Pray My Friends, Pray

Today was an interesting day indeed. My younger ones, the Jr High kids came to see me. We pulled out beads, girls and boys were making bracelets and necklaces. We laughed and joked, studied some TREK verses and were just having a good time.

The doorbell rang and one girl said, "Ms. Jamie, there's some boys at the door who want to see you." I hadn't seen the look on her face before. I told her to invite them in. Another boy went to the door and told them I couldn't come to the door. I saw him speaking through a crack in the door, his behavior was odd. I told him to let them in. Four young men entered my apartment. They are the local drug dealers here. My friend and I had a run in with them earlier as we tried to give a Bible to one of the children.

One of the young men said, "Do you remember me?" I told him I did. He had dared me to have the courage to knock on his door and invite him to church that next Sunday. I told him I would, and I would have indeed had my leg not been broken rendering me unable to do so. He said, "You didn't come." I told him about my leg and asked him if he went without me. He said he didn't. I said, "You told me you would." He came up with the excuse that he didn't feel like walking. The church is not a block away. We just nodded at each other. I asked another of the young men if the situation we prayed about was better. He said it was.

As the four young men cased my apartment with their eyes I noticed that all the children were silent, playing with the beads with their heads down and eyes on the floor in front of them. A few more exchanges took place. One man asked what church I went to and I told him Green Acres Baptist. He nodded his head. They told me before they are familiar with it. I invited them to church and then to the Wednesday Bible Study and assured them we would feed them. They nodded. I asked them to excuse us to continue to study our verses and they did so.

As soon as the door closed the kids jumped up to lock it. They were all talking at once and completely terrified! Each one told me what they had experienced with this group. There were stories of the girls being harrassed as the walked to the bus stop, and just out of their doors. The boys talked about how they'd been threatened and questioned about gang membership. I felt the worst for the biggest boy there. I could tell that he felt a responsibility for the group, but he is just a boy of fourteen. He told me, "They almost jumped me and my cousin left me. I was scared. But if I have to fight I have to fight." They told me of the drugs they'd seen the boys do and told me they were "crazy".

I settled them down and we all gathered hands and prayed for our protection, for the young men's turning of heart and salvation, and for God to move them out if they wouldn't repent. When we finished the prayer, I asked if they prayed at home. They all said they did. I asked them if they talked to God like they did to me and each other. This was new to them. I assured them that they could talk to God like their best friend. We all settled down and agreed they should come tomorrow for pizza and a movie.

Sometimes we think God is blessing us and helping us just to show is His love. I can tell you God is providing for me to love and nurture and disciple these kids. My heart is already knit with theirs and they are so very precious to me. To see them silent with their heads down in fear gripped me with a love and and concern for them at a depth that surprised me. I didn't realize that I loved them that much already. I thought about how many children are trapped in their situations and cannot escape because they have no way out. They may have no way out, but God can move in this apartment complex like He moved into the prison with Paul and Silas and He can break the chains that bind these little ones too!

Pray for these and other children in other homes and countries where kids are trapped by war and cruel leaders where their lives are nothing.
Oh, if God loves the sparrows and sees each one fall, surely He loves them more. Oh that God would move and set them free! Pray for His mercy and protection and for the souls of the lost. It is not flesh with which we war but "against principalities against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenlies". Eph6:12. I know that to be true. We are at war, it is at your very door just as it is at mine. Be sure of that. We must pray!
In Christ,
Jamie