Amor, Amor, Amor

 God has been at work in my heart, revealing my sin and leading me back to love! It is a painful process but so necessary. Through a series of recent happenings, our InnerChange Leaders gathering, a group of people that are mighty in prayer and through the youth in our neighborhood I’ve realized how far I’ve strayed from God’s heart and the gospel.

     As I reflected, I saw that one of the most joyful times of my life was when I was in India and the reason behind it was because I loved God so much. I was crazy, radical, sold out for him. I was reading about Mother Teresa and I was so touched by the way that she saw Jesus in each person. I tried to emulate her example and, to be honest, it was easy to love those that I was meeting! It was so easy for me to see Christ in each one of my orphan kids; they radiated his joy and presence! Jesus was so visible in the AIDS patients and in the beggars on the street. I couldn’t miss my suffering savior and it was easy to serve him and meet his needs. I felt so full of love in a place where everyone loved me.

     To be honest with you, living in Oakland is a whole lot harder. Jesus isn’t as visible as he was before. It is hard to see Jesus in a place where most of the churches have bars or are closed up except for one day a week. It is hard to love the pimps that are selling teenage girls on International Blvd. It is hard to love the prostitutes who are flaunting their bodies at every hour of the day. It is hard to love those who are strung out on drugs and have lost their minds. It is hard to love youth who smoke and deal in the entrance of our apartment complex and trash our stairs. I get so frustrated that there is such a wide and growing gap between the rich and the poor. I am angry about the injustice that I see in a land that claims there is freedom. I am mad at the systems that enslave and discriminate based on where you are from, what color you are, what language you speak and what paperwork you have. I have saddened because I know Jesus is already at work in Oakland but at times he is nearly impossible to see.

     God has helped me fall in love with the people and the places he has taken me, but I was hitting a wall in trying to fall in love with Oakland. How do you fall in love with a concrete jungle that is laced by bullets and covered by graffiti? How do you meet neighbors who are locked and chained by fear and who cannot speak your language? How do you listen to youth who are so wounded that they don’t want to trust or love? How do you find solitude in a neighborhood void of green spaces and silence? How do you dream or hope in a place that is so dark and drugged that you can’t seem to wake up? I was trying to muster up everything I had to love Oakland and it wasn’t enough!

     When I went to Leaders Gathering in MN I was asked the question, what is the good news (or gospel) for you? How does it apply to your context? What kind of a gospel are you sharing? What is your image of Jesus? As I reflected, it was simply Jesus loves me. That’s my core & my center. I am loved. But I realized that I was not living out of that love. I was sharing a Jesus that was false. I was after behavior modification and creating disciples in my image. I’ll love you if you clean up your act. I’ll love you if you quit prostituting, pimping, dealing and using. I’ll love you if…you change. I realized that wasn’t Jesus style. Jesus simply loved people where they were at and then invited them to follow him. He called them family and introduced them to His Father. He gave them a new identity, purpose and citizenship in a kingdom that was perfect, pure and good. A kingdom of love! He never told the poor and those who were hurting and broken to go and lift themselves out of their problems and pain. His sermons were directed toward the religious elite & the powerful in a society who oppressed those who had nothing. I realized that if Jesus came to Oakland he would probably be directing his sermons at me, telling me to lay down my white power and pride, to pick up the blunts, offer smiles to the prostitutes and to invite the dealers and pimps to a dinner party that He was hosting. Pick up your cross Martha and follow me. I never said it would be easy and you knew there would be suffering involved but its worth it. Resurrection, my kingdom, the gifts of the spirit, they are for the here and now. You don’t have to wait, you can see people healed and set free, you can see a neighborhood resurrected, you can see people of all races band together and become my family. You can see systems that oppress collapse and fall. You can see the poor lifted up, empowered and you can see the youth of this generation follow me. You can see the whore who is my church washed, clean, white, whole, unified with me in perfect union. You can see transformation but it will only come through love. Love is the way of the cross. Love embraces suffering joyfully. Love dares to hope in the face of defeat. Love conquers all! Everything else will pass away, but my love will never, ever fail.

     I realized that all of the good things I was doing: being a wife, a neighbor, a missionary, a daughter, and a friend were all meaningless if I wasn’t doing them out of love for God. Without the love of God I go through the motions but I am tired, joyless, uninspired and selfish. If I am doing everything out of love for God there is an overflow of praise, cheerfulness, life, energy and passion! When I love Him above all and I am aware of His love for me it’s all joy, even the hardest day in the hardest of places! I want to live a life of radical love for God knowing if I do I won’t be able to contain His love for the world and for Oakland! It sounds so simple but it was a radical shift of my heart back to truth, back to love! It feels so good to be free to love!

     When I look at Oakland through the lenses of love I see people for who they truly are, precious children of God! I get excited about conversations and divine appointments! I am open to those who interrupt my day and I welcome them into my life! I see the flowers peeking through concrete and I hear birds singing and roosters crowing their good mornings! I see children playing in the yards and I feel hope! I see people who are inviting us deeper into their community and lives! God is at work loving Oakland and the World and He is inviting us to join Him!

     Where is your heart? What is the good news for you? How do you like to love God? I am asking you all to keep me accountable; you will easily be able to tell if I am really in love with God or not. If you see me slipping please remind me to return to my Lover Jesus!

 

I hope this uplifted and encouraged you!

Learning to Love,

Martha Miles

 

So what’s God been up to?

-Deprika, (a youth we knew in SF) moved to Oakland, had her second child and now is getting married! Praise the Lord that youth are beginning to see the beauty of marriage!

-One of the boys that lived in our transitional home a year & a half ago was asked to leave due to poor treatment of staff. He was suicidal and overdosed later in the year and we went to visit him in the hospital. It is a miracle to all of us that the kid that gave us the hardest time later reconciled and apologized to each one of my teammates and I. He went back to church and found that he has a gift of preaching! He got married in February and invited our whole team to be involved. Mateo and I got to give the toast and our team decorated the hall for Him! Praise the Lord for bringing home the prodigals!

-One of the young men that formerly lived with us in SF now lives nearby us in Oakland; he turned his back on us and God and went back to the street. Recently he has contacted us and told us that he wants relationship with us. He is trying to leave drug dealing behind and wants to start an honest business.

-We are planning a youth retreat with the SF team! We are praying that the youth will join us for a weekend of encountering God!

-I've been taking the BART to my spanish class in Berkeley and I have been praying for divine appointments! God always answers this prayer and sends me people who are hungry to learn more about Him or people who are in dire need of prayer!

Youth Retreat!

