The Sweet Aroma at the Entrance to the Garbage Dump

I'd like to tell you a little bit about A., a troubled young man in La Carpio. He joined Seth's carpentry program last year, but had to be suspended because he couldn't get along with the other students, to the point that things culminated in a fist fight with another student. After that, he made himself scarce for a while, but then returned regularly to play soccer.

Several items were stolen from other kids who played with him, and he soon got the reputation of being particularly untrustworthy, which is saying something in a community where most people already trust no one. He has recently told Seth that his parents trained him at age 8 to pickpocket with them downtown, and regularly invite him to partake in drug use with them.

A. has begun to see that living a life of theft and aggression, isolated from others, doesn't taste good. Despite having had no positive parental or moral instruction, he wants to try to change his life. He's starting finding reasons not to hang out at home so that he doesn't smell like drugs, and to stop having such sticky fingers. Not surprisingly, the other kids are finding it difficult to believe and are slow in accepting that he's turning over a new leaf.

Recently, he told Seth what a hard time he's having in trying to change his life. Seth was able to share with him that it's too difficult when we try to do it on our own, but that God can change our lives FOR us if we will trust and allow him to remake us in the image of Christ. It seems that A. has made an earnest appeal to Christ in the past, but felt afterward that "it didn't take" and nothing changed. It reminds me of the seed from Matthew 13 that was immediately eaten by birds, scorched by the sun, or choked by thorns. Without anyone around to encourage and disciple him in his new faith, and with Satan whispering in his ear that none of that would do him any good, and with a hostile environment actively sucking him back down into the mire, is it any wonder?

So now I get around to the connection to the title of this blog. A. recently asked Seth, as they sat on the grass at New Horizons, "Have you ever noticed how it feels different here?"

Seth asked, not sure of his meaning, "Compared to where?"

A. responded, "Compared to the rest of La Carpio. It just feels really heavy and dark walking through the third and fourth bus stops to get here from my house, but once I come in, things feel different, lighter and better."

This is an amazing answer to prayer that brings tears to my eyes as I write it. We have been praying that our mission's property would be just that, a beacon on a hill, a safe and nurturing place among so much dysfunction and violence, an oasis of peace, and a place filled with and protected by the spirit of God. And A., a youth who needs all these things more than many, is noticing!

Interestingly, not long before this conversation, I received a special verse from a group of women who came to do a retreat for missionary women serving in Costa Rica. They spoiled us, ministered to us, and blessed us in so many ways! One way was in giving each participant (there were 50 of us) a special verse from the Lord that was meant for her. These women didn't know me at all, so this wasn't any sort of a compliment or anything that they would have observed about me, but this was the verse that I received:

"But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place." 2 Corinthians 2:14

How beautiful is that? I prayed over the verse, asking God to make it true in La Carpio and everywhere else we have the ability to exhibit the "aroma." It makes me laugh, but God is powerful enough to put his sweet aroma right at the entrance to a foul garbage dump (in case you've forgotten, that's where our ministry property resides)! He is great, indeed!

Peace, Andrea