Should we choose to be God’s?
His faithfulness does not fail.
Shortly before writing this blog, while staying over the weekend in Jiquilisco, I was talking to God and He began to speak about the canton called “El Paraiso”. Jiquilisco has always been a hard mission field. The people there have been hard hearted, unwilling to repent and turn to God. Even to this day many parents are willing to just leave little kids behind with no food made for them to eat, so that they can go to parties or other events that are happening on the weekends. My conversation with God, I would like to say, was a culmination, not of a single moment, but of many stories.
First, I found myself speaking to Pastor Lola about two young boys from Jiqui that I grew up with. I thought they had ended up in jail. I remember, when we were in our early teens, their father, a gang boss, had started to use them to run moonshine into town. The laws at the time made it so that if a child had an illegal substance, they could not arrest them, only confiscate the substance. One thing led to another, and he began involving them in the local gang. I never knew the next part of their story, but Lola told me. Their mother, to rescue them from what was happening, sent them away to their older sister who lived in the United States, where now one of them is on the worship team and the other also serves at their church.
Then, God reminded me of the week before when Pastor Lola told me that another one of the boys I grew up with in Jiqui had returned to visit his family from a town near the border with Honduras, where he is now a youth pastor.
The next story I heard from a friend who came from the central church to help that Sunday. He told me about remembering how hard the young kids were to reach before, and then how sometime later, when they were older, they had sent messages asking for forgiveness for their behavior.
Finally, the last story I heard was from one of my sisters. I began telling her these previous stories of them asking for forgiveness and the others who were serving God. And she said something beautiful, “It encourages me to hear these stories, because even if it was all for just one, it was worth it.” These words came in the middle of her reminiscing about earlier times in kid’s classes, than even my friend’s story. She told how she remembered young girls without an answer to a simple question that for us would be so common we don’t even think or realize someone could possibly not have an answer to it, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
Stepping back to this recent weekend in Jiquilisco, something was happening. It was like no other weekend before. The team heading to Jiquilisco had chosen to focus in more on God. We felt we had gotten comfortable. Recently we had started giving many classes again: Guitar, Piano, Computer/Tablet, and youth meetings. But we felt we were just achieving the goal or duty, and that weekend we chose to focus in. During our restful moments, we set aside our distractions and said if we’re going to rest, we’ll rest seeking God.
And I say, “His faithfulness does not fail.” You see by Saturday morning we were surrounded by what He wanted us to do and didn’t even realize it yet. We went on a morning prayer walk at 7 am. During it we took advantage to invite kids to the music classes at 9 am. And during that walk, by what I would call harvesting fruit from seeds we did not sow, those same kids were the answer to our prayers, the third generation of fruit is what I would call them.
The church was founded on the first generation who accepted the Lord- I say generation because generational gaps are shorter here. Girls of 15-18 are mothers and raising children. These are young girls, just like the ones who before could not even answer a question like “What do you want to be when you grow up?” (In truth the only real answer they had given was a grim one. They could only hope to get together with, not even marry, a man probably 15 to 20 years older than them.) I remember as a child this first generation. One time, a man I would call a prophet came to preach to the adults that stayed in the service, and in the middle of his preaching stopped and expressed that he felt that there were many women who had suffered sexual abuse and God wanted to heal them. But the room broke out into laughter (these were people that you would be extremely hard pressed to even get a smile from) because they said that all of them had suffered that.
Then the second generation came along, the kids I grew up with whom my friend taught classes to. Many of them still struggled with wanting to live worldly lifestyles and having a lot of anger. They still fought a lot, and each fight easily could have led to someone being seriously hurt or someone retaliating later. But I remember them having dreams and being able to smile sometimes. You see those young girls who saw no future for themselves were willing for their kids to have one.
Finally, the third generation… we return to that morning walk. When we went by, these young kids smiled so brightly. Some have parents that take care of them (their parents are the kids I grew up with). The kids still have foul mouths and fight, but mostly they fight for a cause like defending a sibling. Where before it was for petty vengeance or flat-out greed that they took their friends’ candy, now some will even happily offer us the last piece of their candy. These kids, the third generation, even guided us to all their friends’ houses to invite them to church and the classes we were having.