 I hope that this finds everyone well! I wanted to give everyone a quick update on how things have been going for Martha and I lately with InnerCHANGE. Two weeks ago we returned from a youth retreat we put on together with the San Francisco San Dimas InnerCHANGE team. Six youth from SF and Oakland ended up coming down to Santa Cruz for the weekend and we saw God moving in some really special and tangible ways. I felt like we had a motley crew of youth: a current gang member and his friend, the girlfriend of a gang member, two youth caught up in drug dealing, and one recovering from being an alcoholic, but God's peace was present the whole time. By the end of the weekend, youth who didn't really know each other were laughing and working together on different activities and encouraging one another. 
The weekend was focused on encountering God and each youth left the weekend saying that they felt loved and had drawn a step closer to God. We did sessions on how to hear God's voice and how to recognize it in the midst of all the other noise we hear and another on our identity in Christ as opposed to what the world tells us our identity is. We ended by writing down on pieces of paper all the names or identities that other people or the world had put on us and kept them until we could burn them at the evening bonfire. We did a low ropes course to build trust and teamwork and deepen our relationships with one another. We goofed off by having a pie eating contest and bobbing for apples. We made a bonfire and worshipped God in song before we took the papers we had written on in the morning and threw them into the fire and symbolically said goodbye to our old identity and yes to our new one. Then stayed up late telling stories and jokes.  To see these youth just laughing and enjoying themselves without having to look over their shoulder was a beautiful thing. 
Throughout the weekend, there was space for conversation, which seemed to be what the youth relished in the most. They had a chance to be heard and not just be spoken to or spoken at. I am learning and re-learning how important it is for me to listen in the work of a minister. As I listen, I begin to truly hear where a person is and can then ask God to help me discern how to best speak into their life or if it best to just be quiet. By listening, I begin to understand what is truly going on in their lives and their hearts and they begin to tell us what they are looking for, hoping for, dreaming for. God has many faces and they begin to reveal, which side of God they need to meet at that moment. For some, they are lonely and they need to know God as the friend who will never leave them. For others, they have never had the love of a father and they need to know God as their intimate Father who will always love them and who calls them his sons and daughters. For others, it is even more. They are desperate to get out of drugs or alcohol and need to see Jesus as Savior, the one who has the power to set them free.
We finished the retreat challenging the youth to put on their new identity in Jesus. What piece of this new identity were they going to leave with and hold on to instead of continuing to believe in the old identity they had. One young man, who two years ago had been shot in the back and since then, has been re-learning how to walk, told us that he left really believing that God made him in his image that God has a plan and purpose for his life. One of the young women there told us that she left beginning to believe that she really is a child of God. One of the young men told us that he prayed that God would show him that he was real and afterward he felt a warm hand on his shoulder and a warm sensation moving throughout his body. Later that weekend he told God that he would give him his whole life if he would heal his brother's eyes. I am not vouching that we make deals with God, but I realize this is where some of them are and God still receives them as they are. For all of you that prayed for us, thank you very much. We printed and posted all of your prayers at the retreat and the youth were blown away by the fact that so many people were praying for them. As we sat around the bonfire, one of the youth began to seriously ask what it means to follow Jesus with everything that one has and not just do it half-heartedly. He called us a day after the retreat to tell us that he had prayed to give Jesus his whole life. What a joyful ending to a wonderful weekend for us. To see that God so touched and captured the heart of this young man that he wanted to fully follow Jesus was incredible and filled us with hope that God wants to and will continue to reconcile people to himself.

Blessings,
Matt

Miracles Through Prayer!

Miracles that I have witnessed recently through prayer!

 

My Dad called us with severe knee pain, he had heard something pop. We prayed the prayer of faith according to James 5. He was off work due to the injury and had to go in for an MRI. We prayed that the MRI would come back without anything amiss and that he would be fit enough to return to work and be able to hunt this fall. After the MRI Dad called me, his voice was filled with joy! He told me that it had come back clear, that he was given the okay to return to work and the woods, glory be to God!

 

We prayed for a job for Sonora, the young woman from Honduras that we are sponsoring and then we set out knocking on local businesses doors asking for work! Sonora got a job! Praise the Lord!

 

We prayed for a young African American Marcus who attends high school next to our apartment. We saw him on the street and he told us that he had a bum ankle and was unable to play football. We asked if he wanted prayer and he said yes! I saw him this morning on his way to school and I inquired about his ankle, he gave me a thumbs up!

 

Our teammate Jose has been battling stomach problems for years, he has had ulcers and was unable to eat anything milk related. He went to a healing prayer mass at the Catholic Cathedral. His stomach was completely healed! We went on our team retreat and he was eating ice cream!

 

In Venezuela, one of the women that volunteers with Innerchange is due to have a baby. She was diagnosed with the same thing that my cousin’s baby recently died from. I am still feeling the loss of losing a little cousin but it motivated me to pray. While I was there I was able to lay hands on the woman’s tummy and just cry out to God for little girl in her womb. As I did she felt the baby moving and had a picture of the babe with her arms raised worshiping Jesus! Sometimes it’s our pain and our past that enable us to empathize with others and cry out with them for God’s intervention.

 

Sometimes I can’t figure out why bad things happen, Mateo’s grandma was just in a horrible accident, the brakes went out in the van that she was in and she crashed into a brick wall. It was really hard to see her bruised with a broken arm. But the beauty of the accident was seeing Mateo’s whole family surround her with love and support. I think God is working healing in Gran as we speak. He took away her pneumonia and I know He is still working on her behalf.

 

We are still praying for our good friend Tyce from Oakland. We hadn’t been able to get a hold of him for about a month. Mateo had a strong feeling that we needed to connect with him. I called him and discovered that he had lost his phone with our numbers. We decided to meet up that evening. He shared with us what had been going on in his life and I was overwhelmed by the magnitude of it. He is only my age but in the last month he had been to the hospital for heart trouble, his dad had been diagnosed with cancer, his cousin with breast cancer, his sister had been in a car accident and an uncle was at death’s door. Before we dropped him off we just sat in the car and prayed. Sometimes all you can do is listen and cry. Tyce has a lot of questions for God and I’m relieved that I don’t have to have all the answers. He prayed and it was so heartfelt. Sometimes I’m just blown away by people’s faith. Tyce is still holding on to God even after losing his mom to AIDS and many a friend to street violence in Oakland. I think God put me here in Oakland because he has so much to teach me. My most revered teachers are those who have been through hell and are still holding on to hope.

