Embraced by Jesus Colombian Children's Home - Pereira, Colombia, South America



Thursday, October 27, 2011

Here is a documentary by Rubiela about the beginning of the Home. 
I found it interesting to read about how attentive God is to the prayer of His People.  
Rubiela #1:       Embraced by Jesus Ministry is a nonprofit organization that is unaffiliated with the government of this world. But it is affiliated with the government of Jesus Christ.
    The Word of God says, “Ask and it shall be given unto you, and if you ask, it will be given unto you”. And that is what we do.  We ask the Lord our God to sustain us. Every time that we are in need, and we cry out to our heavenly Father, we feel embraced by Jesus.
Rubiela #2:     We have 3 strategies to help those that are unwanted and those that are in the streets. (The children’s home, counseling mothers to care for their children, and our children’s church in the city.)
 First of all, we have Jesus Christ and Gideons in Action Foundation Children’s home.
     All that you see here, including all the land and buildings, and all the children that we gather in from the streets are a part of this ministry.
     We go to places where there are many destitute in the streets.  We also go to other places when we are asked to go.  There are mainly about 5 different areas we go to where there is conflict with the heavily armed guerrillas. This fighting has left many orphans and little ones totally helpless by destroying the lives of their parents.  God has put a burden in my heart to go there. It is not easy but it is not impossible with God.  Some of the children that we have are children we gather from the city streets and even from the city sewer systems where they live in hiding. Almost all of them have been sexually abused. We have children who were used as “mules” to carry drugs in their clothing for their mother while she sells the drugs. 
This is how we approach these problems. We try to get those children away from those kinds of situations but when we do, we are very careful not to offend the mother.  We try to learn to know and understand the mother as a person, and when we do, we usually find this mother went through the same thing as a child. The abuse that she experienced when she was young carried her into the same lifestyle. This is the only way of life they know and so that way of life she is repeating in her own children.
       We go to the streets to share Jesus Christ.  We share that He can save them, cleanse them, heal them, and that He gave His life to save their lives.  This is the way we work with the mothers that are in the streets.
           The second aspect of our work is through our Church.  Why did we start a church in the city for children?  Because the church is in the city of Pereira, where we work in the streets, yet we live here in the country. It really is not feasible to bus all those children here to this property.  It would take a lot more resources than we have.
              I used to gather the street children and teach them about Jesus and then tell them to go to local Churches but other churches would send them away harshly because they were prostitutes and the children of prostitutes.   All of these that are rejected of men make up a church, and it is beautiful. The Lord invited all His guests but when it was time to come, no one would come because they were too busy.  So He sends laborers to the highways and byways to gather the blind, mute and lame to come so His house will be full.  So we go and gather the children from the poorest places of the city, dangerous places where others won’t go. That is where you find the thieves, prostitutes, drug dealers, and guerillas.  God has poured grace out on us so we can go into these places.    You have seen the results of Jesus Christ indwelling their hearts and changing their lives.
           The third aspect of our ministry is Women in the breach.  It is a ministry to women with traits much like myself, very aggressive.  Satan had me on a pedestal but I was nothing but a puppet for him. Deep inside of me there was nothing but sadness, pain, and manipulation.  But it was only a facade that made me look like an executive woman.  My heart was totally destroyed and without peace.
      When I came to the feet of Jesus Christ, that’s where I found Peace, joy and love. All this has helped me understand the suffering of these women and encourage them to find the love of God.
    So I invite you to join me in this ministry no matter what country you are in.  God has called us to be one big family.  
Rubiela #3   This ministry did not start here on the farm that you see, but in my own house.  Little by little as the ministry grew, we rented bigger houses but the time came when no one wanted to rent to us because we had 60 children plus the adults.  One day I told my husband, Jaime, that I am going into a 40 day fast to wait for an answer from God that He would give us a farm so I could raise all these children that He has given to me. 
          (It all started on 30th and 5th drive, they threw us out of there because the children were from the streets, so then we went to 17th and 16th drive on the 2nd floor, in downtown Pereira and they also kicked us out of there, not because I wasn’t paying the rent, but because we have street children. And this is where God gave me the blessing.)
         I started the 40 day prayer fast and I waited faithfully on God because “faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen”.   I was 15 days into the fast when my husband told me that that God has touched            Mr. Anival Ruiz’s heart to help us in the ministry. He gave 100 million Pesos – that is equal to $60,000 Dollars.  I had not talked to this man and the only one who knew about this project was Jaime my husband.  Jesus answered my prayer in 15 days.  But all that you see here did not cost 100 million Pesos, it cost 180 mil.  There are about 16 acres.
     When we got here the only houses that were here were the main house and the area where the kitchen is. All the other buildings were not here at that time. 
     When God gave us this farm my husband was very embarrassed because Mr. Anival Ruiz didn’t give us enough to purchase this land.  He said, “How are you going to tell him that this farm cost 180 mil?”  I said,   ”If God gave me 100 mil pesos; He is going to touch the heart of this man to give us the 180 mil that we need.”  So we all went to look at this farm and they fell in love with it, just as I had done.  So, when Mr. Anival Ruiz ask how much does it cost and I said 180 mil, his wife spoke up and said, “Oh that is not much!”  So they gave enough to cover the cost.
       That is when my husband began to believe that God is a God of great power.  He went to the land owner and negotiated the price down some so that we were able to also buy a car and a cow.  We left there extremely happy.
 “As we say down here - looking like pineapples”
This was a tremendous blessing God gave us.  We share this testimony only to show that God is a God who is alive and real.  Some of the buildings Ramon Babilonia contributed.  The bath house was built by the Mennonites from Ohio.  The house for the boy’s dorm was contributed by a man named Carlos Gomez.  He also gave us the 2 story building here. All of these blessings God pt into our hands.  And that house, the girl’s dormitory – the Rotary group from California built. So, this is how God has blessed the building of The Foundation of Jesus Christ Y Gideons, through faith in Him.