The King of Glory

Greetings to my wonderful friends and family. I decided it was about time for another blog update! I am sitting here writing this at 6:30am while most of you back home are probably just deciding to hop into bed. Isn’t time such a funny thing.

Last week Wednesday we had a short term group from Germany come and help us at the safe house with various projects. I was so excited for them to come that I attempted to bake cookies for them the night before. The first time I made cookies in this country, they were all the rage. This time sadly they didn’t rise in the oven, making pathetic hard and flat cookies. Being as kind as they were, they still ate all of my cookies throughout the day. We worked on painting the kitchen, a bathroom, and the outer courtyard. We also planted a garden in the front of our apartment complex. Their hard work and willing attitudes were such a blessing. They were such a blessing especially to me because I have been craving interaction with believers my own age since being here. Throughout the day I got a chance to talk with them and learn more about what God was doing in their lives. After all our work was finished they invited me out to dinner with them. It was my favorite night here so far. 

By Saturday we finally signed the papers on the building we are renting for the ministry. It is in the heart of the red light district of this city. The area essentially is the slums populated by refugees, gypsies, and the poor. The buildings are extremely old and falling apart. Kids play around trash and broken bottles in the street. Dozens of “hotels” (aka brothels) speckle the region with their true purpose not hidden from anyone. The headquarters of the police are on the very street our building is on which is incredibly suspicious and screams corruption to me. It is not uncommon for policemen to receive free sexual favors in order to protect the sex trade by warning pimps on or even thwarting potential raids of brothels. Many women who are trafficked refuse to go to the police for help because they know they make up a large amount of their clientele. There have been accounts of policemen when approached by a trafficked woman responding by returning her to her pimp or even reselling her for personal gain. 

Our building is in the heart of this darkness, pain, poverty, and corruption. There is no doubt in our minds that God chose this location in order for us to participate in shining his light, justice, protection, healing, restoration, and love to those living in this area. 

Now to describe our building. It is anywhere from 100 to 150 years old and is completely run down. There is dirt and debris everywhere. The stairs are soft and the guardrail unusable. Black mold is a common find throughout the rooms. Everything in the building must be scraped down and repainted. The plumbing and wiring must be reevaluated and possibly completely redone. Portions of the roof and floor will probably have to be rebuilt. Let’s just say it is going to be a labor of love. What inspires me is that like restoring this building, God has such a heart to restore this neighborhood and the people in it who have been counted as forgotten and worthless by the greater society. Just like this building will take time, hard work, and lot of love, so will these people we will be encountering. In a way, I think God is training us for the greater task by asking us to be faithful in preparing this building for his work. 

When stepping into the building for the first time I felt an overwhelming sense of darkness, like some extremely evil things had occurred in this place. For all I knew, this space could have aided in the harboring of trafficked women.  As the team started at the top of the building we prayed in each room asking God to reclaim the space for his glory and purpose. I have never sensed such strong spiritual warfare in my life. Taking back this space for God is going to radically change this area that Satan has such a stronghold over. I am sure the last thing Satan wants is for God’s light to shine in his dark area, but God will shine on as he always does redeeming precious lives in the process. 

A reoccurring phrase God keeps bringing to my mind is “give a face to the faceless.” The people who live in this neighborhood and the women who are forced into the sex trade are faceless to society. Society views them as having little worth and do virtually nothing to protect even their most basic human rights. They are treated as if they are not human and in turn their identity, value, and voice are stripped from them. I believe God is calling me to be a person who reaches out to the faceless in society. He is calling me to instill a sense of worth into their minds so they can understand how precious and valuable they are. He is also calling me to pursue justice in order to ensure that their rights are granted and protected, that society will be unable to overlook these people any longer. Instead of being considered “the least of these” they will become the protected children of God and no one on this earth can strip that identity from them. I believe this work of giving a face to the faceless is a calling in every location and I am quite excited to be a part of the team starting this process in the red light district.

We had an awesome Y-team from Scotland be the first group to work with us on the building. Again I was super excited to have them (sadly no cookies were made this time- our oven is broken). Each member has their own story and it is such a joy to hear bits about it while working. The Scotland team had it on their hearts to intercede in prayer for this nation so we started off the day with a time of prayer. Wow, this team can pray! They blew me away with the passion and authority in which they spoke. A passage that kept coming up in prayer was Psalm 24:7-10 which says:

  “Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up you ancient doors that the King of glory may come in.Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty- he is the King of glory.”
 

It is our prayer that the ancient gates and doors of this city be opened up for the glory of the Lord to burst in. He is strong. He is mighty. There is no problem or darkness he cannot and has not overcome. We pray that he shine in this neighborhood and that the ancient doors of our building would be opened to not only allow his light out, but to let people in. Because God is so mighty, he is our refuge and place of healing. We pray that our building would be a refuge and place of healing for those broken, sick, used, abandoned, and alone.

The team from Scotland helped us clear up the back yard, started the cleaning process on the rooms, and helped us scrape paint from the walls. Some brave souls even attacked the black mold. At the end of the day we were all covered in dirt, dust, and sweat but there was an understanding that what happened that day was truly groundbreaking in this ministry. 

 

Other News: It was Lisa’s Birthday back home. Happy Birthday Lisa! Hope your party was wonderful!

Sorry that’s all the time I have for now. 

Love and Miss you all!