A lesson

Yesterday Paty and I had our weekly meeting with Sandra. We expected to greet an upbeat girl as Paty had visited the night before and everything seemed to be going well. That was not the case. Sandra arrived with swollen eyes from much crying and told us of yet another problem in her relationship with Beto. As in our meeting the previous week we were left without words for a bit. But thanks so much for your prayers. I have no doubt that God is helping me (and Paty) to know what to say in these situations and I know that that is a result of your prayers.

We listened and counselled and then I had brought some home-made banana bread (Tabitha had a funny tummy and hadn't been eating as many bananas as normal (but she's back on form now)) and some coffee which we enjoyed.

We began to look at the parable of the sower/seed. First we read the passage and then we looked at each example as we made this collage using grass seed, thorns from our raspberry bush and various bits and pieces from around the house (kids workers never throw anything away!). We asked Sandra where she was and she said she was the good soil because amidst all the problems she has not returned to the streets. Her interesting observation is that she feels she has passed through each stage and believes that to be true for many of the street kids.

There is no doubt that very slowly we are seeing changes in her life. There is a long way to go but yet again this precious, caring and tender girl has masses of potential to win other street kids for Christ. She left the meeting a lot more positive but sadly we hear the Beto and she had more problems last night. Of course, there are two sides to every story and Alex and Paty were going round to the house to check it out. We didn't hear how that went.

Please pray for all the seed planted in these kids lives. Pray that Sandra ill continue to grow and that above all things she will guard her heart and follow God's plan for her life. Continue to pray for our wisdom in how to deal with this difficult and delicate situation. We have no meeting planned this week but I will call a couple of times to check how things are going.