One of the highlights of the recent Transform Our World global conference in Hawaii was to hear the report from Poncho Murguia of how the transformation movement in Juarez, Mexico is moving forward.
Juarez is currently the most violent city in the world.
As you may know, Juarez is currently the most violent city in the world as rival cartels battle over control of of the drug trafficking- its estimated that 40% of the illegal drugs consumed in North America enter through Juarez. As this war has escalated the violence has reached epidemic levels. In the midst of this, Poncho and his band of radical believers have not backed down but continue to respond in the opposite spirit and believe for transformation—and God is backing them up!
In response to the escalating violence they have escalated blessing. They recently launched "Adopt a hit-man," to cover the hit-men with blessings as an expression of prayer evangelism. Shortly after they launched this God supernaturally intervened to save a notorious hit-man and bring him back to Christ. Despite the risk—there have been various occasions where death squads have entered churches to execute a hit, on one occasion it was during a wedding, the best man was the target and a stray bullet hit the groom killing him on his wedding day—the church unanimously welcomed this man anonymously into their fellowship. He is now discipling 8 other hit-men, or rather ex-hit-men. (You can get the full story by watching Poncho's session through our webcast of the event).
They are also reaching out to the orphans. There are 15,000 orphans in the city. Each night 30 more orphans are added to that number because of the killings. It was so moving to hear Poncho say: "Can we care for all of them? I don't know, but we are going to try." Recently the church decided they would have no more parties for themselves—how could they party when the city is living in hell, literally? Instead of a church Christmas party they went to the most abandoned school in the worst part of the city to give a party for about 400 kids. They are doing this despite the fact the church is broke because violence is also destroying the cities economy. The kids in this neighborhood are so neglected most have never stepped on grass, nor even seen a park, much less play in one. Many are orphans because of the killings, this sector has born the brunt of the worst of the violence. Last year there where two high profile killings were over a dozen young people were killed on two separate occasions, one of these was a soccer team, the whole team was killed at a team party because they were after two of the members who were involved in the gangs, the rest of the team had no involvement or even knowledge of what was going on.
Instead of a church Christmas party they went to the most abandoned school in the worst part of the city to give a party for 400 kids.
At the conference in Hawaii, all the delegates were challenged to come along side Poncho and his team, to adopt a street in Juarez and pray with them for God to overflow His grace where sin is abounding. We specifically mobilized our intercessors to pray for this school leading up to the Christmas party they are planning there.
On November 30th it was announced that police arrested the leader of one of the gangs that has been contracted by one of the cartels. The police say he has been behind planning and ordering 80% of the murders over the last year. He has confessed to planning and ordering the two killings at the school mentioned above. Click here to read the news article.
This is a small piece of good news in the midst of a horrific situation, but if you need a sign that God answers prayers, I don't think it can get more obvious than this. We begin praying for the orphans in Juarez and specifically those at the worst school in the worst neighborhood and then within a week or two the man who in the natural is responsible for making them orphans is arrested and brought to justice.
To show the quality of Poncho's people: this man could possibly be sent to El Cereso prison, the prison where Poncho and his people minister (the prison has experienced a dramatic transformation, but that's a different story, see the video we have produced documenting this transformation) in the event that that does happen, they are already making plans to reach out to him to share the transforming power of the love of Jesus.
We are not all called to take our lives in our hands daily to minister in the most violent city in the world like Poncho and his team, but our prayers to support them can mean so much. You can adopt a street in Juarez and join in the battle that the most violent city in the world become the most tangible example of what God can do through prayer and blessing. While you are at it don't forget to adopt your own street, let's not wait until our city experiences epidemic problems before God gets our attention.