 

In the waiting I have to trust that whatever the outcome, God is working for good for those who love Him. He is so faithful, he hears every prayer, catches every tear and he is so near to us. I was praying the other day and I felt that if I opened my eyes I would see Him! His presence is so sweet, I want everyone to be able to taste and see that He is good!

 

God heals! He resurrected Jesus from death to life, he gave sight to blind, hearing to the deaf and he drove out demons. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow! His power is available to us as we pray! We can all pray and ask for what we need, when we come to him in faith he answers! The greatest gift of healing is not physical. The greatest gift is having a restored relationship with God. So please join me in praying for family, friends, neighbors and complete strangers!

 

 

 

 

Venezuela!

 

Reflections- God is breaking me. I feel like I can’t stop the well of healing tears that are bubbling out of me and spilling down my cheeks. I can’t explain it but I feel that God is helping to see myself clearly, sin and all. He is showing me my wounds from the past, my blindspots in the present and He is helping me to dream about the future. He used Venezuela, the Ranch, my husband and the Hope of Peace to help me reflect, rest and grow.

 

Venezuela- I was humbled when I saw how the InnerCHANGE team in Venezuela lives. They thrive in a place that is carved out of a mountainside. They live with risks of landslides during rainy season and risks of robbery and random acts of violence. They rely on one another and the community when tragedy strikes. Numerous people have been murdered in their barrio & many of their neighbors have died before their time due to violence. They go without things that we take for granted every single day. They have no cars, no toilets that actually flush TP, no guaranteed garbage pickup and yet they have joy! You might be asking, how could they possibly have joy in these circumstances? The reason is JESUS! He exudes from each one of them! He gives them the hope and love that they need to carry on! The team has been in Caracas for over 12 years. They are deeply invested in the community, they know their neighbors by name and they give of themselves sacrificially. I was so blessed to join their team for 2 weeks and experience their reality.

 

God knew the desires of my heart and he blessed me with more than I had asked for! I was able to practice my Spanish and I found that I can actually communicate with native Spanish speakers! I also was able to experience spiritual warfare and healing prayer in a powerful way. I talked to the team and they explained Santoria, a religion with African roots, rituals etc. They explained how many people in Venezuela are bound by fear and they use Santoria to ward off evil and death. I met one man from the community that had been deeply into this life of Santoria and he had been dedicated to the devil by his father. He used to rob graves for bones and use them for curses, rituals etc. He was deeply depressed and looking for more in life. He was introduced to Jesus through a family member and he left Santoria and began to follow Jesus. The enemy did not want him free so he was troubled physically, mentally and emotionally. The InnerCHANGE team began doing healing prayer sessions with Him. They would read the Bible to Him, sing worship songs to Jesus and pray and command evil spirits that were trying to steal, kill and destroy his life to leave. The spirits would torment him with headaches, nausea and even speak out of him in different voices as they fought to hold their ground. He repented and renounced all of the evil that he had been a part of and as he did they lost their right to torment him. Jesus came into his life and flooded him with healing, hope, peace, a Father’s love and freedom from bondage.

 

He still struggles with attacks at times. While I was there we attended a wake after a funeral because the family had invited the InnerChange team to play some worship songs. They also had invited some people from the Santoria religion to say prayers. The man who had been a former member of Santoria was troubled by their prayers. The next morning he had a horrible headache and he asked some of the team members to pray for him. They were praying and a force tried to tip one of the team members chairs backward. Then the man started throwing up. They kept on praying, singing and reading Jesus words, as they did his headache left! They invited me to join them and we prayed and worshiped the One who sets captives free! I felt peace flood the room! The man who had been tormented raised his arms to heaven and began to worship Jesus. It made me want to cry because it was so beautiful. He had a smile on His face and he looked so peaceful. One of my favorite verses is perfect love casts out fear! Jesus is the essence of love and where He is the darkness has no power! He liberates, heals, frees and brings new life to those who were in bondage!

 

“For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Colossians 1:13-14

 

The man who was healed volunteers with the IC team now! He is wonderful with troubled kids from the barrio =) I love how Jesus uses our pasts to help redeem others lives. The teams task for the time that I was there was to pull off a Vacation Bible School. We went around the neighborhood and invited all of the kids ages 5-18 to participate or volunteer with us! The theme of the week was, “You are Special!” It was 5 days of fun! We had around 60 kids each day plus volunteers! We sang songs, performed a drama, made crafts from recycled trash, talked about feelings and emotions, had youth theatre and prayed and shared a snack together. It was incredible! 

 

It would take a book to describe all that happened in Venezuela! Highlights would be the hanging/worshiping/praying/serving with the team, exploring the markets, visiting the zoo with volunteers, playing with kids, meeting neighbors and just experiencing God in new ways! One of the greatest gifts for me were prayers on my behalf. Halfway through the trip, right when VBS was starting I began to have stomach trouble. I had a little breakdown because I had visions of what I had in Mexico returning, ahh! You all prayed for me and so did the team and I was healed.

 

One of the things that I have really been asking God for was the gift of healing prayer. Before I left Venezuela the whole team prayed for me and blessed me. Their prayers spoke directly to my heart! Those prayers set in motion a course of events! Since then God has been bringing us so many people to pray for! He is providing open doors to show his love, grace, mercy and power for those who are in need! Stay tuned for the next update to hear about what God is up to and to hear my reflections from the ranch and Home of Peace!

 

Christ’s Amor,

Martita

Mateo's Mediations!

12/15/11

I invited H and A to go ice-skating with us, one a Honduran youth I used to live with and his girlfriend. Later, I invited another group of Honduran’s to go too without thinking about the rift in their relationship. When the day came for us to go, I called H and told him who else might be going. No way, he told me. ‘I’m not going if they go.’ I could feel myself getting frustrated inside because of the mistake I had made and finding it hard to comprehend the broken relationships that so many of the youth have with each other. Only days before he had been so excited to hang out with Martha and I, and then I fouled it up. So I told him that we would connect again on another day. We ended up picking up F and then meeting Joe in the city. We met up with Nettie and her Thursday night Bible study at the ice skating rink. The night ended up being a blast. Joe and F had never been on ice before and we laughed all evening as we took them around the rink hand in hand. By the end of the evening, Joe had gotten confident enough to go on his own. Throughout the evening, Joe told me more about his background. Growing up with only his mom and not ever meeting his dad. He came to the states because of how poor his family is and wanted to send money back to them.

