Today after church I was taking a nap when Paul, Mitch and Debbie's son, came in the room and told me I was going to carnival with him. He is here for the week doing some video stuff and wanted some footage of carnival. It is a dangerous place with pick-pocketers and other stuff, so he wanted another person with him for safety. I agreed to go since I have been wanting to see what this town has been doing the last month. I have heard many stories but that is never the same as experiencing it for yourself.
When you arrive at carnival you have to walk through what they call "caves" in order to get to the main streets. The caves are filled with people to the point where you can barely walk through. There is a picture of one of the many caved throughout the town. Carnival takes up almost the entire downtown area. Most of the side streets that enter downtown have a cave blocking the street.
Once you exit the cave you are on the main streets where there are many people dressed up in demon costumes. They parade around in different groups where they are all dressed alike. There were around 5 or 8 demons in each group. Each one of the demons has a foam stuffed ball connected to a rope. You can see the black ball that this one is holding. They are made of foam, but they are packed so tight that it becomes hard. As they walk down the street they will find people that are not watching and hit them as hard as they can. They pretty much march around the streets beating people with these things. I got hit a couple times, but one time left my backside hurting for about five minutes. The rest of my time there I was constantly checking behind me.
The craziest thing about carnival was the feeling. All month I was at Unidos por El where there was a feeling of love and peace. You could feel the presence of God in that place. As soon as I arrived at carnival I felt hate, confusion, and a presence of the Devil. It was one of the weirdest feelings I have ever felt. I became sick to my stomach for about an hour after. I don't think I have ever prayed so hard in my life. It was the constant feeling that I was going to be hit, hurt, or get something stolen.
This experience has showed me even more clearly that God is a loving God. He desires that we live a life of love and peace with others. When we are living a life like Christ we are not out to hurt other people but the complete opposite. He came to heal and forgive! We serve such an amazing God and I pray that he breaks Satan's hold over this city. This month was one that I will never forget.
Thank you all for the prayers and support while I have been here. If it wasn't for many of you I would not be having the opportunity to minister and serve Christ in this town. I want to thank you all so so much for this opportunity. God bless you all!!