They are fruit of the seed sown by others, that we can now harvest unto salvation. They are preachers and ministers that will go out and reach the world. Step by step, generation by generation, if we labor faithfully others will reap what we sow.
I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have come into their labor. John 4:38 (ESV)
I returned from the weekend in Jiquilisco, and began to tell my parents in a meeting on Monday the story of the storm of smiling kids that wanted to go and be at church all Saturday long. They came with us from our walk back to the church and ate breakfast with us (since none had eaten breakfast that day). The kids stayed through the music class and left for lunch. They later returned for the evening youth meeting, even the little kids who weren’t old enough to participate. And at the end of the meeting, we gave them a snack before sending them home. When I told my parents this, I came intent on telling them about the future vision I could see because of this experience and other experiences from members of the team in jiquilisco. I had two more visions that we as a team wanted to fulfill. So, I told them of an idea of a day care for the kids on Saturdays, where we could take care of them all day long, and of the desire to do kids carnivals in downtown Jiquilisco, and lastly of the desire to sponsor these kids to go to a youth retreat. I knew not what I spoke of, for these dreams were not mine. As I finished each point in tears, because of the presence of God, I heard my mother respond through her own tears, “That was Chuz and Lola’s Dream.” You see, we, the team, unknowingly felt in our hearts the dreams that the pastors in Jiquilisco had dreamed of years ago. My mom then told me about a word from God she felt to give the pastors: “You will see the fruit of the seeds you have sown.”
In 2020, during the height of COVID-19, I had a dream. In the dream I found myself in the stairway of the house that at the time we were staying at. Halfway down the stairs I was overwhelmed by what I could call the cry of the blood of those who unjustly died. An overwhelming cry that I could not avoid, but cried out myself saying, “Justice!” Soon after I cried out for justice, I was taken away, flying through the sky to arrive in a field with Pastor Chuz, in what I could say was Jiquilisco.
Soon after I had that dream, my brother, his wife and I were evacuated to the United States. And just like the dream I had just had, I was in flight, going from place to place for a long time. During that same time the gangs were imprisoned thanks to Covid’s quarantine. And now I find myself in that field with Pastors Chuz and Lola.
The final story I want to tell is from the previous blog about Jiquilisco.
“It is of a young boy that comes to the church site in Jiquilisco. He was a problematic child, and for some weeks he had been behaving worse than usual. The situation was getting out of hand. Many of you know Lola, one of our pastors in Jiquilisco, who is like a mother figure to so many of these kids and has fed them for many years at 4 am on Mondays before they go to work or school. Well, she kept on trying to instruct and correct this young boy’s behavior, getting on to him and reprimanding him with little success. But during a Sunday service when Henry her son, a pastor from the central church site, was visiting, Lola mentioned the child to him. In their conversation, Henry felt led of the Spirit to tell her that the child did not need more reprimands, all he needed was someone to love him. After their conversation Lola did exactly that. When the young boy began to misbehave again, all she did was hug him and say, “I love you.” The first time it didn’t work, and in embrace he began to misbehave. So, she kept on hugging him and repeated, “I love you”. Still, it seemed to not work, but God does not give guidance that fails. So, hugging him even tighter she said again, “I love you”. After that third time, you could hear a young child begin to sob sorrowful tears but healing tears. Pressing forward and onward many times we don’t realize that the seeds planted just take time and many attempts.
This third generation will be free! Jiquilisco has been a town with a lot of witchcraft, and many people opposed to God. Still we fight for many to leave those things behind, and we have seen the fruit and freedom of the first and second generation. But I know, here with the third generation, we will again see victory. Even for those that choose to stay living in the world and under the law, if we keep on moving forward and onward, others will reap even greater of a harvest.
“You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, even on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me…” Deuteronomy 5:9 (NASB)
The conversation with my parents ended with these words from God to me “Just as Pastor Lola hugged and said, “I love you,” to that young boy three times, I am going to again hug and say, “I love you,” to Jiquilisco.”
Thank You so much for being teammates with us in all the things that Jesus is doing in Jiquilisco. We love and appreciate you!
His faithfulness does not fail.
Lamentations 3:22-23 (NASB)
