Burning Furnace of Charity

Yay for the people of the UK sending me the fabulous, the one, the only...JO WELLS!! It's the dawning of a new era here in Reynosa, as our community has just doubled! After more than 2 long years of praying and believing God to send a team, He has answered beyond anything that I could dream up. Jo arrived on Monday night after we were commissioned as a team from a 24-7 USA gathering in the frozen tundra called Madison, WI.

It's great having a friend and co-conspirator to dream with here in Boys Town. We took our little show on the road on Valentine's Day as we delivered homemade cupcakes (see picture of Jo in action) and 10 dozen beautiful Gerbera daisies in all colors to the men and women of BT. (Those daisies are courtesy of Church of the Harvest in S. Carolina - thank you!!)

I was blown away by Jo’s courage on her first trip in BT. We went in Nora’s bar to find Nora, Lucia, Vicki, and several others. Nora had just been beaten by someone, and she told everyone to leave. Lucia and I were the only ones who stayed – Lucia because she’s Nora’s best friend, and me because I’m slow to understand Spanish sometimes. I stayed for a while and talked with Nora, who was crying and really hurting. My heart was breaking for her and I didn’t know what to do. (Though cupcakes seemed to help a bit.) When I came out of Nora’s place, I couldn’t even see Jo or our friend Tiffany who had joined us. I have to admit that I was a little nervous at first thinking I had lost my two little blonde friends in BT in such a short amount of time. But, alas, they were just loving on some people in the Oh Mi Nina cantina across the street! It was great. Jo just unabashedly loved on and took in each of my friends (and even some new friends) in there. She never allowed language to be a barrier – true courage!

The scene in BT was beautiful on Valentine's Day. BT may not seem like much to look at, but Jesus is there. We saw a painting of Him as the Good Shepherd on the wall of a bar as we walked that day. What's that story about Jesus leaving the 99 to search for the one lost sheep? It's beautiful like that in BT - like Jesus gone out carefully searching for the one who walked away.

You might remember Vicki, the little lady who had a prophetic dream as well as saw Jesus a few weeks ago. I saw her again on V-Day. She took us to a wall where someone had painted a scene of a forest and a river that flows out, seemingly onto the street. Vicki told me how she loves the picture, then began singing a song about the living waters of life. I was reminded of a scripture in Psalms that says, "the river of God never runs dry." Please pray that the living waters of Jesus Christ would flow through BT, clearing a pathway for Jesus to change lives and work miracles.

Many thanks to all of you who have whispered and/or shouted prayers for a team here - God has heard us. This is really starting to get fun.