“This is my barrio”

As I walked through the barrio Los Pomos in the city of La Vega, my heart was burdened. I looked into the eyes of so many hurting, discouraged people - young and old alike. Huddled on the stoops, gathered in front of the little corner stores, passing around a $1.30 bottle of rum going nowhere fast. Adolescent girls with their babies playing in the filth, absent fathers leaving them to fend for themselves, forcing them to live off their over-burdened parents seemed the norm not the exception. As I contemplated their situation I was overwhelmed by the enormous needs and hardship they were facing daily. The astronomical unemployment rates, lack of adequate health care and the marginal opportunity for education seemed to have a merciless cast iron grip on them.

I knew that talking with them about a bye and bye, pie-in-the-sky religion would not cut it for a people that is only living for today. At the same time my heart rejoiced at the opportunity of inviting them to become part of the “Unshakable Kingdom of God” that gives confidence for today and hope for tomorrow. Our T.E.A.R.S. church planting team, after much prayer and several visits, decided that this would be a place that the love and grace of God could abound, so we set out to make disciples and share about the King and His Kingdom to whoever would listen. The openness and receptivity of the people was amazing!

In our first big activity last week, we broke out the sound system, loaded the buses with visiting teams from Lebanon, Oregon and Calgary, Canada and set up in a seeming abandoned community center on the main street of the barrio. The music was turned up and “Virus”, a Christian rap group (composed of Fernando who is on the T.E.A.R.S. Team and some brothers from El Camino Church) started to share the gospel through song and personal testimonies. Before long, the little tin roof was jumping and the people started coming!

I was leaning on a fence across the street just taking it all in and thanking God for what He was doing. Something caught my attention to my right and I looked down the street to see two scantily dressed women making their way towards the activity. They were bouncing to the beat of the music and appeared to be somewhat intoxicated. As they drew closer, one of them looked over at me with a shocked, then shamed stare and then called out my name, “Rodrigo, what are you doing here?!” Then I recognized her: “Maribel, is that you?” “Yes, yes!”, she cries out, “This is my barrio. I live around the corner.” Maribel was a beautiful young lady that I had met some years ago through a close friend in the barrio Maria Auxiliadora. She had seemed so full of hope and promise, and to see her now looking like a drug-addicted prostitute was saddening. We talked for a bit then I encouraged them to enter the activity. To my surprise, they pushed their way right up to the front and stayed for the whole service.

Afterwards, Maribel found me, and with tears welling up in her eyes she asked me, “When are you coming back?” The hunger for something more, the gospel, was evident in her gaze, so with great joy I told her that our team would be hanging around for a good while, sharing with anyone that wanted to listen. She smiled and said, “please come visit me; I live right around the corner”, and then walked away.

We are all so excited about what God is doing in Los Pomos. We ask that you would stand with us in prayer as we seek to reach this hurting community with the news of what Jesus has done for them! Once again we see that, “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound”. Thank you Jesus… you are so faithful!

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 4:35 pm and is filed under Davis Family Blog (Moved to T.E.A.R.S.). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.