The Gospel

Warning: The following is very sad story

Two Sunday’s ago I had the privilege of speaking at Amor y Vida, where many people who work and live in the garbage dump attend. I gave a simple message about the plot of all the stories in the Bible from Ephesians – “I was dead, but God gave me life.” I explained how God wants to bring that story into being in our lives, our families, and our futures. With all modest, it was a great message with a great response afterwards where many wanted to start following Jesus. In the crowd was a certain family going through tremendous difficulty in their lives. They heard my presentation of the gospel through words and shook my hands afterwards. I had so many people wanting to talk to me I just quickly went by them, not realizing they wanted to talk to me. I went home happy after sharing the gospel with a bunch of people. That family also went home but sad because the mother was out of options.

Let me explain. He husband had left 3 months ago to the states with another woman. She was alone with a year and half old daughter and Samir, an 8 year old boy who is in the 3rd grade at AFE. The mother has tried so hard to provide for her family. It is hard to find a job when there is no one to watch your little baby. She wakes up early and makes tortillas and other food to sell on the street with her son. She allows him to go to school in the morning and then afterwards he helps her sell. She does not want to go the garbage dump to work. That Sunday night was especially hard because her family had not eaten since their last meal at AFE (Friday at noon) and would not eat until the next day because they had no more food. That was what she would have told me if I had not simply shook her had, said ‘God Bless You’ and gone on to the next person.

I do not know what it feels like to have to respond to a son who tells me, “Daddy, I’m hungry” when I do not have any way to feed him. I don’t know what it feels like to be out of options. I don’t know what ‘desperate’ means. This mother does. And on Sunday night she reacted in a horrible way when her son asked for some food. She beat him. The boy you see on the right hand side had a black eye and dark contusions covering his back. The mother wept and wept afterwards. She apologized to him and us. I am not condoning her actions, simply saying that poverty creates such tragedies.

After hearing about these events, we decided to present the Gospel again the following Sunday, but with actions. Project Transformation bought some grocery supplies for the family to help them during this time. We found a donation of clothes for her which she can sell along with her food to make an income. We are also looking into finding her a job as a nanny. She has committed to never strike her children again and to contact us if she is in that situation again.

Almost all my studies have taught me the importance of sharing the good news with deeds and not just words, but this last week that truth became so much more clear in my life. It is very hard to hear the good news when your children are hungry and you don’t have any way to feed them. We want to commit ourselves to always present the whole Gospel with both word and deed. That is the gospel that produces transformation. Please keep this family in prayer.

1 John 3:17-18 If anyone has material possessions and sees someone in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.