Kokubun Konexión

If I thought before that I lived in a third world country, I had forgotten.  Until I went to Alto Peru last week, that is.  We had been told it was a dangerous area of town, but had decided to go up anyways and to go in groups.  Thankfully, several people who attend our church regularly had already made friends in this area.  So while trying to talk to people there, we could simply ask them if they knew Fivos, Andres, or Patti.  When they did, it was almost as if you could visibly see the barrier wall fall down. My Americanized mind almost didn't know what to do when we arrived at the "park": a 10 by 10 ft cement slab in the middle of their area.  There were small children everywhere, covered in dirt.  Their clothes were messy and worn, and I thought, "This really is the mission field, isn't it?"  As I stood there looking around, I saw a mother standing in the doorway of a house nearby and I went over to talk to her.  I introduced myself.  As I did, I noticed little children running around the room behind her.  They were just as dirty as the kids outside.  I saw the bare, dirty room, and the completely trashed furniture and wondered how this lady did it.  God gave me the wonderful opportunity of leading her to Christ, and I was excited to tell her that we would be coming back to the area each week.

We began walking down the streets. These streets are not perhaps exactly what you would imagine.  They were very narrow, actually I don't know if a real car could fit down some of them.  They were made of brick.  Buildings on both sides of the road were run down, and graffiti was everywhere.  We continued walking down the road, meeting people.  It's always a big deal when I walk down any street, because I'm a foreigner.  People just stopped, starred, and watched us; wondering why we were in their neighborhood.  Why were we there?  To share Jesus.  

Daniel, welcoming the group that came out for the activity.