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I am writing this from my cousin Amy Johnson's apartment in Managua.
Yesterday I preached in Police Station 5, a local gaol in the suburbs of Managua. The gaol was a real assault on the senses - hot and putrid with very few facilities. Many prisoners spend up to 60 days in these local gaols. I shared my testimony and preached about God's forgiveness to those whose lives are lived in darkness and sin.
The Lord really blessed our time with these young men - about 30 or so guys of varying ages. One openly wept under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and at least one other gave his heart to Jesus as I made the invitation for the guys to commit their lives to Christ. In an environment like this it is difficult to gauge the response sometimes, but the Bible says in Isaiah 55:11 "So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."
On Sunday and Monday Amy took me to see ex gang members from Compton in Los Angeles and Miami in Florida. Compton is one of Los Angeles' worst gang neighbourhoods, and Joe (not his real name) was a member of one of the gangs there for many years. He has been deported from the United States three times after serving prison sentences there.
Joe recognises he has reached a real crossroads in his life. He allowed us to pray with him and we had the opportunity to really share what it means to surrender your life to Christ. The other man we shared with was not as open but we really had an opportunity to witness to him.
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| Masaya Volcano (Nicaragua) |
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Looking towards Managua from Masaya Volcano |
Today we're going to see two more deported gang members.
I would appreciate your continued prayers, as Nicaragua is a very difficult mission field. There is a huge crime problem here, related to poverty and alcoholism and the growing drug trade. Nicaragua is sometimes used as a conduit between South America and the USA for the cocaine trade and over the last few years crack has become an epidemic here, with crack houses springing up all over the barrios and many many families devastated by violence and drug-related crime.- I'm only here for a few more days before we leave for Honduras, but my cousin Amy is here full-time, and doing a wonderful work for the Lord.
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| Amy Johnson |
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Baptist mission Managua |
| Amy is my cousin, ministering as an International Mission Board missionary in Managua, Nicaragua, after a stint in Honduras. The International Mission Board is a ministry of the Southern Baptist Convention. |
I am believing for more opportunities to share the Gospel, and believing for salvation for those who hear. |
We have been ministering every day in the main prison outside Tegucialpa (the capital of Honduras) and the main prison in San Pedro Sula (about 300 km's north of Tegucialpa).
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| Tegucialpa, capital of Honduras |
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Looking East from hotel in Tegucialpa |
Before providing any more details about this stage of the trip I would like to provide an assessment of what it is like to minister in Nicaragua and Honduras.The first time I came here (in 2004) I found the place very confronting, and it was extremely difficult in all aspects - communication, climate, extreme heat and humidity, the filthy conditions in the barrios, the stony reception we often got as we attempted to share the gospel.
This time I began to discern things for what they really were - there is a terrible spirit of oppression over Nicaragua. It comes against you as soon as you step off the plane, and it continues until you leave. It manifests itself in coming against you in disillusionment, and actively works against the preaching of God's Word. I believe there is also a very strong spirit of division at work here against Christian ministries - I heard many stories of churches and ministries which have been terribly affected by division.
I also found that many times we would reach a crucial point in ministering to gang members, and right at the point where I felt it was the right time to give an invitation to receive Christ, there would be a sudden interruption, and the attention of those being ministered to would be distracted.
If this had happened once or twice, I could put it down to "coincidence", but this happened nearly every time we ministered.
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| Tegucialpa, capital of Honduras |
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De Tamara prison outside Tegucialpa |
| De Tamara prison has 3000 inmates in an institution designed to house 1500 and is many acres in size. |
My cousin Amy Johnson had gone to a lot of trouble in preparing an itinerary full of ministry opportunities, particularly to the street gangs, but time and time again something would happen - many planned meetings etc were cancelled at the last minute. The lack of support for what she is doing astounded me - she is ministering full time in one of the most dangerous places on the face of the earth, yet many times she goes by herself into areas where even the police won't go. Having gone with her I can testify to just how dangerous and full of the palpable sense of evil the barrios are.
So far I have been writing about Managua (the capital of Nicaragua).
In many respects, Honduras is even worse.
A recent example of gang violence here was a gang pulling over a bus with 20 or 30 people inside (men, women, children). They forced them from the bus, stole everything they had, and then shot them all to death (including children).
The day before we arrived in Honduras there was an incident where a gang found a teenage girl by herself, gang-raped her and then beat her to death, leaving her to die on the side of the road.
The gangs are also constantly at war with each other - one gang found an opposition gang member on the street, shot him to death, cut his heart out, dismembered him and left different body parts all over the city. The opposing gang's reprisals included beheading any opposition gang members they found. Gang members openly flaunt satanic tattoos and most gang members are extensively tattooed - on arms, legs, head, face, everywhere. With some of them all that is visible of their faces is their eyes.
