Street Stories - A Ringside Seat To Over 4 Decades Of Taking Jesus To The Streets Of The World

California. I went to Maxine’s house to see Tina and I not only met Maxine, but I also met her friend Martha Velarde who was visiting from Tijuana, Mexico. I think it may have been around 1982 or 1983 when I met Martha and Maxine. Both Martha and Maxine were so precious. I could see why Tina wanted me to meet them. We talked for a while before I needed to leave. Martha seemed especially interested in what our ministry was doing at the time. Martha’s father, Jesus Velarde, was a pastor in Tijuana, where she lived with her parents and some siblings. I don’t recall now what the timeline was between meeting Martha and going to Tijuana for the first time. It was most definitely a Divine appointment the day we met. I treasure our friendship. We began going to Tijuana for a couple of days at a time. We took a few people with us most times. Our girls, Amy, Molly, and Emily, were very young at the time. They must have been about 3, 5 and 7 years old the first time we traveled there. My great friend, Linda Stanley, had been telling me about children who lived at the garbage dump in Tijuana. The children scavenged through the garbage dump for food – not only straight out of a trash can, but out of the mounds of collected trash from all of Tijuana. I just could not fathom the conditions there at the garbage dump. Linda shared with me that she knew people who would go there and take lice shampoo and wash the children’s hair to help rid them of lice. My heart was moved. I couldn’t imagine my own little children having to eat anything out of the garbage. My eyes were filled with tears as I thought about those poor children in Tijuana. I felt a need to do something!

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