Colombia

"We spent a whole day in a kind of soup kitchen in a poor neighborhood that aims to keep kids in school.  We have presented at a few churches, and among other things again went out onto the streets wednesday night to pass out hot chocolate and bread to the homeless and some very poor kids.  It was really neat walking into the same places and having the kids say your name, or being able to joke around and play soccer with some homeless young guys who remember us from last week.  It really speaks to them that we treat them with value even as they have their glue bottles in hand as we talk to them and interact with them.  This week, Kimberly met a homeless man named Mario.  He was high, and had a scruffy beard, and as she prayed for him her heart broke as she realized she had no idea how to pray for or help this man.  She and the Colombian staff person she was with shared with him, and told him about a park ministry we would be doing on Friday night.  He let them pray for him and said that he really wanted to change.  On Friday, a man came up to me and asked me if I remembered him from Wednesday night.  It was in Spanish but I wasn`t sure I got it right until he told me that he had spoken to Kimberly and she hadn`t recognized him.  He asked me to see if she remembered someone named Mario from Wednesday night.  When I asked her, she pretty much freaked out and turned her head left and right looking for him.  When I pointed him out to her she could not believe the difference.  He had shaved, he was completely sober even in the midst of abundant alcohol and marajuana, and he had a light in his eyes that was very different from the dull look most of the homeless guys we had met had.  He shared with her that he wanted Jesus, he had made the decision to change, and that God had shown himself to him.  All of this without Kimberly being able to pray for him in his language.  God is so faithful, and he is great and loving enough to overcome the language barrier to change a life."