Praying For Medellin

I went for a prayer walk with a small group the first week in Medellin.  We were able to go in one of four directions.  I felt God tugging at my heart to go left at the bakery.  They had warned us earlier that down these streets, there is a lot of prostitution, porn movies being made, and transgender activity.  We were told to go three blocks down and then come back.  We decided in our small group that we would individually pray as we walked and then at the end of the block, we would take time to discuss what God was impressing on our hearts and pray collectively. 

The first block I saw a bus go by that had dark silhouettes of two women on the back of it (opposite sides and sitting in a pose).  Immediately I started praying about the women who feel they have to sell themselves for attention.  God loves each and every one of them and there is more to life than that.  They are loved and adored.  Side note: Not ONCE have I seen these silhouettes on the back of that bus companies buses since this prayer walk!  Man, God was revealing so much to me that day!

The next block was super heavy on all of our hearts.  You could just feel the weight of the lies of the world.  Walking down this street, I immediately noticed to my right a statue of a women holding a child, and this is behind bars.  As we continued to walk down the street, the bars just stood out more and more.  Just about everything here in Medellin is behind bars-stores, houses, and more.  And to me, fear is real here.  People are so fearful that they have to have everything behind bars.  We then passed one placed with barbed wire in circles and it reminded me of the crown of thorns placed on Jesus’ head.  And how his blood was shed for all of us.  And if your trust is in him, you don’t have to have all of that fear—he removes it.  There is freedom and power in his name. 

The last block we went down we first saw two police officers.  They were SUPER friendly-greeted us and smiled. (People in Colombia don’t normally greet each other unless they know each other).  After we passed them, I felt this desire to pray for them but I kept it to myself.  As we kept walking, some guy started yelling down to us.  He asked us what kind of tour we were on because we were walking in a single file line. We told him we were with an organization down the street, invited him to a service that night, and told him we were praying for the people of Colombia.  He spoke English and told us he had lived in Miami for a while, but liked Colombia better because there was freedom—freedom to pee and poop on the streets, etc.  We didn’t pray directly with him, but at the end of the block for him to realize the freedom of Christ.  As we got done praying, the police officers were walking our way.  I had told the group before we started to pray that if we pass the police officers again, we should pray for them.  So, we stopped and talked to the one.  He is studying English so he was super excited to talk to us.  We ended up praying for him and his family and he was so touched.

Friends, the power of the Holy Spirit is real and active.  I’ve been spending more time than ever in the Bible and trying to hear the whisper of the Holy Spirit.  It can be scary at first to obey the command to go up to the police officer and pray for him.  But follow the whisper.  It makes your connection stronger when you obey!  There are so many lost opportunities when you don’t listen and the Lord rewards those who are faithful.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8