and found eternal life, and so many others. Anyway, its just encouraging to think that even one moment of touching another persons life with the reality of the Gospel, can change their life forever. I know that we leave these men and women with something solid and more lasting than any physical thing we could give them. If you make a sincere effort to reach out and care about another, you just do not know how far that could go to pulling someone back from falling over the edge.
Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve (Mk.10:45). He emptied Himself of the privileges He had as God, and chose to serve wicked selfish men. He met the disciples at their feet, and touched their hearts. How much more should we serve our fellow brothers and sisters and come down in order to bring them up. The only way to effectively communicate the Fathers great love, is to be a servant.
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| Everyone here knows a cultural dance and are taught it when they are kids. When we turn on the song the all recognize it, start singing and remember growing up with it. I enjoy dancing with the prisoners because it means so much to them, (even though they are way better at the steps then I am). |
We visited a women prison last week and did multiply performances there. The conditions were better as in cleaner, but the prison was in a city way in the middle of no where and looked like an abandoned warehouse. Again, they never get visitors because they are so far out here and all the women are very sad and depressed. In the pictures above you can see an act we do about soil and seeds. Certain soil is better than other soil for the cultivation of plants. There once was an island that burned to the ground but then from the ashes a vine grew that contained the sweetest grapes ever making a delicious wine. Certain conditions are required for seeds to grow. My brother and I do a type of magic routine while my sister shares about a seed. We use this to show them that even in a difficult situation like prison, they can grow and what seems like hard soil, could prove to be fruitful if they yield, and let their "seed" break (Jn12:24). God uses suffering to break us and draw us closer to Him if we choose to yield, to be humble and to learn from Him.
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| The women on the right has has been in prison 17 years and has 24 more to serve. She was forced into drug trafficking to feed her family and was never even able to say goodbye to her five children.  |
There are a lot of dogs in the world!!!!!!
Changing subjects a second, want to hear a funny story? Ok, so as I have discussed in past posts, a constant problem in third world countries is trying to get sleep when there are so many dogs all around barking relentlessly into the wee hours of the night. We tend to really only sleep good every other night from pure exhaustion. Its usually the little yappers that drive me nuts, but then there was this real loud deep bark that kept my family and I awake every night. So one day, my dad and brothers waited till the dog got going and then set out to find it and see if by any miracle they could solve the problem.
When everyone around has a dog in their back yard, plus tuns of strays, it is hard to find a specific bark, but when they came to a certain house, they heard the evil barking and the whole block erupted like a rock concert from hell. Ok so problem one solved, found the dog. Now problem two, shut the dog up. They knocked on the owners door and waited as a very old lady, and very tall man came out. The barking was so loud that no one could hear anyone and they were shouting at the top of their lungs. Finally they realized that the man is deaf and the women is almost deaf. She matter of factly informs them that a liter of kittens lives under the porch and keeps the dogs going, a few drunks live across the street who also keep the dogs going, and she considers her yard a refuge for any stray dogs and goes out of her way to find them and take them in and of course, obviously none of the dogs get along. So long story short, if we can find a home for the drunks, round up and find a home for the kittens, build up her fence so the dogs can't see out to bark at anything going by, and shut down her dog refuge idea, we should be in good shape. Or we could invest in some ear plugs. This probably does not sound that funny written, but if you saw the whole scene and were as tired as we were at midnight, you would have cracked up. Its probably my third funniest dog story. Second being the time in Peru when a guy offered to hire a hit man to take out a certain stray that someone kept feeding outside our window (seriously, he was like, "No, I don't know who feeds the dog, but I know a guy that knows a guy... that can, you know, take care of it"). And the number one funniest story I wrote about before, also in Peru. We went over to ask a nice lady if she could possibly shut up her not so nice dog. As we walk up to the door, a guy is walking toward us carrying a suitcase, lamp and most of his belongings. He has huge bags under his eyes and is stumbling along exhausted. As he overhears us ask about the dog he shouts out, "THE DOG?! She won't shut up her dog! She says she will, but she won't! It barks on and on ALL NIGHT and then, if thats not enough, she has a rooster and the rooster keeps the dog going. I am done..leaving" Well so much for the hope of silence there.
