Project JOEL changes lives
(6 May 04) At a time when gang violence is exploding in Guatemala, at least some young people are seeing a better way, thanks to the outreach efforts of Project JOEL, a minsitry of Christ for all the Nations (CPTLN) as the Lutheran Hour is known internationally. Project JOEL is active in several public and private schools in Guatemala City, Central America’s largest city of nearly three million. The ministry has regular activities at the schools, offering an option of a better life to young people surrounded by poverty, drugs, and violence. Wilfredo is one of those whose life changed after two Project JOEL leaders began visiting his school. At first, he thought the two women who began the ministry wouldn’t last long. “We’ll quickly scare them so they won’t come back here to talk to us about God,” said Wilfredo about Rebeca de Franco and Betty de Vallejo of CPTLN. Wilfredo didn’t think he or others would actually harm the women, but he knew the gangs would easily run them off. All that changed when one day at home he read one of the pamphlets distributed by Betty. As he read, he discovered how much God loved and cared for people like him. His attitude and way of thinking began to change. Now Wilfredo regularly attends church and wants to share this Good News with other young people. “I can only say that God is doing great things in my life,” Wilfredo said. “On Sunday, May 2, I’m going to be baptized.” Wilfredo thanks God for bringing JOEL to his school. “Now I want to be a volunteer for JOEL and share what God has given to me.”
______________ Gang violence has become pandemic in Central America. Some observers say there is a direct connection with the new deportation policies the U.S. adopted after 9/11. They argue that the courts are exporting long-established gangs from the inner cities of the U.S. to places like Guatemala City by deporting immigrants who break the law. Each month 20-30 youth are killed in gang violence in Guatemala City alone. Less than 5% of the murderers are ever convicted. Just this month a sixteen-year old recently deported from the U.S. became one of those statistics. Edgar Chocoy Guzmán had fled to the U.S. in hopes of escaping the gang influence of his Guatemala City neighborhood only to run afoul of the law in Colorado. The youth pleaded not to be deported, saying the gangs he had run away from would kill him. Seventeen days after he arrived in Guatemala, they did just that.
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