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| Worship in De Temara prison |
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2nd church service in De Tamara prison |
| We did 2 church outreach services back to back in De Tamara prison, and it was amazing to see prisoners worshipping with such freedom of spirit. |
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| Women's prison near De Temara prison |
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End of chapel service in women's prison |
| De Tamara women's prison is also very large, but with less inmates - around 300. The woman in the right foreground gave her heart to the Lord at the end of the service and is pictured staying behind for counselling. |
Life is incredibly cheap here - most gang members would think no more of killing you than they would of finding somewhere to eat. I know this is very hard to believe for someone living in a privileged country like Australia, but I am not exaggerating the extent of the gang problems in Central America at all.
The scope of the gang problem in Honduras is enormous - police estimate there are 70,000 gang members in a population of just over 7,000,000. By comparison the Honduras army numbers 10,000. The president has just released 1,000 army members to assist police in trying to control the gang problem. Even in the general population you can sense the eroded values - where life is cheap, everything else is cheap - the sanctity of marriage, the value of truth and honesty.
These problems are exacerbated by the continuous deportation of gang members from all over the United States back to the Central American countries they come from. A typical example (and a story I heard many times over) was that a child would be taken to the United States by his parents at the age of 5 or 6, given residency status in the US, but then would be initiated into these Hispanic gangs (some starting as young as 8 or 9 years of age). By the age of 15 or 16 they have extensive criminal records, are tattoed and readily indentifiable as gang members.
Those convicted of major crimes then serve years in a federal or state penitentiary in the US, and as soon as they are released on parole, the US deports those with no US citizenship back to their country of birth.
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| 18th Street Gang Prison at De Tamara |
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La Cosecha Foursquare church, San Pedro Sula |
De Tamara has a separate prison specifically for the 18th Street Gang, housing around 200 gang members. Internally the prison is run by the 18th Street gang, and the guards do not go past the internal security doors except on rare occasions. The internal walls are covered in gang graffiti (an example can be seen on the wall shown above - X8 representing 18.
We went in for 3 hours, and I sang and shared my testimony.
La Cosecha church (pictured above right) is a Foursquare church in San Pedro Sula, with a 20,000 strong membership, in a building shaped like a giant aircraft hangar. |
Some are taken straight off the plane to prison here (with no trial), others are released. Their tattoos mean they are branded for life, and cannot get employment of any kind. If you are a young Honduran male and apply for a job, the first thing a prospective employer does is strip search you. If they find any gang-related tattoos, you are refused employment.
So these guys drift to the barrios where their particular gang is in power, and they bring new levels of criminal expertise learned in the state and federal pens of the US to the local gangs here. This is a huge problem, and constantly growing. For eaxample, where two years ago there were very few American gang members in Managua (capital of Honduras), now there are quite a number, and they are organised along the lines of their American gangs - same name, rules, tattoos, initiations and crimes.
Add the burgeoning crack trade to the equation and you can appreciate that these are countries in a desparate situation.
Yet there is revival here - Central America has been extensively evangelised, and there are churches everywhere. We were staying at the Honduras Maya Hotel and right next door there was a revival tent where an evangelical ministry was holding meetings - they were running every day of the 8 days we were here, and some meetings lasted 6 hours(!), with most running for at least 4.
I realised the spiritual implications of attempting to minister in these countries because of the discernible difference in spiritual atmosphere between Nicaragua and Honduras. In fact when we arrived in Honduras almost the first thing I said to Amy was "There is an open heaven here". It was amazing - in a country with far worse crime problems than Nicaragua, the freedom to minister was far greater, and we saw real fruit for our efforts.
Whenever we ministered I discerned the Word of God striking home in people's hearts - I believe many gang members came to the Lord during our outreaches.
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| San Pedro Sula prison |
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San Pedro Sula prison |
San Pedro Sula is about 300 kilometres from Tegucialpa. The prison (pictured above) has Matthew 25:43 painted on the outside wall - "I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me."
Within the prison are separate areas and an entirely separate prison for the 18th Street gang. On our first visit I ministered to two separate groups within the prison - a group of ex gang members, and then members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang (or MS-13) who are also segregated.
We returned the next day to minister in the 18th Street prison within the main prison, to around 150 gang members. |
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| Tegucialpa church service |
On my last Sunday in Honduras, I sang and preached in a movie theatre that has been turned into a church, and also had the chance to minister personally to an ex-gang member who became a Christian a few months ago.
Overall the trip was very demanding, yet very rewarding.
Please pray for my cousin Amy who is ministering there full-time.
I am exploring the possibility of returning to Central America, hopefully with a support team in place. |
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