Transformation en La Treinta!

Transformation en La Treinta!

I have always seen transformation as a slow process. I’ve doubted God is working because I haven’t seen the “fruit” instantly. And people seem so reluctant to change and even more so listen to what their life could be. I’ve been through my own transformation process that seems to take years to make one step closer to God. I wonder, is it me? Or does God just want to do it at his pace. Then I see people who come to know Jesus, but there is no transformation. They get what they can take, but want to keep their old life. Tim Keller says something like this:  If we take what we like from the gospel it’s not the gospel we believe, but ourselves. 

So this week something crazy happened that transformed my understanding of transformation. No pun intended. We were supposed to host a women’s event at the church. But the women that were set to come had all just left to go to the market. We were like “well shoot.”  And our hosts decided we could use the time to talk to some people on the streets. So we are in this neighborhood called La Treinta. La Treinta is a street/neighborhood known for drugs and prostitution. We got to the corner of the street and there were two women caddy corner from each other, sitting on the curb… waiting for a client. Half our group stayed with the one lady and my group decided to talk to *Julie.She was sitting down on the curb under the roof of an old gasoline station with a blue tank top and pink leggings. She looked sad. We began to talk to her. She was so disengaged. It was hard for her to make eye contact with us. We sat down on the ground with her. My teammates Wagz and Jenn were gentle and loving with their words and Bible verses. I pondered and thought lets do the women’s event right here with her. I said “Julie we are going to have an activity” and she was like “when” and I was like “right now.” The event consisted of a little teaching on how we see God and no matter how we see him that doesn’t change who he is. We ask the women to listen to their first response of how they see God and either write or draw it out and share. We were right about to start and another lady joined us. *Tara was smiling and much more engaged and more excited about the activity. The two ladies shared an understanding of God as provider but there seemed to be a gap on how they understood Jesus as merciful and restorer. 

Then, we began to share to Good News that Christ had for them but Tara was not ready because of some messy family dynamics. Meanwhile Julie was listening, but still her face and body language said she was disinterested. She commented on her wanting to be “better” before she followed Christ. It seemed like she felt a lot of shame and had to be something else before she could receive Christ… that’s what it seemed like, but I think God was using her desire to want to be “good” for him, to actually start to transform her into His daughter.

Fast forward 2 days later… we were meeting again at the church but this time for a kids event. I was in the middle of doing “the monkey” (a high energy dance that involves jumping and being crazy). I looked up and saw Julie participating in the dance. What??? She was smiling and looked joyful. I barely recognized her. Other ladies had started to filter in and we decided to do a
women’s event. Julie participated in the event, but this time her response was different. She talked about God being special to her. She was engaged and interacted with the group. She was holding someone’s baby with such gentleness and when asked to be in the group picture she was excited! I was so taken aback, I had to ask her what had happened. She told me after we had talked to her she asked God to help her get off the street. I was like “Wow!” I gave her a hug goodbye and she hugged me back. Julie is a testimony to God’s transformative power!! It is he who is redeeming her life even though she had not “given her life to Christ” God is bringing people into his Kingdom and showing them joy, compassion, and love in ways I can not even imagine. He’s refining his sons and daughters in MIRACULOUS ways. Ways that I can’t even think of or expect. 

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6 

*Julie and Tara’s names were changed for privacy reasons