Anyways, here at the base we do a lot of ministries that I am going to be telling you all about as I go. The first one I experienced is called Zone Kids. I knew I would like this one because it had the word "kids" in it and it takes place in the Red Light district of Tijuana. It is pretty rough there, a lot of drugs, prostitution, and poverty. It is right on the border, you can see the wall on the other side of the highway from the park we do the program at. Before we began our kids program, we had to gather the kids. So we went out, bearing toothbrushes and toothpaste and an invitation. Walking around the town was super awesome for me. I have always had a huge passion for the rougher ghettos. I really think those areas are where Jesus wants us to be. I met a group of kids riding their bikes around town. They were very excited, they probably felt powerful with their mini bike gang. I talked with them for a while. One of the kids named Chris, asked me if we were from San Diego. I said no, that I was from Chicago, and I asked if he had ever been to San Diego. "Yes I have, it's way better there." he answered. I told him I really liked his city, that it was beautiful and I really wanted to know more about it. He thought I was weird.
We met other kids and their moms on our way back to the park to start the program. We had about 25-30 kids show up and about 3 moms (part of Zone Kids is a mother's bible study that they do while the kids are in their program). One girl's mother had recently been deported back to the States, but somehow got back to Mexico. It sounded like a tough story, she was sweet and spoke English well. The leaders of the program said that she has told them that her mom spends a lot of time on the street and men pick her up. That was hard to hear, a 10 year old shouldn't have to know or understand those things, let alone know that that is what her mom does for money. She also was upset because the kids make fun of her because of her black curly hair. It really frustrates me that kids at so young an age have to deal with all of those difficulties. They seem too young to have to deal with that, their brains cannot deal with those kinds of things in healthy way without help and nurturing. There doesn't seem to be anyone to advocate for them.
There are a ton of hurdles for all of these kids in that area. The older kids stop coming because they get teased for coming the program and playing games and making crafts. Its just so hard. How do we reach older kids? If we make it more on their level we lose the younger kids. It is a tricky situation. But all I know is this is definitely something I am called to. God will provide us with wisdom as to what to do.
Some prayer requests for Zone Kids:
- that the little girl whose mom is prostituting herself would feel love through us, and most importantly feel loved and accepted by her God. I think she is dealing with a lot of feelings of abandonment.
- for the older boys that they wouldn't feel embarrassed to come to the program and really look forward to it.
- that God would provide more staff so we can separate the two age groups of kids to better serve them at their age level
Playing games at the park with balloons.
We began a three week series with the kids on Spiritual Growth.
We did a craft about growing, like a tree.
Here we are at Las Playas, a tourist area of Tijuana.
You can see the boarder wall go into the water to keep people from trying to swim across the boarder.
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