12/24/11

It is Christmas Eve and Martha, Celida, and I head out on foot toward International Blvd., the busiest street in Oakland, to sing carols and hand out cookies to people. We stop and sing first to a group of guys playing dice on the street. They look confused and then break into dance, their mouths full of cookies, as we sing Feliz Navidad and then give them a blessing for Christmas. We stop in the Catholic Worker House to sing to them and after two songs they ask us to return for the posada they are doing down the block. A posada is a Central American tradition where they re-inact the night of Jesus’ birth and how there was no place for the baby to be born. As they walk down the street, we accompany them on our guitars, strumming songs we have just learned in the moment. The music is not that beautiful, but to see the group of people walking down the street singing and inviting Jesus to be born in their own hearts and lives is awesome. After knocking on three doors, and getting a no room in the inn response in each, we finally enter a building where people have been waiting for us. We stay for a while and listen as a nun gives a gospel message that mesmerizes me. In a simple way, she preaches the good news of Jesus in a way that touches a deep place in my heart. We leave before the posada is finished so that we can stop by the houses of some youth we know. We first stop by the house of Joe & F. They open the door and a third person appears, Jef, a youth who used to live with us in Casa San Dimas as well. It has been years since I have seen him too. He gives me a hug and we exchange numbers after giving each one of them a small gift and then singing some Christmas carols while Joe dances around the room. Later we stop by H’s house and it seems that no one is home until he jumps out of the front door with another guy in an attempt to scare us. His brother G is in the car and we tell H that. He is excited to wish his brother a Merry Christmas and walks to our car where he and his brother take some time to talk for the first time in months, which is a small act of reconciliation. It gives me joy to see it and I pray that more would take place between the people we know in Oakland and that they too would be reconciled to God.

Later that evening, after dropping Celida off at home, Martha and I stopped by a Guatemalan Christmas party. We had been invited by R after we saw him in the Walgreen’s in the morning. As we stood in the store, a young man came in that I recognized from soccer on Mondays. I decided to go by and say hello to him. “Hey, how are you? You play soccer on Monday’s right?” “Yeah, I do. Are you Mateo?” “Yeah I am. And what is your name?” “It is R.” “Good to meet you. What are you doing for Christmas?” “Oh we are going to have a little party in my apartment and we are going to eat some tamales and drink some beer. And you? What are you doing?” “We are going to visit some youth we know and sing them some Christmas carols and also bring them some cookies.” “Well if you want to come by our party you are more than welcome to.” “Wow, thank you very much,” I answered a bit taken back. I really had not expected an invitation to a party. I was only going to wish him a Merry Christmas. “Why don’t you give me your address and we will try to come by after we visit the other people we are seeing today.” After getting R’s address and phone number we left for home. I began to reflect on what our team member Jose had recommended for us as a team. ‘Find out what people in Oakland do for Christmas.’ Here it was, Christmas Eve, and I felt that God had invited us to see and experience just that. We ended up going by R’s house for an hour or so and gave them some homemade cookies. They fed us Guatemalan tamales and hot pineapple juice while we spoke with people about Guatemala and what life is like there and the challenges being in Oakland.

1/4/12

Jim Bloom is with us for a few days here in the Bay Area. He is our new Regional Director and is coming to spend a couple days with us. As we spoke this evening some of his words and insight really struck me. He reminded me of the importance of listening. He has been reading a book about a Native American who said that all cultures have been given a special kind of knowledge that we are to then share with others. This makes me want to ask the people we are meeting what gift or knowledge their culture or people has or was given. I have been feeling that Martha and I should be taking prayer walks during the day and as we do we should be calling the people we know or knocking on the doors of the people we are meeting so we can say hello and let them know they are important to us. I feel it is the time to begin putting roots down in Oakland and to become committed to some different places this year. People want to know that they are heard. Jim was reminded me too that we often don’t listen because we want to follow our own agenda and get our point across or whatever it may be. Listening is important. As we are out prayer walking the neighborhood we need to be praying for the people of peace that can open up the door to more relationships for us. We need to find ways to let them know who we are and what we are about and see if they bite or not, which is kind of like fishing for men. Also, to keep finding out the history of the city by asking people who have lived here and by reading about the history that is written down.

I just spoke with G on the phone and he moved back over the Oakland to live with some friends in the Fruitvale. This comes after he didn’t meet the requirements to move back into Casa San Dimas and admitted that he is struggling with alcohol and drugs. Last week, he came over having taken 3 ecstasy pills. He realized that it was too much and is promising not to do it again. The only problem is that he is now living in the place that has been given him so much temptation. That is where he has been going to drink and use drugs. Lord, please have mercy on this young man.

1/11/12

On Monday I went with Martha to the soccer fields to play. I have been going out there every Monday since returning from our honeymoon. Last year, a youth named H invited me to join his soccer team there. He has since stopped showing up but all the other players continue to invite me to return. The little league I am in is made up of Hondurans, Guatemalans, Mexicans, and El Salvadorians and myself. Each week I am make it a goal to learn the names of one or two more people. Martha and I have begun praying for these men and that God would bring into our midst a person of peace. I feel He has opened a door for us here and the more time we spend at the field with them, the more I see confirmation that we are in the right place. At the moment, it is not huge things that are happening, but little things that I could easily miss if I wasn’t paying attention. We are beginning to be invited into the lives and homes of the guys I am playing soccer with and are finding out that so many of them live within a couple blocks of us. I continue to feel more and more confirmation too on where we live as I see God opening up more of our neighborhood to us. As Martha and I walked onto the field we saw a youth we hadn’t see since October. Jordy had stayed with us for two nights in October while he was looking for a room to rent. We had lost track of him since then until Martha saw him a couple days before soccer. We found out that he is living on 8 blocks from us and is unfortunately still dealing drugs to make a living. We dropped him off at home after the game and invited him to come over in the next week to have dinner with us. Another youth I ran into for the second week in a row is JJ, who used to live with me in Casa San Dimas about four years ago.  It has been a long time since we have seen each other and he is dealing drugs to make a living, which makes me sad. So many of the youth we know, now see dealing as a legitimate job and refer to is their work, but it is not. Whereas before so many youth were ashamed to be selling drugs, most now don’t seem to think twice about it. This is hard for me as I see them selling death into our community and basically making blood money. After the game, I invite him to come over on another Monday to have tacos after the game and his face lights up. So many of these youth we know from Honduras and from other Central American countries too don’t seem to have anyone that is really caring for them or looking out for their best interest. What gave me a lot of joy that day was seeing one of the teams allow Martha to play on their team. She came with her shoes and shin guards and after seeing our friend R, he invited her to join them for the day.

