A Boy Who Prays for His Family

This story comes from our ministry partner, MISIUR, working with children in Lima, Peru.

Jesus is twelve years old and lives with his parents; he is the youngest of three brothers.  His house is located in the highest part of a Settlement in a heavily populated district of Lima.

His mother devotes her time to their home, and his father is an informal guard in a settlement some distance from the city.

He is in the fifth grade but that doesn’t correspond with his age.  His mother had to travel and because of this, he was not enrolled in time.

Since October of 2007, Jesus has participated in Bread of Life at the Peruvian Evangelical Church “The Grace of God.”

Jesus is improving physically and spiritually.

Arriving on time for breakfast helps him form the habit of being punctual.  At the same time, he works on beginning friendships with other children; he prays before he eats his breakfast; he uses to say hello before entering the church.  He also helped his mother Mary and his brother Lucero join the church.

Something very significant in his life is that he is learning to pray for his family.  His father is an alcoholic and hurts his mother and brothers.  Because of this, in April of this year, Jesus and the pastor at the church signed an agreement to pray everyday at nine at night for a change for his father.

Jesus is shy and nervous because of his father’s problem.  Nevertheless, he surpasses the average students.  He only needs reinforcement and more attention so that he might develop in a healthy way without difficulties.

Jesus is a dreamer who yearns for God to change the reality of his family, and he is sure that this is how it will be to the glory of God.

“…me no Jesus, Slava no Jesus…”

(Continued from last week’s “Street Kid Stories” by Benjamin Bradley)

Slava was anxious and afraid to leave but the time finally came when he needed to say good-bye. Slava took that long walk down toward the street. He stopped and paused just as he was about to turn the corner and go out of sight. He turned around for a moment. It was as if he were pausing to see if there might be a another way no one had ever thought of before for him to stay, but the options had dried up. The only option left for him was to continue to walk all night and sleep in the office chairs. How could anyone ask him to give up the only bed he had a chance to sleep in?

After a year of fighting and struggling to believe in his new faith, he was far too tired to fight anymore. Finally, Slava’s shoulders fell and he turned and rounded the corner.

Would the words of God still remain in his little mind and heart through the many hard years we was facing in front of him? This kid had just been forced out of a safe situation by the powers of hell. All that could be done was watch him walk away because of a simple lack of a bed. It is hard enough to leave kids still wanting to sniff glue on the streets but how much harder when a child has become your brother in Christ.

Slava appeared again the next day. Somehow during the course of the night the Holy Spirit had given him the strength. With nothing but the promise that had been shared with him from the Bible almost a year ago, Slava decided to leave his friends who offered him a bed in exchange for renouncing Jesus.

Slava is currently living with an old lady who knew his mother. He has a bed for the winter, but more importantly, he still has his Jesus.

Excuse me mister, I want to eat!

(Taken from “Street Kid Stories” by Benjamin Bradley)

There is a small 15 year old boy who came to the Lord through the street outreaches last year. His name is Slava. He trusted Jesus and claimed the promises of Matthew 6:33 and believed that if he sought the Kingdom of God that Jesus would provide for him. He learned not only how Jesus provided for him but also how to witness and share his hope in Jesus with other kids.

Up to this point the news about Slava has mostly been good. It has given us reason to praise God and celebrate, but three days ago, Slava after a year of fighting and believing, finally gave up. His mother had died just a few weeks ago, and for the first few days after the death he lived with our ministry teams on a make-shift bed in the office, but legally he could not stay there for long. For a period of time after that he stayed with various Christian friends in St. Petersburg. For three long days he walked the streets of St. Petersburg then slept in our office chair at night. Finally, exhausted physically and spiritually, Slava gave up.

Over several days, changes were noticeable in him as he became more distant. When asked where he had slept he said it was with friends but there was an uncomfortable silence that followed these “unknown friends” comments. Then three days go he came to the office, he had been beaten and stabbed in the foot with a knife. When asked what happened he said that his friend had beaten him.

It’s not easy to understand Slava without a translator, but he was able to express that his new friends did not want him to hang around Christians and that they wanted Slava to leave town with them the next day. As much as the desire to offer Slava a place to stay was pushing on our hearts, the knowledge that we could not make such an offer without raising the anger of the local police.

As he was getting ready to leave, he needed something to carry his meager belongings in so he removed the Bible and other Christian items that had always been so important to him from his backpack. He explained that the presence of these items might upset his new friends. He kept saying in simple English “me friend no Jesus, Slava no Jesus.” He looked longingly at the Bible he was laying down.

To be continued…

Bridges Playing

(Part of the set of Russian street kids stories from St. Petersburg)

The “white nights” of St. Petersburg. Such a beautiful sight to behold. The constant daylight lasting almost throughout the night. Tourists travel from all over the world to watch the bridges on the canal rise up and seemingly float back down. All this mystery and excitement masks the darker side of the city.

A frail young 7 year old also watches the bridges playing in the night. Barely able to stand she asks a passerby for a cigarette. The cigarette that will be lit as soon as she finishes the one destroying her seven year old body at the moment. The moonlight gets entangled with the dirt and lice living in her hair. The shoes on her feet strain to stay together in order to provide Nina some protection from the broken vodka bottles on the street. As she walks toward the canal the rips in the dress slowly grow to reveal the bruises on her body. Like a little child who has lost her teddy bear or one piece of candy, the tears well up in Nina’s eyes when she realizes she has no more cigarettes to smoke.

Direct Line to God

There are so many times when our ministry partners are working hard and focused on sharing who Jesus is with the poor around them that the simple words of a child can have profound meaning.

One of our ministry partners works with many AIDS patients and their families. Many of these AIDS patients who come to the AIDS hospice group bring their children who get an opportunity to play and be children in a loving, caring, fellowship atmosphere.

On a recent evening, one of these children made a desperate phone call to our ministry partner. This scared 6 year old girl was worried that her father was getting so sick that he probably wouldn’t live much longer. And then in a child-like innocence, she “asked for Jesus’ mobile number” so that she could tell Jesus first hand what was going on and get help from Jesus.

In a moment when this little girl must have been so scared, she only wanted to get Jesus’ mobile number so that she could have a direct line to God.

April First brings out some interesting stories

It seems that every April 1st, web developers put on their creative hats and come up with very funny stories. Even though I know this is April 1st (April Fools Day), I’m constantly questioning everything I read because I know this is a day where things aren’t always what they seem. And even with my “fools” radar going, I’m always drawn into some jokes until its too late to realize that its just a joke.

This TREEHOUSE section on Oakseed Ministries will be an ongoing Story-telling area where you can read and follow along with the stories of many of the Oakseed Ministry partners. Sometimes we will share a story directly from the mouths of our partners. Sometimes we will modify the names of the participants to provide protection. But most of the time, we hope to bring you closer to our ministry partners by allowing you to share in their joys and sufferings.

But for this first TREEHOUSE story, I wanted to share some of the fun “April Fools Jokes” I found on the internet this morning.

• Gmail Time - Google is famous for its many pranks and jokes during April 1st. This one was a hidden little feature in gmail that allows email senders to send emails in the future and also send emails in the past.
• The Crystal Ball - Google Australia also got into the fun by providing a search tool that lets users see into the future.
• Pizza Hut has now discovered wonderful Pasta and has thus renamed their company to Pasta Hut.

But my all time favorite of this year’s creative April Fools Jokes was played by the BBC. They have released a new documentary trailer focused on Penguins. I just love flying penguins! Enjoy…

Do you have any other enjoyable April Fools stories? Please share below…