An intense week...
Posted by Amanda , Monday, February 15, 2010 1:33 PM
Speaker: Greg Burch/Brooke Burns
Topic: City Wide Strategies/Setting the Captives Free
I feel like this past week was one of the most intense weeks we’ve had here so far, at least when it comes to emotions and feeling overwhelmed. The first half of the week was taught by Greg Burch, a missionary from California who has been working in Latin America for over 15 years. He talked to us about pulling together ministries that are working in the same city to help each other out. Each ministry offers something different and when working together, they can really help and change the lives of children holistically. We also spent a lot of time reading different stories of people that had tried to start ministries for children and analyzed what we could take away from their efforts. Before we start doing ministry, we need to do our research and not just “jump” into something. So often, I get the feeling that I just “want to do something,” which is a good feeling to have, but I also need to take precautions and not go into things ignorantly.
On his last day of teaching, Greg shared with us some videos from Nigeria about “child witches.” If you have never heard of this, be forewarned…it is really intense stuff. Some evangelical churches in Nigeria are claiming that children are witches. When this happens, the children are basically thrown out onto the streets and left to die. The parents no longer want them because they are a “witch.” These kids can be as young as four- and five-years old with absolutely no knowledge of what a witch even is. Then, the pastor of the church will have the parents pay for them to “exorcise” their child, which involves brutal beatings and things they could not even mention or show in the videos. After watching these videos, I honestly felt depressed. There is so much corruption in this world, even in the so-called “church.” It’s super overwhelming.
The second half of the week, Brooke Burns came and spoke to us about human trafficking, especially in Costa Rica. One of the things she brought to our attention is that Costa Rica is the #1 destination for child sex trafficking in the Western Hemisphere. There are around 300 brothels in San Jose alone and about 3,000 children on the street of San Jose on any given night. Yet even more intense information…
But then I remember that the change starts with me and each individual child and person. These are hard situations, but what I can do is begin with myself, my resources and focus on the individuals I am meeting here. The reality is that I will not be able to stop all injustice from happening everywhere in the world, but I can help change a few people’s lives in an amazing way. For that, I am insanely thankful.