Before going to bed last night, I called G to check up on him. Since moving into the Fruitvale in Oakland with some of his friends, I have been worried that he will fall deeper into alcoholism and drug addiction. He tells me he is watching a movie. I ask him if he is drinking tonight and he says no, he doesn’t have the money. This coming Thursday is his birthday and I invited him to come our house to celebrate with us. He tells me that he will see what his schedule looks like.

1/14/12

Martha and I went to Joe and F’s apartment to see them after hearing that F had been in the hospital and Joe was sick. We spent the morning making them soup and brought it to them in the evening with some homemade biscuits. We spent about an hour or so just catching up with them and before leaving Fanny let us lay hands on her and pray for her health. I had been feeling really strongly in my heart, that we were supposed to go over and pray for her.

1/16/12

Today is Martin Luther King Day. We spent the morning at an event called Stop the Violence where ministries, activists, artists, and other people from the city came together in solidarity to raise their voice against the violence that has been happening in Oakland. It was inspiring for me to see some many different people using the gifts God has given them to give back to this community. One thing Martha and I have begun to notice and hear though is that many people in the city are not connected with each other. What would it look like for us to get people together in the city, even just a few at a time? It would cool to open our house to some of those leaders and get to know them and offer them the chance to get to know others. We ended up talking with an activist named George who gave us a recommendation on how to get into the Juvenile Hall. Then we spoke with a guy named Mustaffa who was in jail for murder and now after Jesus changed his life, he is running a ministry where he helps youth make music. We thought of H and his girlfriend and trying to hook them up with that ministry.

Later, Martha and I went out to the soccer fields again today to connect and play with my soccer team. We arrived early and messed around for an hour with Joe, F, and Cris. A young man came from a church we had visited last week, La Iglesia Presbiteriana Hispana. We had gone to visit their youth group and had met him there. We had invited him to come play on Monday and he took us seriously. We ended up winning 10-1. After the game, I invited most of the guys over to our house for dinner, but only Cris, Joe, and F accepted the invitation. One Honduran, named Andy, always seems to be wearing a hard look on him, but after giving him an invite to our home, he seemed to soften a bit. “No, I can’t tonight Mateo. We are about six guys and if we go, then the other guys in the house will be upset that we didn’t invite them.” “No problem,” I told him. “Maybe next week.” “That’s cool. Just let me know.” “How can I get a hold of you?” “I will give you my number.” As he gave me his number, I was observing the tattoos on his arms and the braids in his hair and thinking that no matter who the person is they are not too far out of reach of God. God can redeem anyone regardless of what they look like and where they come from. We ended up giving Cris a ride home, which gave him the space to ask me for a favor. “Mateo, I need to ask you for a favor.” “Yeah, what’s up?” “I need your help getting into school. I want to learn English.” “Cool. When do you want to go?” “Tomorrow I’m busy, so how about Wednesday?” “Give me a call on Wednesday and we will go.” We dropped Cris off at his house and drove home to change before they came over. After they came over, we spent the evening eating pizza, drinking tea and just laughing together as we told stories. Both Joe and Cris continued to ask questions about English and seem to have a true hunger to learn. It seems as though God is opening up the doors for us to listen to what some of these youth want and to help meet this need as we get to know them. We pray that this will only open up further conversations about Jesus and his love for them. What has been exciting to me is that Joe, F, and Cris are already going to a church and seem very open to learning more about God and knowing him more.

1/18/12

Martha and I get a call from Joe in the afternoon asking if we are free. His car has just been towed and he needs a ride to get it. We pick he and F up and then head out for the car. On the way, we stop at a tattoo shop to get a paper from a guy there who sold them the car. We get to the towing shop and Joe presents his papers only to find out that they are incorrect. He doesn’t have registration and the papers he has are from a person that is not on the original registration. The car looks stolen is what the towing guy tells us. Joe tells the man that he will go back to try to get the original papers and if he would not charge them anymore if they are late. That was enough to send the man over the edge and give Joe and us a 10 minute lecture on why Joe had been making a mess of this. If he only had a paper that said his registration was in progress he would have given the car back in the parking lot. I stayed silent and tried to calm Joe down. Joe took the cue and shut-up. After a couple minutes the towing guy asked Martha and I how we knew Joe and F. ‘I play on the same soccer team with Joe,’ I answered. The man looked perplexed. He went to check something in his office and came back to tell us that his printer and fax machine were down. His demeanor had changed and he then told us that he was going to give the car back to Joe and F, but that they needed to take it in to complete their paperwork. I tell Joe and F that it is a miracle and they need to thank God for getting their car back.

1/19/12

Martha and I pick up Cris to take him to look for schools. We stop in the Fruitvale District at the Arise School.

1/20/12

I get up early to pick up Cris again so that we can talk to the people in the administration office for the Oakland school district.

1/22/12

Our friend Daniel, Martha and I are getting ready for church when my phone rings. It is G. He is just calling to say hello at 9:30am, which is out of the ordinary for him. Normally he calls in the evening. We talk for minute before I invite him to church with us. We accepts the invitation, which surprises me because he has wanted to do with God or church for the past year or so. 20 minutes later we pick him up and I see that he has brought a notebook so he can write down what he hears God speaking to him at the service. It gives me joy and hope to see him with us because he has been battling depression and alcoholism. After the service, he tells us that he wanted to stand up when the pastor asked if anyone wanted to give their lives to Jesus, but he felt embarrassed. Nonetheless, he tells us that he loved the service and really felt the presence of God there. He wants to know if we are going to come back on another Sunday. Of course we tell him. ‘Good. I’m coming with you then.’ This is an answer to prayer for us. We have been praying that he would find a church home.

1/23/12

I feel unmotivated today to go play soccer and hope that the rain will cancel it. It doesn’t and Aron calls me to see if I will be there to play. I tell him I will. We play 90 minutes and end up winning 4-3 on a wet and muddy field. As we end the game, I make an effort to shake every players hand from the other team. Then, I wait around with the Honduran youth that are there and strike up conversation with Andy, a youth I met three years ago in Juvenile Hall. He now has long braided hair that goes halfway down his back and tattoos cover his arms and chest. I ask him about his family and if he has any here. ‘No,’ he tells me. ‘I just have an uncle in Los Angeles.’ Another youth here completely on there own. He goes on  to tell me that he has three kids. ‘How old are you?’ I ask him. ’20 years old.’ ’20 years old!? And you have 3 kids? I am 32 and I don’t even have one!’ ‘Yeah, I have three and I am trying to work and provide for them.’ We make some more small talk before I leave for home, but before I do I invite him to come over to our house for dinner in two weeks and he says that he would like that.

