Break my heart for what breaks yours...

I recently read the book Friendship at the Margins by Christopher L Heurtz and Christine D Pohl and am in the process of reading The Hole in our Gospel by Richard Stearns, both of which I highly recommend. Something mentioned in both is humans’ ability to be inhumane to our suffering neighbors. Some of this is made possible by separating ourselves from them and attempting to forget the hard, but evident, truths of the injustice. In other cases it is because, as Richard Stearns puts it, “we have become detached and indifferent toward the constant and repeated images of poverty and adversity that bombard us.” Another passage found in Friendship at the Margins really hit home for me:

The danger for those who work in the hardest places is that they might become calloused. After a while, the unthinkable becomes familiar and our souls whither. We become cynical and hard; the wounds that we have witnessed are borne become too much, and we allow them to become covered with tough, dead skin.

It is way too easy for me to identify with that and my recent cry is just that GOD would break me: to strip away the hardened parts of my heart that prevent me from feeling and acting with deep, sincere compassion.

A one situation in the past couple of weeks really took an impersonal statistic and a sad reality and made it painfully real and personal. The walk through the hotel El Rey in downtown San Jose had a huge impact on me. El Rey, while technically a hotel, is the center of a vicious drug and prostitution ring. Pimps run the show behind the scenes; in exchange for crack the women surrender large portions of their income, which supports the pimps’ large drug trafficking business. We walked through the first floor of the hotel, which consists of a “lobby”, a bar, and a casino, and seemed very similar to what I would imagine Vegas to look like. However, here, even at 3 in the afternoon, the place was full of scantily clad women presumably ready to work for the night. From the moment we stepped inside there was a tangible sense of evil that permeated the entire place. As we walked through the smoky, dimly lit space I couldn’t help but look around at the women working there, their faces especially, and the men with whom they were talking. Their faces are seared into my mind and the oppression I felt in that place is one I cannot shake. I think about the recovering addicts and the ex-prostitutes from the women’s center that have become my friends and I am filled with an overwhelming sadness, almost a feeling of disbelief that such injustice as this really takes place. For me it was one of those things that you hear about in the form of statistics or read about in an article; it is dubbed a “social injustice,” but it became SO frighteningly real to me that day. Not only does it really take place, not only are there thousands, millions, whatever the latest statistics read, that are trapped in a world in which they sell their very selves for money, but I know women who have personally been affected by it. They aren’t just numbers or words on a page but people, with faces and stories.

That is just what has been on my heart most recently. GOD has been answering my prayers and breaking my heart for the people and their situations here. My prayer is that GOD breaks your heart for someone around you this week too; it is a humbling experience. GOD BLESS

Old and New

I have now been back in Costa for a full week. And a full week it has been! I came back with my sister and another family from Jacksonville and got to spend the week with them serving food in Tiribi, praying for people in the community, and holding a day-long medical clinic in the church, among other things. Being home for 5 weeks allowed me to spend lots of time with my awesome family and friends and to enjoy RCC for which I am so thankful. But I am so happy to be back here with 6:8.

If I were to dub this week with a subtitle it would read: Week of Old and New. It was such a cool week not only because I got to share it with my sister, but also because I got to reconnect with dear friends who I haven’t seen for over a month AND experience a lot of new things. One “new” thing is the arrival of my new roommate Amy Jo. What a trooper she has been! On her very first day here she spent most of her first trip to Hipermás (Costa Rican Wal-Mart equivalent) and the rest of that night being violently ill. Thankfully she is feeling much better now and was able to come out for the later part of the day with us yesterday. Shortly after we arrived here a group of 63 post college aged “World Racers” took over (in a good way) the team house and the church to spend their last few days in Costa Rica before heading to the Philippines on New Year’s Eve. The World Race is a super neat program and I had so many cool conversations with some of the girls in the program. I also got to see Mac Mitchell, an old friend from RCC, who is also a part of their team. The fact that Mac just happened to be working with 6:8 during his Race in and of itself is a crazy GOD-thing. (If you are interested in learning more about the World Race, visit their website www.theworldrace.com )

Another “new” is the grand opening of the second team house in Escazu. With the addition of the new site we are actively seeking out new opportunities and new neighborhoods both around the “casa azul” as the main site is called, and the new Escazu team house. All day yesterday different combinations of the 6:8 staff went out into new neighborhoods to meet people and begin forming new relationships. In the morning we went into a barrio known as “large bowl of the frogs” for reasons I still do not understand, played with kids, talked to people, and explored a little down by the river. The neighborhood was incredibly receptive and welcoming. Hopefully some of them who were interested in learning English will come to class tonight as well. In the afternoon we took a bus to Aurora and visited another river community new to all of us. As we were walking down I saw my good friend Reina, a woman who always comes to the feeding center, with her little niece. I was so excited to see her looking so happy and good after a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s with her family and without drugs or alcohol. Praise the LORD!! We continued down and met some amazingly friendly families with incredible needs. One couple, Rebeca and Alex, who have 4 adorable children and live in a falling over house the size of a large closet, had heard about 6:8 before from a friend who lives down by the river in Tribi. About half way through our visit the father, Alex, came back from the store with a small bag of groceries which included a pack of lollipops for the kids. Rebeca immediately opened the package and her children gave each one of us a lollipop. Their generosity in the midst of having virtually nothing touched me in a way I cannot fully describe. I encourage you all to pray about possibly getting a team and the funds to be able to build Rebeca and Alex a house. A street over from that area we spent the rest of the day playing with the most precious children who loved on us more than I think we loved on them. A wonderful day in GOD’s amazing kingdom! Thank you for all of your continued prayers. GOD BLESS!