An Arequipeñan Adventure

Tonight Trisha, Nohemy, Wendy & I went to Café Berea, a Christian café on Av. La Paz on the back side of the Plaza de Armas. It’s a great atmosphere, the prices are fantastic and it offers really great connections for ministry. It was our first time there, though we’ve been here for a year. We chatted with some of the staff and found out a group of college students were upstairs preparing to go out in search of prostitutes. It was International Women’s Day, so they were carrying cards and roses to these women, to encourage them and let them know that they are cared for in a more profound way than they’ve experienced before. So we put the Jenga pieces back in their box, gulped down the last sips of our coffee, paid as quickly as we could and headed out with them in search of prostitutes.

And of course, as God likes to work things out, there were several people from Hunter, one of mine and Wendy’s church plant districts. It looks like we’ll be receiving some help from some of the college students and joining hands occasionally with some from a church already established in Hunter.

I realized tonight that the cops must be allowing a brothel to stay in business; because they weren’t very keen on shutting the place down – they’re very aware of its existence. It could be that they think it’s someone’s home, but I’m not stupid. Anyway, Avenida Tristan is on my heart, along with that tall, thin, obscure door next to a parking garage and clothing shop. And standing in that door way, her penciled-in eyebrows are etched into my mind though she remains a mystery to me; her name is waiting to be engraved on a white stone.

I leave this in the hands of God and know this is not the last time we’ll walk down Avenida Tristan.

Lord, tonight I thank you and give you glory for the puzzle pieces you fit together and I entrust to you the lives of every woman we encountered tonight. Guide our steps and show us how to best love these women and carry out Isaiah 61:1-2 in their lives.