Later in the evening, G calls me and I hear him in good spirits. This is a good sign. For the past couple weeks, he has been down and last week was the low point for him. One evening he called me and said so many things about other people that he called me the next day to apologize for the way he spoke to me. I forgive him and suggest that he talk to the people he is frustrated with. As we talk that evening he surprises me again, by telling me called the two people that he felt angry toward and asked them for forgiveness. I am stunned and taken aback by this bold act of reconciliation. ‘And how did each of them respond?’ I ask him. ‘Very well,’ he tells me. ‘Both of them told me their side of the story and I realize I was judging them without totally understand what was happening. I was letting my feelings grow inside me without expressing them.’ There is a pause and then he continues. ‘Mateo, I really need to change my life. I need to get out of this apartment. Before I used to always go visit Jose and Celida and now after work I just come home. You know why?’ ‘Why?’ I ask. ‘Because it has everything. (Everything meaning drugs and alcohol.) The guys I live with aren’t bad, but they are a bad influence for me. I can’t change if I stay in this house.’ I am silently rejoicing because we have been praying that he would see that he needs to get out of that apartment and live somewhere else. ‘Mateo I want to keep going to the church too. Tell me if you are going to go again because I want to go with you.’

Introducing My Husband!

Many of you have been reading my blog over the past couple of years! I have decided to update it and invite my husband Matt to write as well! From now on we will sign our name at the bottom so you know who is writing the post! Matt or Mateo has a different voice and perspective that I think you will really enjoy! To view our blog the new address is: http://missionarymiles.posterous.com Feel free to pass it on to others who might enjoy reading it! I have also decided to open our blog to comments (before only followers could leave a message), so please feel free to give us feedback =)

Christ's Love,

Martha (Formerly Huls) Miles

Futbol!

Who would have thought that God can use the things we love to do to bring Him the glory? My husband was invited to play futbol (soccer) with a group of Hondurans and Guatemalans. He has been playing for almost a year. The first Monday that I went I was so excited to join in a game, much to my dismay they told me, no chicas! It is too rough they said, the teams are full, you can cheer but you can't play during a real game. I was bummed, I love soccer and I was really hoping to get better! I resigned myself to sitting on the sidelines. Little did I know that God would use that time to deepen the relationships with the players girlfriends. I heard so many stories! It was a door into their lives and into honduran drug dealing and culture. I found out who was pregnant, what the drama of the week was and I got to hear about the girls struggles, hopes and dreams. The girls shared how they wanted jobs rather than selling drugs. They told me about how it is the norm for their men to cheat on them and they told me how much it hurts. One woman shared that her 3 children were still in Honduras and she had fled due to domestic violence. They told me how they regretted losing their virginity as teens. They shared how scared they were of pregnancy and motherhood. Most of them shared about how broken their families were and how they had grown up on the streets flirting with gangs and drug culture as a means of survival. Sitting the sidelines gave me an education and and empathy for the youth of Oakland!

When winter set in, the sidelines were cold! The girls slowly began to fade away and then stopped coming to games because of the temp; I followed suit! This week it was unusually warm so I decided to hangout because I really wanted to get to know more of the dealers who play on Mondays as well as more of the guatemalan day laborers! Something told me to bring my cleats and shin guards, maybe just maybe I could practice with them before a game.

Well practice I did, I saw a youth that I knew and he let me take some shots on goal. Soon others boys were giving me pointers! They were really helpful and encouraging! They asked me, you have boyfriend? No, I have husband, he is the gringo who is playing on the other field. Oh they said, he is buen hombre (good man)! Their game was about to start so I jokingly said, well if you need a jugadora (player), I am open to playing! I was so surprised when they actually took me up on it! They asked if I had played before and I told them that I had played in High school with girls. They sized me up and gave me a shot! The other team was fine with me playing until my team got a goal, lol. Then they said, you have too many players! I volunteered to leave but my teamates rushed to my defense and said let the girl play, she doesn't count! Finally the other team consented and I was able to play a full 90 minute game! I even touched the ball a couple of times! 

After the game my teamates wanted to talk, they asked me if I was a mormon and I told them No, but I do love Jesus. I told them that I had mormon friends in high school and that I really admired them because they didn't drink. The boys quickly corrected me and said well we don't discriminate, we like to drink and smoke! Most youth hide behind a mask for awhile until they know me, but not these boys. Their candid honesty was refreshing! Mateo came over and I introduced him to my new El Salvadoran teamates! They gave us their number and invited me to come and play again! 

It sounds funny but it was one of the best afternoons of my life! I love how God uses a crazy thing like soccer to build His kingdom. It confirmed my belief that we are one big family! I love how something as simple as soccer can break down walls and open conversations about faith =) Thank you Jesus that this is my calling simply to love in the context that you have placed me in and to share the hope that I have in you!

 

 

 

 

 

Gratefulness

Devotion 3: Affections of the Heart by Jonathan Edwards

We are moved by affection! Jesus give me a holy fear, hope, love, compassion, zeal, sorrow, gratitude and joy! I want my heart to worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! One of the questions of reflection was, what am I grateful for? Make a list of gratitude and as you write begin to open your mouth and praise HIM!

I am grateful for…

-a loving husband

-a home

-rest

-health

-the Spirit of God who brings healing

-multiple families around the world

-making Christmas cookies to give away

-enough money to pay for rent, phone, food, loans, insurance, Christmas presents & tithe

-being able to live out the calling that God has placed on my life

-God’s overriding goodness in every area of my life

-God helping me to forgive my enemies

-youth and how funny they are

-open doors to new relationships in Oakland with drug dealers  & gang members

-being able to have time to pray and worship with my teammates

-a laptop so I can write and share it with the world

-all the fun wedding presents that I get to use for hospitality

-a guest room for anyone in need of a bed or a get away

-creativity

-my Oakland neighbors and community

-authentic faith of those around me

-intimacy with God

-the scrutiny and purifying power of God’s spirit

-grace

-rivers of JOY!

-Christmas carols, songs and music!

-Nature

-Roosters crowing in the hood in the morning

-a little patio with sunset seating right out my back door

-hot water and indoor plumbing

-trash pickup

-parking

-a paid off car that we get to share

-the fruit of the vine, wine!

-fun & zany friends and parties

-pictures and a camera

-our trip to Mexico

-books and being educated enough to read

-a social security card, visa, drivers license, bank account, and memberships

-free healthcare when we don’t have insurance

-CA sunshine and warmth

-a high school diploma & a college education

-my childhood memories

-parents that are married

-wonderful siblings and nephews

-my new family through marriage

-freedom to follow Jesus

-the process of deliverance from old mindsets like fear and people pleasing

-learning a new language

-having not one Bible but enough Bibles to give away!

