Boot Camp Day 5. Friday
// September 11th, 2009 // No Comments » // Goals, Life, Prayer
Fridays are special. I don’t know why, but apparently they are. I’ve not really cared about Fridays since the last time I was in school, so I guess I’m about to care again.
After Andy finally showed up and we did our devotions, we set about to some homework time, then reconvened for one final training session. We went over some info on each of our current ministries and spent extensive time explaining and preparing for El Colli, including learning the dance moves to two very catchy songs.
Later in the evening, we had several pastors from our churches over for a catered dinner. There were about 8 different taco fillings to choose from and tortillas being made and grilled fresh in front of us. The dinner was amazing and the time with the pastors was great. I met the pastor of my church and spoke briefly with him about helping with the youth group and worship teams.
Eventually, the guests all went home, allowing us to clean up and set to our real task for the day/night. There’s an area not too far from us called Plaza Del Sol. At night, Plaza Del Sol is crawling with transvestite prostitutes. We feel very strongly about helping them, reaching out to them, and sharing the love of Christ with them, so we’ve been talking and praying about how to do so. Currently, the Engage ministry model demands a partnership with a local church (The idea behind this is that we may at some point be forced to leave the country and/or be gone on extended breaks, and we don’t want a ministry to die simply because we can’t be there. Additionally, plugging people into local churches tends to produce much better permanent results.) along with an actual plan for how the ministry will operate. As of now, this ministry has no partner church and no action plan, so it consists of prayer walks in safely-large groups.
Several (three) of us stayed behind to intercede for the safety and inspiration of the rest of the group, but everyone else went and split into two groups. I was one of the people staying behind, and I can tell you we felt a serious battle is taking place in this city. I received two different visions while praying for God to speak to us. The first was of battle-ready but battle-scarred and battle-weary angels flying over Guadalajara. They had clearly been at this for some time, but were unable to land yet and take the territory. The second vision was of the Engage students standing at a bus stop staring at an empty bus (empty buses don’t exist in this city). We were each taking turns paying the driver to stay, and we were collecting the tickets to hand out to the flood we knew was coming.
When the groups got back to the house around 1:30am, we all had the sense that we would be asked to pay a greater sacrifice than we expected, but that it was not only worth it: it was our destiny. This is going to be a long fight, but one we’re proud of.