Sunday, January 30, 2011

Coming into safety

Last week I shared the hard story of a friend whose family was being extorted by gangsters. I've been praying for her through the week, knowing that the final payment on the amount that had been agreed was due yesterday. I called today, and apparently everything went OK, and she is now feeling some relief from the terror that has seized the family for the last month.

It's hard to know that this family's hard-earned money and everything they could get in loans from other family members and friends has gone to strengthen the gangs that devastate the people of El Salvador. But I am so glad that my friend can begin to feel safe again!

Beyond this immediate relief, it's my prayer that somehow, somehow the people can find ways to trust each other and band together against the gangs - and that the government can work harder and smarter to begin to solve this enormous problem.

1 comment:

  1. Hard, indeed. But wonderful to know that they got the money together.

    There are so many of these hard questions in this situation. Ariel and I have been talking about the many who was killed in La Chacara on Friday night. His mother and grandmother are her neighbors, so she's seen multiple sides of the story - she knows he was involved in collecting renta, but he was also really, really good to his mom.

    It's one of those that is really tough to parse out. (But a good reminder, I guess, of just how much we are all children of God and all need people to see that part of us through the haze of our problems.)

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