-clothing and shoes

-for furniture

-for experiencing different cultures

-for the extermination of roaches in my new apartment

-for flowers bursting through concrete

-for cleaning products

-for dishes and a place to wash them

-for clean drinking water

-for parks and recreation

-for the ability to smell, taste, feel, touch, hear and see

-hand written cards and letters

-for no TV & no microwave

-for an imagination

-for the simple life

-for play and pleasure

-for the ability to see Jesus in each person

-for God’s LOVE!

-for hope, purpose and passion

-for hobbies

-for learning and a sound mind

-for mentors, teachers and spiritual guides

-for God’s power when I am weak

-for InnerCHANGE and my fellow missionaries

-for the experience of travel by train, plane and car

-for the saints who have gone before

-the voice of Jesus

-the embrace of a friend

-for light always overcoming darkness

-that the victory is already won

-for a prayer team

-for instruments

-for tools

-for animals and pets

-for dreams and visions

-for the heavenly surrounding us

-for God’s holiness

-for romance!

-for answered prayers

-for God giving us the things we don’t possess like patience

-for God sending his son to be our savior

-for suffering

-for persecution

-for all the things & circumstances that break me and bring me to my knees

-for God’s presence when I am homesick or lonely

-for talents, gifts and abilities

-for God making each of us unique

-for work

-for donors

-God’s promises, he always keeps them

-God’s word it is always true

-for the gospel

-for God taking the violence in my heart and turning it into love

-for God going deep into my heart and healing my wounds

-for adventures

-for the crazy life that God calls us into that confounds the world!

-for the upside down kingdom

-for seeing God build bridges between rich and poor

-for being able to live out a radical life

-for the hope of heaven and being able to see our loved ones again

-for inspiration and Holy Spirit moments

-for divine appointments

-for God’s plan which is better than my own

-for redemption

-for a heart that mourns over prostitution, addiction, greed, injustice, violations against human rights, racism, hatred, abuse, neglect, broken relationships, abortion, divorce, perversion, porn, gangs, drugs, a broken bride (the church), mistreatment of the poor, orphan, and the immigrants in our midst & my own rejection of Jesus and my neighbor

-people who are moved by love to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves           

-for the ability to bless rather than curse

-for non-judgmental people who don’t have to be right

-for those who listen

-for those who think outside of the box and seek to alleviate the suffering of humanity

-for those who do simple things with great love

-for the generous who know its all God’s anyway

-for acts of service that don’t expect repayment

-for people who love children

-for children and how they teach us wonder

-for amazement, awe and the fear of God

-for laughter, jokes and lightness of heart

-for peace

-for all who have showed me mercy, compassion and kindness

-for the teachable moments

-for God using all means necessary to get our attention

-for God being the hound of heaven who never stops pursuing us

-for humility and courage to follow the narrow path

-for God caring enough to show us our sin and to save us completely

-for each human being, a masterpiece made in his image!

-for law enforcement, for fireman and for ambulances and emts

-for jobs, unions and opportunities for employments

-for the right to vote

-for being born into a time when women have a voice

-for contacts and glasses

-being able to go to the dentist

-for breath

-for organs that function without me even thinking about them

-for the ability to grow things

-for the miracle of life and babies

-for all that I have been given that I take for granted!

 

Wow, this list could go on forever… what a powerful experience to pause and just say thank you! There are so many things that I haven’t even thought of yet and listed! To say them out loud is really humbling! We don’t deserve all that we have been given, it is all gift! It is meant to be shared! Help me not to be a hoarder but to give as freely as it has been given! Help me to put you above all Lord Jesus! Be my first love and my primary affection! Let my life flow out of you! Let it be characterized by your attributes, I want to disappear so that when people look at me they see you! Come Lord Jesus, invade all the places in my life where I haven’t allowed you access! Transform, redeem and make me new! Make me alive with your power and let me express love and gratitude without ceasing!

Discipleship

Devotion 2: Discipleship

Am I making disciples in my image or do they actually look like Jesus? Do I look like Jesus? Am I actually obeying Christ’s teaching as a whole or only the parts that are easy to follow? Does the church actually make disciples?

Making disciples is really hard work. Go to the nations, that’s easy enough, then baptize not to hard either…but here is the kicker and the part most omitted. Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. Teaching takes a lot of time, effort, perseverance, patience and love. We as Americans resist the word obey, we hear it and bristle, because it means life is no longer about us. It means we have to change and give up things that own us. It means shedding old mindsets and dying to self. We rebell against obeying anything or anyone. It takes more than a Sunday school class, more than confirmation, more than a weekly sermon to teach obedience. You have to model the beauty of obedience to God and make people hunger for a similar relationship with Him. When they do want to follow you, you lead them to Jesus and then walk with them through life. Jesus walked, ate, laughed, cried, partied and shared intimate life with his disciples for 3 whole years! They still didn’t get it, so He sent the Spirit to keep on teaching them until the end of time. It seems like discipleship was important to Jesus so it should be important to us as well.

This following Jesus stuff is tough, it costs everything! But think about the cost of a life of non-discipleship. To quote Dallas Willard, “Nondiscipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in light of God’s overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, it costs exactly that abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring.” I don’t know about you, but I would rather give my all to follow Jesus and have abundance in this life and for eternity than miss out by living a life without Him as my Lord.

 

 

Christmas Reflections

Jesus I saw you in Oakland this Christmas Season. I saw you in Jamie, one of our neighbors and friends who has been living in Oakland for over a decade! Jamie was part of a team called Mission Year, young twenties and thirties who relocate to tough cities and commit to loving their neighbors for a year! Jamie decided to remain in Oakland even after her team returned to their former lives. It is pretty beautiful to see the fruit of God’s love in her life. Years ago she started a small Christmas party for neighborhood kids with games and gifts and the gospel. It grew and this year there were over 75 kids present, plus parents and volunteers! Jamie and her Urban Mentors Network found gifts and donations to bless the community with! Matt and I volunteered for the day and had a blast playing games with all the kids! Some of the kids had never played with play dough before! There was cupcake frosting, 2 on 2 basketball, ring toss, face painting, a photo booth and many other activities. As I looked around the party, there was so much love and joy! I saw Jesus in each of the children, parents and volunteers as they laughed and played. Innocence was restored to Oakland for a day, it was a place where children were allowed to be children. I am so grateful that you are alive in Oakland Jesus!

