Hey, I'm brother Mark Mary, Brother Malachi, we are the Franciscan friars the renewal, and this is Ascension presents
I've had the chance to live with brother Malachi now for a couple of years and
Obviously, I'm gonna get to know him pretty well
But just recently I heard him tell a story
That I'd never heard before and it resonated so much with my heart and so much with
What it was that brought me to the friars that I wanted him to share it with everybody
We're in Tijuana Mexico, Southern California, Baja, California and
was summertime beautiful
And we're actually going out on these mission trips to serve those who lived in the city drains of
Tijuana so those those giant kinda
Cement aqueducts that are like 35 feet up on the sides
they had these huge drains and pour into them water from the city, and those were like 6 feet or so in diameter and
Living inside these drains were people who were homeless who were addicted to drugs and suffering from all sorts of just really horrible
situations so this mission team that I was with was going to just bring food and something to drink to him and
I found myself in the back of a van driving up for this and as soon as we arrived the first day
We get out, and I find my heart just gripped with fear. I mean fear of like oh my gosh
What am I gonna say to these people how am I gonna connect with them?
and then all of a sudden coming up over the edge of the canal is the
Is the folks that are living down in the drains and and they come over and as they come near
I don't know what to do and so I figured like okay. I'm just gonna like grab coffee and give it to him so
That's what I did just grabbing coffee. Hola como estas. I'm like nervous about my Spanish, too
You know and so anyhow in the midst of this you know I'm finding myself
Just struggling to connect, and we end the day were packing up and we're driving away, and I just felt
Yeah, I felt both a desire to want to do more and also a shame about my inability to love him
You know and just this this chasm between us
and and
Thank God. It wasn't the last time that we went there when I was on that trip in fact a week later
We went and in the interim. I prayed and I asked the Lord I was like God
Give me your heart for them so that I will love him enough
To wanted to want to reach out and connect and and so the next time we're driving up and I turned to this guy JP
Who was kind of the leader of the group the local missionary and
Said hey can I go with you down to the drains to actually invite the people to come up because that's what he had done
last time
He was like sure come on
You know and so sure enough we pull up the van doors open up and we start piling out the back and it felt like
a military deployment for me
It was like running out rained over to the edge of this canal
And I look down like a 35-foot incline to the base and turn to JP, I'm like is this the way it was like yeah
man straight down
so I just jump over the ledge and like sliding in my chocos is down the cement and smack the bottom and
Look around and it's just trash in this dirty water
That's like careening down the the you know the canal and look up and it's just beautiful
Summer blue sky, and just the contrast hit me
and
then I see just about 15 yards down the way the first drain so we walk over to it and as we get nearer I
Look inside and JP is next to me
And it's just black and I can't see anything
And then slowly my eyes adjust and I start to make out what looks like some you know old mattresses in there
And then there's movement and these people begin to emerge and and it just was like this
Ghastly sight to see these people living in this kind of depravity so they come we tell them hey there's food up here
There's drink or whatever come on
and they smile when they see us and
Clamber out of the drains and then climb up the edge and over to get their coffee and hot soup and things they were serving
And one drain after another we do this
And we're just about to leave and I look across the other side of the canal and there's a farther one up about a hundred
yards from us and
I look at it and like a JP we need to go over there. He's like well
We don't have much time so hurry up
So I just take off
Sprinting and I run up to get where I can cross over the water in the middle and that ends up being like
150 yards around to the other side and as soon as I get up to the drain. I'm a bit huff
You know wind it kind of huffing and puffing in the same experience. You know it's bright blue sky
I come up to the edge of the drain. I look inside, and it's just black
And I can't see much and then all of a sudden this man starts walking out, and he's just emaceated rags for clothes
He walks out. He looks at me, and he just starts saying lo siento lo siento. I'm sorry
I'm sorry, and I'm sitting here thinking like what are you sorry for and then he goes on to say , hes like
I'm sorry you have to come here and see me like this
He's like I don't want to be here
He was like but Satan has me by this
And he holds up his hand and in his hand is a needle Phill with whatever drug that he's addicted to
He was like I want to leave this. I can't leave this
He's like, but thank you for coming, and then he points up above us, and there's one of those catwalks
It crosses the drains you know crosses over the canal and in fact some people were walking by at that very moment
And he points up and he says every day they walk by they looked down and all they see is trash
He says, but you come and you see us
And you bring God to us
Thank you
and I'm just sitting here in front of this man like like Who am I to be here at this moment with this man and
In the midst of his suffering Who am I to be standing here before him?
looking at the beauty of this human being in the midst of this darkness and
I just said you know I don't know what I can do for you, and he's like. I can't come for the food and
I said well can I pray for you? What's your name, and he just looks at me, and it was like me llamo
Jesus
Emmanuel
Jesus Emmanuel Jesus God with us and
as I'm looking at this man and
Beginning to say a short prayer with them
I'm just overcome with the fact that I've walked over that catwalk so many times in so many different
situations in my life and
Finally at that moment discovered that this is where I want to spend the rest of my life
Standing right there with this man in the ugliness of this situation
Being given the gift from him of being able to encounter God
here in the poor and
Being given the gift in my life to be able to bring the light and the hope of Christ to him
Let him know that he's not alone
You know and I think for all of us like what is it?
Where is it in our life that there's that place of darkness that there that person?
Who's in loneliness could be physical could be spiritual could be addiction? There's all sorts of ways people are suffering and?
Often they retreat into that darkness and people just walk by and look down and see nothing
You know where is it that Christ is calling you?
calling me
to come out of ourselves to love enough to go to that darkness to bring the presence of Jesus there his light and
To discover that not only are we bringing his life his lightness presence are waiting for us there as well
it's powerful, and it's something that's good for me to hear again and again and again and
Just encourage you to pray with it. Let us know what the Lord saying down below in the comments
I'm going to see what let us know what he's stirred in you and the journey will continue again next week
Thanks for the prayers, and we'll see you again. God bless, God bless
You