Fear Be Gone

The country I currently call home--Ecuador--is a fear-shame culture with a mixture of honor and guilt. According to honorshame.com, Latin Americans are the most balanced culture. But, that is not how I grew up. Like many Westerners, I predominantly grew up in a guilt-innocence culture. After having lived in both Asian and Latin cultures, it is always intriguing to observe these differences--the fear, the shame, the way honor is carried, and even guilt.

The kids that we work with live in fear. Even before the first case of Coronavirus was announced three weeks ago, our kids feared it. The Coronavirus found its way to Ecuador via an elderly lady who traveled from Spain to Guayaquil, Ecuador. She passed on the 13th of March. As I write this, borders are closing, and international arrival and departures are canceled. (The last flight out of the country is tomorrow night.) We currently have 28 cases.

Our kids live with the fear of being robbed, fear of their alcoholic father beating their mom, fear of being (sexually) assaulted, fear of their mother or father abandoning them, and even fear death. They live opposite to what the Bible says because fear is a part of the culture they were born into. They may know the culture of Jesus because we have taught it to them, but it may not be written upon their hearts. When this is the case, or when they turn their eyes upon worldly issues, the culture of fear overcomes the culture of Jesus, and it is replaced with worry and uneasiness.

On Thursday, as we were wrapping up our afternoon with the kids, one of the girls wandered into the office where I happened to be working. She looked distressed and had anguish written all over her face. "Jessi?" She asked me. "When is the Coronavirus going to end?"

I looked at her, smiled, and told her, "I don't know, sweetie, but there is one thing I do know."

"What's that?" She asked.

"We can pray and ask God to continue to protect us, to guide our leaders, and to keep our families safe."

"Okay, I'll do that!" She replied.

With this pandemic we are facing, I believe we need to declare Psalm 91 over it and the culture of fear. Psalm 91 says, "...Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him....Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies in the day. Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday...If you make the Lord your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home. For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go. They will hold you up with their hands so you won't even hurt your foot on a stone."

Will you declare this with me? Will you pray this over our kids at the Quito Dream Center--for fear to be gone in the name of Jesus? For their eyes to behold the culture of Jesus and not the culture of fear that they know all too well? The kids we are pouring into at the Dream Center are our next generation. What better gift can we give them than to break the cycle of fear and a love for Jesus?

Praises, Blessings & Updates:

• On Thursday morning, we received word that the Ministry of Health closed schools in all of Ecuador for the next two weeks. (I believe it will be for at least four weeks, if not longer.) Our program also follows their guidelines. Therefore we also closed our program until further notice.

• I have found a small group! We meet on Thursday nights about two blocks from my apartment.

• Our teachers go above and beyond for the kids we work with! For example, Dustin* (pictured above) is eight years old and struggles with reading and writing. After Teacher Nieves talked to Dustin's mom, she agreed to bring him to the Center every Friday for some one-on-one instruction with his teacher. *Name has been changed.

Things to Pray For:

• Please keep our teachers in your prayers! They are on the "frontlines" as they pour into our kids. Pray for them to remain healthy physically and emotionally. Many of you know I dealt with burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma while in the DR. I desire that our teachers do not battle these things and equip them with the necessary tools to process issues as they come.

• Pray for our kids while we are on this "lockdown." This is not a vacation for them, as they have hard lives at home and do not eat three meals a day—many of the kids who attend our program count on the meal we serve them.

• We have officially outgrown our space at the Dream Center! We have been tight on space for a while, but we are now bursting at the seams. We cannot add on to the house we currently use. Please pray for another building to open up or for us to find land to build! Either way, this requires funds! Pray for funding to come in and for the Father to lead us to the perfect location.