On Saturday, my friend Lucas and I went to a neighborhood on the outskirts of the city of Córdoba, where he is a teacher. It is a poor neighborhood with many problems like prostitution, sexual abuse and all kinds of delinquency. We went to investigate possibilities of reaching out for Christ there. On the way to the neighborhood, Lucas told me different stories about how some of the kids in his school had been raped or had parents who are prostitutes and that many of the girls would do the same.
When we arrived we asked a young father if he knew if there was a church in the neighborhood. He told us that there isn’t but that there was a guy who teaches catechism classes on Saturday’s. His name is Jorge, and the Jesuit priest that we met is named Pablo. We told Jorge that we are believers, but not from any particular denomination (meaning not Catholic). He invited us to observe the catechism. As we walked across the street to the community center, there were about 30 children waiting. Most of them were about 12-15 years of age. To our surprise, Jorge told the children that Lucas and I were going to teach the older class. Lucas knows some who were in our class because he teaches them every week.
At first, I didn’t know what to do with this opportunity. I knew that if I really sat down with the priest and with Jorge that we might disagree on many things. Then I thought, God has opened this door, and we preach Christ and not ourselves… so they shouldn’t have a problem with that.
We spent the next hour talking to the kids about Christ, and the need to be born again to have Spiritual life. It seems like some of the kids were getting it. At the end of the time, we asked them to write down what ever they wanted to say to God in their notebooks. Some of them wrote to Mary, some wrote the Lord’s Prayer, some asked for God to bless their family, some asked for their sins to be forgiven, and some wrote things like, “Today, I learned that I need to have Spiritual life with You.”
Lord, will you guide us to speak truth to all people. Will you open their hearts to know You, and to trust in Christ! Help us to overcome religion for the sake of Christ. God through Your Spirit, please minister to Jorge and Pablo’s hearts.
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