Next we went to a busy street market with storefronts boasting everything from rice and beans to cosmetics to motorcycles. We bought massive bags of both rice and beans, 100 bags of salt, and boxes of matches, as well as smaller plastic bags to divide up the goods for distribution. Back at base, we became a processing unit and within an hour we 100 bags each of rice and beans ready to go. We then took time to be quiet and prepare for a solid night of evangelism, broken only by lunch of stir fried carrots, broccoli, and chicken over rice with fried plantains on the side, my new favorite. The day was relatively cool, cold by their standards, enough to warrant long sleeves.
Around 2:30 we took motocars to Belen and met at the church to pray and meet up with some young members who would be our guides and translators. They warned us to cover our bags and stay together, and make sure that women stayed close to men. I passed a boy that said, "Hola gringo!" to which I smiled and said hola, completely unmoved by the derogatory term. We walked through a plaza to a side park area with a circular stage area about 20 feet in diameter, surrounded by a salon, some houses, and vendors of juices in clear plastic bags and cups of jello.
We played salsa music to grab attention before Mark and Cesar introduced Shackles and Doors. Mark also presented the gospel afterwards and many hands went up to accept Christ. One woman listening from a second floor window had her hand up, so I climbed two old appliances and jumped up to put a tract in her hand. Jenn and I called out what it said to her and she prayed tearfully with us to bring her to Christ. She then hobbled downstairs and we prayed for healing in her legs so she could go to church. We then spoke with and prayed for a much less receptive group in and by the salon, just before PR called out, "Let's go!"
We grabbed our stuff and walked to an open street area where we plunked down in front of a house with a woman in front of a grill, plating up food cooked in banana leaves. Houses were all on one-story stilts, often painted in bright pastels, and kids laughingly chased each other through the maze of people and motorbikes. Osmar grabbed attention by rattling off jokes and talking in a high pitched child's voice, then Mark introduced Tu Has, Schackles, and Doors. I noticed a group of high-school aged kids in soccer jerseys off to the left side. Some more came up, then walked off, and I prayed constantly for those still there, that they would have open hearts and that they would feel the tug of the Spirit. We wrapped up our presentation, and while Osmar shared his testimony on the mic, Jenn, Cesar, and I walked over to these guys. They had apparently become Christians at a very young age, but lost their passion, and wanted it back. We prayed with them to begin a new life with Christ. Then, "Let's go!"
The third stop was the open plaza that we had walked through a couple times already. The sun was setting, but the plaza had lights (and roaming police officers). We did Shackles, then I introduced Doors, and after the drama I gave the message. I ran out of steam towards the end and asked Cesar to walk people through raising hands if they wanted to accept Christ and praying with them, but hands went up, and it was amazing to be used this way. Jenn and I prayed with a woman with an incessantly crying baby and a man who said that was already a Christian but did not know of any churches around. We connected him with one of the young members.
We walked with a feeling of victory back to the motocars and ate spaghetti and meat sauce back at the base in an exhausted state. Bedtime was immediate, since breakfast would be 5:30AM to get a jump on travelling to the next river village.
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