Venezuela - Carnival Stories

At the end of each clinic/carnival we would take down the equipment, clean up and gather to dance to a fun song: "Bueno es Dios". The last post, I included a picture of a lady praying to recieve Christ. At the dance, she broke into a "bump and grind" while holding up her new Bible and praising God for her new life. This was a little alarming, but recalling the prostitute who kissed the feet of Christ, we were comforted by the realization that the discipling she would recieve through the local outreach would produce in her a more appropriate modesty. Nevertheless, her exceeding joy was surely acceptable. If not, our level of spiritual maturity, low by the standard of God's righteousness, would not be acceptable as we intend it to be.

On one occasion, we had hats to distribute to some of the adults. Some desired to have hats for each of their children and there were simply not enough. A couple of adults, a lady and a man, became aggressive toward Ed Yarbrough and Cindy Rice. I came into the area in order to provide a stabalizing presence and things were relatively calm. The man who had caused trouble at one point walked past me and nodded his head in, what to me appeared to be, concession. During this ordeal, a vendor of cups of homemade frozen fruit pushed his cart into the street where we were holding the clinic/carnival. Both of the former aggressors, one at a time, went to the vendor, obtained a fruit cup each and presented them one to Ed and the other to Cindy. Recognizeing them as peace offerings, Ed and Cindy desired to honor this by eating them. However, because the water there is not clean, they were hesitant to even take a bite. Nevertheless, in the interest of reconciliation, they took a few token bites and walked to the bus to discard the rest. Fortunately, they didn't get sick.

One of the clinics/carnivals was blessed with the presence of a beautiful pair of identical twins who had some sort of congenital handicap. One could walk, but was a little gimpy. The other required the use of a walker to ambulate. I'm told they went to the clinic, but there is nothing we could do for them. They enjoyed the carnival and were decorated with face paint, nail polish, bracelets, balloons, braids and hair clips. The most important gift came during the dance. Janine Bowman picked up the twin who needed the walker and danced with her.