Bye 2017: You got to the other side

What a year!

Many things happened in 2017! It started with a very hot summer which was alongside with an even hotter politic situation: interpellations, accusations, debates for the gender ideology, ex-president Toledo's capture order, among other things. Right after that, mudslides in different parts of Peru leave desolation and pain for whatever they went, whose consequences are still far from being restored.

Then a tragic fire touched many Peruvians because it revealed the slavery situation that many young people endured. The politic world didn't stop getting tense. In the middle of the year the ex-president Toledo and his wife were put in custody. Thousands of students were afraid to loose the school year because of the constant strikes of their teachers.

The interpellations to the state secretaries continued and corruption accusations reached the current president of Peru. The cabinet fell. The year crowned with the request of presidential impeachment.

And this is just in Peru. I have said nothing about Venezuela, the Middle East, the fear of a nuclear war, the earthquakes devastating different places, slaughters and shootings, etc. And of course, all of this is just the frame where all our personal problems took place.

But, you know something?, 2017 finished and we're still here. We got to the other side. The marks that 2017 left you are not of failure, but the prove that you got to the other side.

I explain it to you with this story: One mom watched over her kid from afar while he played in a river. Suddenly, a crocodile appeared, grabbed the boy's arm and started taking him inside the river. His mom run to him with all her strength while crying out loud for help. Surprisingly she got just in time to grab her other son's arm. The boy was pulled in one side by the crocodile, and in the other side, by the her mom. Thanks God there was a hunter in the area that heard her crying out for help and quickly approached to help and killed the crocodile with his weapon. The boy was taken rapidly to the hospital.

Once the boy was out danger, his mom allowed a journalist to interview him. The journalist asked him: "What do you think when you see the marks that the crocodile left you?" The boy answered: "Those marks mean nothing to me". Then he showed her his other arm and said: "This marks are the ones that do have a great value to me, because they represent that my mom didn't leave me and saved my life".

Maybe this 2017 left you with some marks, but those marks aren't of failure, because if it was so, you wouldn't be here. But you are here! You got to the other side! Those marks are the ones left by your Heavenly Father because He didn't let you go all this time. It was hard, but you got to the other side. And your Father promises you that He will be with you in 2018 no matter what it brings! Will there be difficulties? I'm positive that there will, but you won't be alone, He will keep holding your hand, and you can be sure that NOTHING will make Him to let you go.

Please, pray with me for my country Peru

Father, bless my Peru. I pray for your unmerited favor over this land, over each Peruvian, but specially, over each of your sons and daughters that in these moments are lifting their faces to You with faith that they may receive the help that they need to go through this time of uncertainty and disappointment.

Give us the strength so we may decide to quit putting our trust and expectancy on our governors and authorities, and to start putting it on You alone, as always should have been. We take responsibility of being disappointment, because we are aware that disappointment comes when we received less than we expected, and we recognize that it was our mistake to expect from them what we always had to expect from You. We decide to put our trust no longer on a man or woman, but only on You.

We decide that peace, joy, the opportunities, the hope for a good future and the certainty that the best is yet to come, we no longer expect them from our authorities, but from You. You're our joy and peace! You open the door for us for the opportunities that we need! We believe that with You, nothing is never lost, but everything is getting better every time, from glory to glory, from victory to victory! We believe that with the little that we're able to give to You, You're able to do much!

We pray that You may turn into something good all this time of instability. You didn't send this evil of corruption, but we know that with You all things work together for good. We pray so that all of us may learn our lesson and take with responsibility and seriousness the next times that we'll have to go to vote to elect our authorities, not by only getting well informed, but also by asking You for wisdom to elect wisely.

We pray so that corruption may completely fall, that the light may illuminate in the darkness so that those selfish acts that have been done secretly to rob everybody's resources, might be exposed. We ask You that that won't happen again, that might be angels protecting what belongs to all Peruvians, that corrupters may be discovered and stopped before they fulfill their plans to steal. We pray that fear invades their hearts so they won't dare to take for themselves what belongs to all of us, that they might be unease until they desist to do those misdeeds, that their consciences won't le them be in peace, so that they decide stop their wickedness.

Heavenly Father, we ask You to put in our governors the conscience that the office they're on is holy because is designed to serve millions of people. We ask that they may realize the fact that their decisions affect so many people it's a privilege that not many people have. We pray for the conviction of being there to serve may be very real in them and that they may take it with responsibility, honesty, sacrifice and dedication. Bless them with the wisdom they need in every step they take. Bless their families and personal lives, and let them know that You rewarded them for their service.

Father, we decide to quit complaining, but to take responsibility from where we are. As your children, we decide to pray for them so that You may cover them constantly from all temptation and that they may be filled with guidance to execute their office with excellence. Speak to us Father, tell us the ways to contribute to form a better Peru, that we may not expect to receive a better Peru, but being, from now on, builders of it.

Thanks because we know that You hears us, that You're with us and that You will never leave us, and because of it, we know that we are going to go through this We will be in the other side, and we'll be stronger, wiser, better persons, better Peruvians and better Christians.

Amen.