Social Hunger
Satan is bold and busy destroying humanity. The picture is no different here. But Almighty God is alive and well and in control, praise the Lord!! We have been sending information about what God is doing here each week and He is doing great and marvelous thigs. Now we want to impart a mental word picture of what we see in the daily lives of the people you are praying for.
Among the many indigenous and other poor folks that come into the city, there are tiny little Embera Chami women, most well under 5′ tall, who come in from their camp in the mountains. They are here with their many children who often don’t look much younger than the mother is herself. The Chami men remain back at the camp, drunk and usually not willing to work to provide for their families. They send the mothers and their children to the streets of the city to beg for pesos to buy food.
The poor are one thing. What about the ones who have everything, money, food, cars? Their wealth is a different kind of curse. In Colombia, with wealth comes fear. Fear because if the guerillas know who they are, and they usually do, they want them. They are valuable to them because, if kidnapped, they could bring a large ransom of money. So the rich are frightened and bound by fear. These people are begging for a peace that their money can’t buy them.
There are many blind, lame and mute sitting and walking along almost every city street. The amount and nature of the twisted, tortured bodies can be overwhelming. They are scattered throughout the city sitting or laying on mats or on the pavement where someone has brought them and left them for the day. They are walking on crutches or sitting in wheelchairs begging for pesos or selling small items or things to eat.
Daily we are confronted by the tragedy of the children and young people living in the streets whom, at very young ages, have lost their innocence and hope. We see the young girls on the streets and in the dark stairways that lead up to second and third story rooms of dingy hotels, the places where they are used for prostitution. The boys we see in the streets range anywhere from eight to eighteen years old. They run the streets looking for any opportunity to earn a few pesos. You can see them waving down taxis for people or running up to vehicles to wash the windows for the driver. They may be very stealth in picking pockets or snatching purses. Some of the boys do tricks like juggling anything from fruit to fire at the streetlights when travelers are waiting for the light to turn green. We mentioned the young female prostitutes in the streets and in the stairways. We are haunted by reasoning that if there are boys as young as eight years old in the streets, there must be little girls the same age who are in the same situation as the boys, no home or family to care for them. But where are they? We don’t see them on the streets. Where are they? The same reasoning asks if they are in those second and third story hotel rooms where we see the slightly older girls in the lower stairways? How can we know and how can we reach them?
We can’t adequately describe the spiritual bondage of sensuality but we can see it. Young girls getting breast implants or lyposuction or both to make their body more sexually appealing. We are told that older men, married and single who have money, go to the poor neighborhoods to find young virgins. They pay for them to go to the clinic and have these surgeries done and then pay them to have sex with them. Men and women alike have extramarital affairs with the knowledge of each other having them. Middle aged men leave their wives for younger women. When the older woman no longer feels attractive she simply goes to the clinic and gets the same things done to her body that the younger women do. The older women do it to attract the younger men.
Then you have religion. The spirit of religion is strong here. You can see it from one extreme to the other. The people are either bound by the traditions of Roman Catholicism or by various Protestant forms of legalism. Most people who have separated themselves from the religion of Catholicism see all other religions as equally existing only for money or meaningless ritual. They do not trust anyone who talks of God and religion. Roman Catholicism is extremely steeped in tradition. On the same blocks where the churches are you find stores with the idols of saints and Mary to buy. Though some of the other types of stores may be empty at times, we generally see people in the idol stores eagerly shopping for the image they want to display and pray to in their homes.
But, there is hope for the people of this beautiful country. There is a remnant of people who have been set free by the power of the Holy Spirit through the blood of Jesus Christ. They are the ones who have a vision of their country set free. They have a heart to reach their city and their country with the truth of salvation and freedom through Jesus. They are few right now, but we know God’s testimony of obedience and faithfulness of His servants can be found even in the most unlikely candidates.
The Exodus of His people from bondage in Egypt was accomplished through Moses. One man who was hiding from God in the wilderness was willing to obey the voice of God coming from a burning bush. Because of his obedience a whole nation was set free. Then there is Esther, a most unlikely character, who God used to save her people from destruction. Another unlikely candidate was the Samaritan woman at the well. Ostracized and rejected by the people but used mightily by her Redeemer to save the city of Sychar.
No one said the work of God’s kingdom is easy or pretty, but it is necessary. God wills that His name be proclaimed to all people of the earth. Like the remnant of followers of Jesus here in Colombia, we must all seek a heart like Jesus. Jesus declared His purpose for coming to the earth was to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10).
It’s easy to look at ourselves and listen to the enemy say we can’t do the things it takes to reach the world with the gospel. All we need to do is look at Isaiah, whose words have impacted men for centuries. He knew he was unclean, a man not worthy to set his eyes on the Lord of hosts. But God clearly showed him that he had a purpose and Isaiah obeyed.
Is 6:5-8 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Though the mission of the body of Christ in our neighborhoods and abroad at times seems overwhelming, it is God’s purpose, and His purpose is perfect. God will not allow His purpose to fail. It is in this assurance that we must rest, knowing that God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
We were unable to send an Insights last week because we were preparing to go to Medellin. Kevin preached three meetings and 36 people responded to the call to salvation. Hundreds more responded at the crusades where Steve Fatow preached.
We know it is not us that saves but the Holy Spirit through us draws the lost into salvation. If we would hear the voice of God and respond in obedience, then the work of the kingdom of God will be completed in a short time and we will come into our glorious inheritance through Jesus Christ.