koinonia, pt. 1

We need each other.  I could probably write pages in support of that statement, but I think it's something that most people agree on.  We are just simply not made to do life alone.  From the time that we're teeny-tiny babies, we long for love, relationship, and security.

Those tiny little baby minds and baby hearts learn early on whether or not they are safe and loved.  But what happens when that baby isn't safe and isn't loved?  What happens when that baby turns into a neglected little toddler who has already learned that crying doesn't do any good and nobody cares that he's hungry?  Within the first few years of his life, he's already learned to shut down his emotions and never sheds a tear.  He becomes withdrawn.  He grows up not trusting anyone or depending on anyone.  He lives day to day, not sure who would really care if he were to disappear tomorrow.  He doesn't know how to love or be loved. When his emotions break through to the surface, he can't control them, and he doesn't understand them.  He surrounds himself with people like himself until his group self-destructs.  And the worst thing is that he is doomed to repeat the cycle when he inevitably has a child of his own.

At the very core level, I want to teach the kids on the streets love.  And it can't be a love that comes from humans because we screw up.  We screw up big time.  This country is full of the evidence of how humanity has screwed up.  Just look around.  Crippled old grannies begging for coins on the streets...  Three year olds trained to sing and dance for handouts from the tourists...  Toxic rivers and garbage covered streets...  Starving dogs on every block...  Six year old girls selling candy and cigarettes to drunk men in the bars all night long...

Everything about this is wrong.  But don't think that Bolivia is some exception.  Things are different but equally bad everywhere else.

I think that we as humans have been robbed of love.  We're lost and hurting, and deep down inside we are looking for what we're missing: love... relationship and safety.  It's the first thing we long for when we're born...  We scream and cry for Mom's love and comfort.  It's ingrained in us, I think, because we're made in God's image.

And God is love.  

And God is community.  

And that's what we're created for: love and community with God and with one another.  It's simple.

So I have this wild idea to take those babies who have never known love and who've grown up into lost and hurting adults, and bring them into community... into love.  And Casa Koinonia will be just that: community and love.

Yeah, we're human, and we'll mess up for sure.  But we'll try really hard to stop trying... to stop doing it all ourselves and relying on our own understanding.  Instead, we'll try really hard to lean on the Holy Spirit and trust him to guide us and make us more loving everyday...

The more we know God and spend time with him, the more his love will wear off on us, and the more those babies (now adults) will understand love and understand God.  And their lives will change forever.

isaiah 58

Is such the fast that I choose,
a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Will you call this a fast,
and a day acceptable to the Lord?

“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.

photo links.

Here are a few photo albums of what we've been doing recently.  Click on each title to go to the album on Facebook.

A sidewalk Sunday School in Takaloma that I help with every other Sunday

Trip to a park with Sulma and her boys

Health Fair at Takaloma on 10/24

Sulma and boys visit my house on Sunday

ch-ch-ch-changes.

I think part of the reason I keep a blog is for the purpose of having a quick artistic outlet.  I change the colors and theme about as often as I post an update....

cute babies.

Here are few photos of mommas and babies at the home for couples from the streets...

nice kid killer.

I ran into M on Espana Street tonight and offered to buy him some food.  He tends to move around the city often, and I'm never really sure when and where I'll run into him.  But lately, I've enjoyed seeing him most evenings in town where he goes to wash windows and pick-pocket on the side.

We bought some greasy food from a street vendor and sat down in the Plaza Colon to have a chat.  I asked how things have been going for him, and he filled me in on some bridge rivalries and fights.  The bridge he's at is fighting with the the kids from America Avenue (my bridge) because the America kids are starting to smoke crack more and more, but instead of buying it from M's bridge, they purchase it elsewhere.  On the streets, that's reason enough for a knife fight.  So M gave me all the details on who got cut and where.  I said they should just sell it for a little cheaper, but street kids aren't really business savvy.

I was able to talk with him a little bit about just how unnecessary and unfortunate all that violence is...  I know that it's "kill or be killed" on the streets (sometimes literally, sometimes not), and I asked him what he thought about all that.  He looked at me sincerely and said he's sick of it and wants to go home, but like all street kids, he had several reasons why he couldn't go home tonight...

At one point he asked me if I knew that Vladimir had died, which of course I did (see here).  His death is actually one of two suicides (see here for the other) from last October that were very difficult for me to deal with.  One of several things I did in order to seek healing and wholeness while I was home in the US was to work through those tragedies with a great Christian counselor.  And it's only because of his help and the way the Lord has healed my heart that I was able to have the following conversation with M:

(It's a little graphic... )

I had heard a lot of rumors about how Vladimir ended up in hospital Viedma, but had never spoken to anyone who was with him when everything went down.  But M was with there and was part of the fight, and tonight I heard the whole story.

M told me that Vladi had this girlfriend (on the streets, girlfriends cause enormous amounts of trouble) who cheated on him with a guy from La Paz called Paceno.  Well, one night when M was with Vladi downtown, they went over to confront and fight Paceno over the girl.  During the fight, Paceno pulled out a knife with a 6" blade and stabbed/sliced Vladi in the stomach.  M said that Vladi's intestines spilled out and that there was blood everywhere.

After that, Paceno took off running, but M and the other guys who were with Vladi chased him down.  They took his knife and stabbed him repeatedly in the stomach, in the lungs, in the heart...  M said he died right there on the street.  (I hadn't heard any of that.)  Then, the guys put Vladi in a taxi and took him to Viedma, where he was recovering for 2 weeks before he jumped out of the window.

I was a little bit shocked sitting next to M while he was telling me all this, just because I have never thought of him as a violent guy.  In fact, he was one of the boys that always went to church with me...  I told him what I was thinking...  He said that he's not violent, but that he has to protect his friends.  That's just how the streets are.

Nice kids can be killers.

We talked in depth about what it would take to get him off the streets and how I could help.  His mom and dad would be happy to have him return, but he's not from a particularly stable family.  His dad works out in the country, and his mom cooks and sells food at cock fights.  Even so, it's better than the dangerous life he's leading on the streets.

And we finished by talking about the life God has for him...   M said he prays often and asks the Lord to forgive the things he's done because he knows that they're wrong.  We discussed God's grace and love and mercy...  And I told him a little bit about my relationship with God and about how we can know and love God like we know and love a person...

It was a good, long conversation, and M asked if I'd come talk to him more tomorrow.  I'm planning to do so...

So please be praying for M... for safety, because the devil hits hard as soon as the kids start turning towards the Lord... for an open heart... and for a desire to change.

ernst haeckel

I recently discovered the beautiful artwork of Ernst Haeckel, the German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor, and artist who published these beautiful illustrations in 1904.

I thought they were worth sharing (especially the first one!).

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.

Romans 8:19-24