On the balcony earlier, Evertsz said that some time ago God had come to her in a dream, instructing her to visit the gang member with whom we had spoken outside of the school. While she was afraid, she went anyway. Later on, he was shot. This was one of the first times he had been out of bed in months.

 

Heading back on one of the occasions, Evertsz ran off down an alley. She had told Van Dyke shortly beforehand that one of the gang members they had been working with had been shot. When she caught back up with us, she told us she had visited the shooter to see if he would like to pray with Van Dyke.

When we were leaving for the last time, it had started raining. I asked Evertsz why the guys weren't around anymore. I thought maybe it was the rain, but the gang members are out around 8 a.m. for guard duty, so it would be odd for them to worry about rain. She said they probably went to rob the buses. If the people don't give up the money, they are murdered.

These are the people, and this is the environment in which Evertsz works and in which the children live.

Evertsz explained that she understands why people hate the gang members, but she does not have the same bitterness. She had “a bad past life” and understands the horrible background that most of these men and boys come from. She said, understandably, that most people do not have the time or want to take the time to work with them. “It takes a lot of patience,” she said, adding that she thinks it’s important to give them an opportunity to change.  

Evertsz began working with gang members after she met and started visiting one in the burn unit in the hospital in which she used to work. The man’s family was full of drunks, and his mother was a black magic priest, but he was saved and his life was changed. He has since written a book about his experiences.

She found it important to start the school on the other side and was prompted to do so because of several children in specific. Three children at the school, ages nine, eleven and twelve, have lived alone for two months while their mother is in the hospital taking care of a sick baby. Another child in the school, age eleven, she had seen several weeks before holding a shotgun “almost as big as him.”

Evertsz feels that God has put her there to do this work. “I don’t know how things are going to go there. I know it will be tough.” In the near future, she hopes to buy a house, so the school can have a permanent residence.

In November BuildaBridge will be returning to Guatemala with a program entitled Arts for hope at Thanksgiving. BuildaBridge is asking for 24 artists to respond to the call, to work in as many as five locations in Guatemala, including the two schools in La Limonada. The program will include local artists. In addition to artists, BuildaBridge could utilize the skills of arts educators, therapists, social workers and medical personnel. 

It’s less than a ten minute walk between the two schools, but they are like two different countries. The children are the same, except that some live on the other side. Evertsz knows that it is her duty to work in the tough places, but she must rely on outside help to keep the schools alive. It’s easy to brush the place aside as too dangerous or a lost cause, but lots of organizations care and want to provide assistance.