 

When I began as a missionary I had the notion that I had to transport Jesus to the places where he called me, but I was so wrong! He is already there, ready to meet me! I see him most vividly in each one of his children! I am realizing that I have so many ideas and prejudices that I need to let go of in order to just to be able to embrace Jesus in a new place. The planner and party animal in me wants to plan activities to invite others to! It is sometimes really tough to wait for an invitation into the community. As we were thinking about Christmas my teammate Celida and I were dreaming of throwing a party for the neighbors, we both love hospitality! But our director Jose gave us some wisdom, he challenged us to go and find out how people in Oakland spend their Christmas, he challenged us to wait for invitations into the community. To be honest I had my doubts, we just moved to our new apartment in October and we have barely scratched the surface in gaining trust with our neighbors. My teammates and I came up with a plan in order to see the broad picture of what was going on in households and streets of Oakland during Christmas. We decided to put together Spanglish songs and go caroling visiting the places where we knew there were youth! We also decided to make cookies to give away. As the 24th (Latino Christmas) approached I was surprised by the answers I got as I asked youth what they were doing for Christmas. Everyone of them told me that they were going to go and get drunk at a party. When I asked them why, they responded, “What is Christmas without alcohol?” I was so saddened by their response. We prepared cookies and songs and prayed that God would open doors and homes in Oakland for us on Christmas Eve. On the 24th Mateo and I woke up and decided to run to Walgreens to finish a last minute gift. I always joke that God is never late, but rarely on my timetable! As we finished our gifts and were about to checkout Mateo noticed a young Guatemalan youth that he knew from playing soccer. We went up to wish him a Feliz Navidad and much to our surprise he remembered Mateo by name. He was so warm and kind and he invited us to his home for tamales and cerzesas later in the evening! We discovered that he lived less than 2 blocks from our apartment! We invited some of the youth who had known us in San Francisco to go caroling with us. One of them, Jorge decided to join us.

I admire Jorge so much, in the past couple of years he kicked a cocaine addiction, learned English and has 2 jobs! He helped us move into our new apartment in Oakland by providing a truck! A normal expression of his love is to bless us with groceries. He is like a brother to us. He lived with us in San Francisco for a couple of years and then rented out his own apartment. He recently admitted to us that he is really struggling with lonliness and he told us that his coping mechanism has been alcohol. He was really torn on Christmas, he wanted to stay away from alcohol but his friends were throwing a party with alcohol. We asked him to come with us and we could see his internal struggle. Our teammate Celida fixed his guitar as a Christmas present and he consented to join us for caroling! As we hit the streets after dark it was interesting. On our block we found a group of drunk men playing a gambling game on the sidewalk! They were so excited to get a Christmas cookie and to sing Christmas songs with us! We told them that Jesus loves them! As we walked down the street we stopped by the Catholic Worker House. We have only met them a couple of times but I love what they offer. They house immigrants who are day laborers and also provide a free hot lunch everyday to anyone in the community who is hungry. They were so happy to see us with 3 guitars! They were getting ready to go down the main street doing the Posadas and they needed people who could play instruments. We were so excited, our second invite of the day! The Posada is very Christ centered, the group walks the streets, there is one person dressed as Mary and another as Joseph. They sing at different houses and ask if there is room at the inn for them? The people inside the house carol back their response. Moving from house to house you finally find a place with an open door! The open house this year was Corazon del Pueblo or (Heart of the People or Community). A nun gave a wonderful message about true followers of Jesus. There was a huge group of maybe 40 people with food and a piñata! We had to cut out early but it was fun to learn a new latino tradition. By this time Jorge was really struggling as withdrawl set in, he left his guitar and was walking down to street to his friend’s house. We pleaded with him, “come with us please, you don’t have to drink.” He finally turned around and decided to visit more houses with us.  

 

Our next stops were three households of Honduran drug dealers, most of them under the age of 25. We were so surprised to find that all of them were still at home just getting ready to go out for the evening. God provides divine appointments! They joined us in singing Christmas songs and they were so happy that someone remembered them. It must be so hard to be away from your family and homeland for Christmas. My family blessed us with little gifts to give them. They turned into little kids as they opened their gifts and ate cookies. We were able to hug them and tell them that we loved them and that Jesus loved them even more. God has been blessing us with open doors into their homes and community. They call us now when they want help finding an honest job or when they are in crisis. They like hanging out, playing soccer and learning how to cook. We are excited to deepen our friendships with them and invite them to know Jesus in the New Year!

 

Jorge’s younger brother Herman lives in one of the houses that we visited. It breaks our heart because he used to lived with us in San Francisco but moved to Oakland to pursue a life of fast money and the street. He recently got a girl pregnant and they were both heartbroken when she miscarried. He has been burning bridges and losing friends as he goes deeper into the darkness. Earlier this year when he was kicked out of his apartment for dealing he tried to talk his brother Jorge into taking him in. Jorge really thought about it but told his brother that he had to give up the lifestyle and change if they were going to live together. Herman pretty much disowned his brother and stopped answering his calls. Jorge was so saddened and told me that he no longer has a brother. Both brothers ask us about each other. We hope that God can use us a bridge of reconciliation. As we stopped by Herman’s house we asked Jorge if he wanted to wish his hermano a Feliz Navidad. He decided to stay in the car. As we were leaving Herman’s house I told him that his brother was in the car if he wanted to relay a message or see him. To my amazement Herman said, “ I want to wish him a Merry Christmas.” It was a step in the right direction, the two brothers saw each other for the first time in months. I pray that they can be close someday. I really believe that God has a calling on both of their lives. I pray that they both surrender and follow Jesus and serve him together. I think they could be like Christ’s disciples James and John, the sons of Thunder. They are both leaders with unique gifts, I pray that they will use them for God’s glory!

 

We closed out the night by going to the Guatemalan tamale party! To be honest I was expecting a group of drunken men, a dirty apartment and taco truck tamales. I was blown away! We entered a decorated apartment bursting at the seams with a whole family. They seated us at the table and gave us the best tamales that I have ever tasted. They engaged us in conversation and we found out that all of them are Mayans, their first language is Mam and their second is Spanish. Many of them fled Guatemala due to poor wages and a violent government. The youth who invited us spoke perfect English and told us that he was a chef in Berkeley. I repented of all my prejudices. There was drinking but it was in a side room and under control, most of the family was having more fun just talking, laughing and playing with the kids. It was a great way to end the night!

 

Mateo and I drove to his parents house to spend the night praising God all the way and marveling at the events of the day! We feel so blessed to be here in Oakland! We came to love but we have been overwhelmed by the love and hospitality of our new community! I am so stoked to see what God has for us in the New Year here in Oakland!