When everyone around has a dog in their back yard, plus tuns of strays, it is hard to find a specific bark, but when they came to a certain house, they heard the evil barking and the whole block erupted like a rock concert from hell. Ok so problem one solved, found the dog. Now problem two, shut the dog up. They knocked on the owners door and waited as a very old lady, and very tall man came out. The barking was so loud that no one could hear anyone and they were shouting at the top of their lungs. Finally they realized that the man is deaf and the women is almost deaf. She matter of factly informs them that a liter of kittens lives under the porch and keeps the dogs going, a few drunks live across the street who also keep the dogs going, and she considers her yard a refuge for any stray dogs and goes out of her way to find them and take them in and of course, obviously none of the dogs get along. So long story short, if we can find a home for the drunks, round up and find a home for the kittens, build up her fence so the dogs can't see out to bark at anything going by, and shut down her dog refuge idea, we should be in good shape. Or we could invest in some ear plugs. This probably does not sound that funny written, but if you saw the whole scene and were as tired as we were at midnight, you would have cracked up. Its probably my third funniest dog story. Second being the time in Peru when a guy offered to hire a hit man to take out a certain stray that someone kept feeding outside our window (seriously, he was like, "No, I don't know who feeds the dog, but I know a guy that knows a guy... that can, you know, take care of it"). And the number one funniest story I wrote about before, also in Peru. We went over to ask a nice lady if she could possibly shut up her not so nice dog. As we walk up to the door, a guy is walking toward us carrying a suitcase, lamp and most of his belongings. He has huge bags under his eyes and is stumbling along exhausted. As he overhears us ask about the dog he shouts out, "THE DOG?! She won't shut up her dog! She says she will, but she won't! It barks on and on ALL NIGHT and then, if thats not enough, she has a rooster and the rooster keeps the dog going. I am done..leaving" Well so much for the hope of silence there.
We were invited to visit a hospital for children battling cancer. We performed outside for a small group of kids that were able to come out along with their parents and nurses. Afterward we went room to room in the hospital and visited the kids that are bed-ridden with our costumes, puppets and magic. These kids are so precious and some of them have been in the hospital for a long time. One young girl, about 17 was there because her niece has leukemia and she is staying with her. She started weeping in my sisters arms and said that her nephew, (her nieces brother) had just been shot and killed and she did not know how to tell his sister. She needed to be held and comforted and to know that she has a Father who will look after her. It reminded me of Is.61 where he says, "to comfort all who mourn..."
Have you ever seen someone make huge bubbles (like 3 to 5ft)? It is really cool and its also fun to make them. My brother and I are really good at it and kids just love them (well, popping them). If you ever want something cool to do with your family, look online about how to make giant bubbles and you can learn how with stuff you probably have in the house.
It was such a privilege to hold, dance with and love these children and touching to see their sadness slowly turn into a smile then a laugh. I had been able to get a bunch of lightly used stuffed animals donated from thrift stores in the States to bring. I had enough to give each child one and they really meant a lot to them. My brother also designed a coloring book with an inspiring story and a company donated crayons to us so they each got this as well. The parents were so grateful for our words of hope and encouragement and many had tears in their eyes as they thanked us. Afterward when we went room to room, I saw a little boy crying as he got injections and he was tightly hugging a white bear we just gave him. It was the only thing he had in his whole room.
The Chess House donated some beautiful chess boards to our family and I had the privilege of giving them to some of the kids at the hospital. The girl in the picture below is 14 and deaf. The nurses told me that here favorite thing to do is play chess both by herself, and with other kids and staff members. They said she is really good. I am in the frog by the way, and it sure was cool to see these kids smile through their pain and of course, want to hug and take selfies with the big adorable frog. I think the game of chess can teach us so much. Life is a battle at times, and we have to have a strategy, a mind set to conquer, to overcome and to win. If we just go with the flow, we will be defeated. Hope is the first move that leads to victory.
Here, it is the end of summer, beginning of fall so there is a fruit market with delicious cheep vegetables and fruit once a week. On that note, I have decided to release my top secret mango salsa recipe for anyone who wants to try it. So carefully follow this sophisticated Gordon Ramsey type recipe:
Chop two large mangos, one red pepper, half to three quarters of a red onion, a decent butch of cilantro, and two avocados. Mix them all in a bowl, squeeze lime juice and add salt to taste. Mix together more or less the same quantity of each ingredient so it all looks good by your eye. You can add a little serrano pepper in you like it spicy or in another version you can switch the red pepper for tomato and its also awesome. Your welcome for being so specific:)
Chop two large mangos, one red pepper, half to three quarters of a red onion, a decent butch of cilantro, and two avocados. Mix them all in a bowl, squeeze lime juice and add salt to taste. Mix together more or less the same quantity of each ingredient so it all looks good by your eye. You can add a little serrano pepper in you like it spicy or in another version you can switch the red pepper for tomato and its also awesome. Your welcome for being so specific:)
Driving back from ministering in a city, this van passed us with the Irish blessing in Portuguese. Part of our heritage is Irish so the words of the Irish blessing have always been a part of us.
I originally started this blog back in Colombia both as a log of our travels, and also to maybe inspire others to go beyond the borders of routine and make an effort to genuinely care for others and live the words of Jesus, "Whatever you do to the least of My brothers, you do to Me..." (Matt.25:35). I also had a hope that the blog might be found by people who share a similar vision to bring the Gospel to the world, who have the means and might want to support our work. If you happen to know anyone who would consider helping us out and could pass this blog along, I would appreciate it. Money goes very quickly traveling and doing the kind of work we do. Life goes by so quickly. Don't let anything stop you or delay you from drawing near to the living God and obeying His words. Have the courage to meet men at their feet and you will touch their heart and the Fathers heart. Live the dream of eternal life. May God bless you all.
For now, I leave you with these words...
