The Reason For a War Room: And Other Tales

I found myself in the streets of San Jose in the middle of the night surrounded by drug addicts, alcoholics, and Trans prostitutes, just mere miles from the drug port. Our team had traveled to San Jose from Pinshurt Costa Rica (about a 5 hour drive) with our ministry host and a few others to do street evangelism for two nights. Before going I wasn’t so sure about it, maybe because Max(our host) had shared with us what we would most likely see and hear, and the precautions we needed to take. Once arriving to San Jose we settled into our hotel room, had dinner, and then went to battle in our “War room”(one of our hotel rooms) Praying, worshiping, and reading scripture until we felt a release from the Lord to go out into the streets(around 8:30pm). Striping ourselves of all jewelry, bags and cellphones, we went out into the streets with only the clothes on our back, prayer, and the gospel ready to be shared. The moment we stepped onto the streets I felt complete peace from the Lord, knowing that He was going before us, he was behind us , and all around us; guiding our every step. 

Splitting into three groups, staying on the same block always making sure one of the other teams was in eye sight; we began walking up to people who were laying on the sidewalks or walking around. Sharing with them about Jesus, praying for them, and letting them know there is a way out of the life they are living if they really wanted it. With us we had three men from Teen Challenge, two recent graduates of the program and one just about to graduate. They shared their testimonies with each person they met, telling them about where they were and were they are now, the freedom they are walking in. We told each person to show up at the bus stop the next morning to go to Teen Challenge if they really wanted help. One older man in particular showed up at the bus stop on the last morning at the very last minute to go to the center. *Manuel, known as the OG of the streets of San Jose. My team had gone to the mens center later that week for an all night prayer and worship vigil on Good Friday, while there I kept looking over at *Manuel I could tell the he was trying to take it all in, wondering if he really wanted this. I began praying for him, that he would want to stay and that he would see the program through. A little while later, in the middle of the night he came to the center of the room where we had a few chairs sitting for those that wanted prayer, and he gave his life to Christ! Amen!!                                                              The week of Easter we seen 10+ people get saved!

Our team is partnering with an American missionary family  who runs a mens and women’s Global Teen Challenge program. So cool!! The mens center houses 35+ men and their staff, while the women’s center currently has 6 students(two just came this past week!) plus two staff. We are staying in the women’s home found in the middle of the jungle(yep, living in the jungle again accept this time it’s flat), Where monkeys live in the trees in our yard, a handful of Cacao trees grow, and the mosquitoes try and eat us alive most days(haha). The ministry is mostly supported by the selling of chocolate bars witch is grown and made here. And we’ve taste tested on the regular while here! They are currently in the groundbreaking process of a women’s and children’s Teen Challenge center, it will be the first in all of Central America. A place where moms can come and get rehab without having to leave their young children. My team and I were able to go to the property and pray over it and for each woman and child that would step through the doors.

Day to day ministry has looked like spending the day with the women, working with them during their work hours harvesting Cacao, doing devotions with them morning and night,  sharing testimonies, and finding time to rest/have team time while they are having classes, church on Saturday at the womens home, and church on Sunday at the mens house having lunch together, hanging out, and playing “Americono Uno”(aka Spicy Uno) with them afterwards. We have also done  a lot of street evangelism and house visits,handing out bibles and praying for people.

One thing that my team has been focusing on a lot and trying to be more intentional with this month has been prayer, we made a little war room in our jungle home with a wall full of all our team and squads names, things and people from home and around the world. It has been supper sweet going deeper in my prayers, being more intentional about spending longer periods of time in prayer and just sitting in the quiet with the Lord.

As always thank you for following along, Its hard to believe that it is almost month 5, time is flying by! We head to the DR on May 4th!

              Steph

P.S. Go check out my rad teammate Sarahs meet the team blog post to learn more about my team!

 https://sarahbadgett.theworldrace.org/post/meet-the-team-zeal-edition

 PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. For the construction process and preparation for the new women’s and children’s center. For funds to come in and new staff.
2. For all of the new believers, that The Lord would continue to reveal himself to them, that they would continue to hunger and thirst for more of God and His word, that the light inside them would never grow dim.
3. For financial supporters for the Teen Challenge program here, as they have no support from Teen Challenge USA.
4. For each student in the program. That they would push through the hard days and stay through to the end.