There is a group of teenage boys from the trash dump that have so captivated my heart. Most of them don’t have parents or much of a traditional education. Most of them come with pretty big chips on their shoulders. They are deeply hurting and have lost most hope of a better life. I love them all but Chepe is my favorite. I have watched him go deeper and deeper into drugs and street life over the past 2 years. But the Lord keeps showing me visions of Chepe leading missions teams and driving ministry vans that we don’t even own yet on a base that we also don’t own yet. He has shown me a vision of Chepe cutting a ribbon on a beautiful new children’s center and that Chepe will help rescue children so they don’t have to grow up on the streets like he had to. Needless to say it has been hard to watch Chepe living the opposite of those visions, however, they fill me with endless hope and excitement for his future.
I invited Chepe and three of his friends over to my house for lunch. I just wanted them to get out of the dump for the day and eat a good meal and have a place to relax and hang out. Myself and three of our other missionaries live walking distance to the trash dump so the boys walked over the next day and I was so excited that they actually came! The team helped prepare a small feast for the boys. When they arrived, our whole team was there to greet them and hang out. One of the 4 boys, Wilton, was sitting at my kitchen table watching a video on one of our volunteer’s phones. The video happened to be of a meeting where the Holy Spirit began to fall over the congregation. Suddenly Wilton started to shake as he watched the video. Our volunteer explained to Wilton that the video was the Holy Spirit and he asked Wilton, “Do you want the Holy Spirit?” As soon as Wilton said YES, the Holy Spirit came upon Wilton and he was overcome by the presence of God. His physical body was sitting at my kitchen table but Wilton was not home. About 30 minutes later, Wilton began to talk and be present again. He looked at Chepe and with tears in his eyes, Wilton said, “You need to have this.” He laid his hands on Chepe and Chepe fell to the ground under the power of the Holy Spirit. Wilton knelt down beside him and gently started stroking his head and for 20 minutes he prophesied life, purpose, hope, destiny and calling over Chepe. We all watched in complete awe and reverence at what Jesus was doing in these boys. I went and grabbed a wash bin, towels and oil so we could wash the boys feet. The fathers in the room knelt down and washed the boys feet as the mothers held the boys and hugged them. As we began to wash Armando’s feet, he wept and held his head down low. Chepe came over and looked Armando in the eyes and began telling him that he was so sorry for anyone who had ever made fun of him in the trash dump and for all the times that people were mean to him. Armando wept as his heart was ministered to through Chepe. You see, Armando has a terrible limp and a mouth full of broken teeth. He is viewed as weak and ugly and therefore picked on pretty bad by other people in the trash dump. But here was Chepe standing in the gap for those who had hurt beautiful Armando. Chepe was loving him with the Father’s heart. For almost 6 hours the boys were in my house being touched by the love and fire of God. As I drove them home, I invited them to come back the next day if they wanted to be baptized in water.
The next day I was so excited to see the boys walking back to my house to be baptized. However, Wilton was walking with half of his family! His mom walks up to my porch and says, “Kara I need to talk to you about yesterday!” In all honesty I felt a bit nervous at what she would say to me. She began to tell me that when Wilton got home that he started laying his hands on various people in their family and they began falling to the ground. One of their neighbors walked onto their property to come and buy a soda from them and she fell face down in the dirt under the power of the Holy Spirit. No one prayed for her or laid hands on her. Just upon entering the property, the presence of the Holy Spirit hit her and for almost an hour she laid in the dirt unable to stand up. Wilton and his family weren’t able to go to bed until after 1am. His mom came because their whole family was powerfully touched by the Lord and she wanted to know if we would baptize her younger son as well. We loaded up everyone in the jeeps and drove to the lagoon to baptize these amazing boys. As one big Kingdom family we swam and laughed and experienced the goodness of the Lord together. The fathers on our team baptized each of the boys who wanted to be baptized. We watched as hopeless street boys were filled with hope, dreams and love. As we swam, I heard the boys begin to admit their dreams of reading and writing and one boy who admitted that he dreamed of becoming a police officer one day. Thank you Holy Spirit for coming and doing what only you can do in these precious boys hearts and lives. I hope this testimony blesses you as much as it has us and we are excited to walk with the boys as they begin their new lives in the joy of Christ Jesus.
Hugs, love and joy in Jesus,
Kara Westermann