Riots at UASD

While a couple of girls on our team were on campus today, a riot broke out. Guns were shot, rocks were thrown, and gas bombs were going off. Fortunately, they made it off campus safely and we stayed near our apartments the rest of the day. However it was unnerving to receive calls and texts from students in our ministry who were in buildings on campus in lock-down status, unable to leave until the threats were gone. While we still don’t know the main cause of the riot, we do know that these are not uncommon to UASD. In fact, the police are actually banned from being on campus due to an abuse of their presence in past situations. I happened to be running errands near campus and besides the noise from heavier-than-normal traffic on the streets I wouldn't have been able to sense the danger that existed just a street away. It’s sad that students are so accustomed to these types of things. They already know the drill: classes will be cancelled, some people might get arrested, life will go on tomorrow. I’m still unsure how to react to this situation, but praise God that everyone on the team is safe and that the students in our ministry are ok.

On another note, you can all be praying for a BIG thing that will be happening tomorrow: we will be starting the first Vida Estudantil night-time meeting! There is a huge amount of students that are free between classes at night and we found it highly necessary to reach these students by providing a place for them to come and investigate God through community while they wait for their next class :) We’ve already met a lot of students who are seeking God and are interested in joining our group through our night-time evangelism hours and are even bringing along a couple of students already involved in Vida Estudantil to help us kick it off. Pray that the students we invite will show up and that God will speak through us as we share the Gospel and encourage them engage in spiritual conversations as a group.