2001 to 2005

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Published: Tuesday, 13 March 2007 15:46

Written by Corina Clements Soria

On December 16, 2001 I received a most wonderful gift…  He was sparkling clean…  SMOOTH… and just so beautiful that it seemed hard to believe that it was true.   No, it wasn’t my knight in shining armor coming to sweep me off my feet…  It was a new vehicle…

My Uncle Norman got married that year and for his and Nancy’s wedding gift, all of their friends got together to give ME something… (so even if I never get married, I can’t really complain too much… I already got a wedding gift!!!)  Well…  the gift was a 7 passenger Suzuki Grand Vitara…  Comparing him to poor Fred, he was like a limo beside an old ox cart…

All the kids know that I name my cars so they all gave me suggestions of what to name him…  I remember one – Jordy…  but he just wasn’t a Jordy…  In the end I just did the dictator thing, and named him what I wanted…  I named him Royce…  That seemed to have more class than Jordy.

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Crossing the Jordan - Hope for the Street Kids in Bolivia

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Published: Wednesday, 20 November 2002 16:46

Written by Corina Clements Soria

Written by Corina Clements and reprinted with permission from The Gospel Message 2002 Issue 3, a publication of Gospel Missionary Union.

“What do you want and how many?” the man on the phone was asking. He was from the meat plant and had telephoned earlier in the week to say he wouldn’t be able to give us any meat this year. Now he was calling again, offering cow stomach, liver, heart, udders, innards, feet, and I’m not sure what else. 

“Exactly what do you want and how many?” he asked again. 

How do I answer a question like that? I don’t know how many we will feed Christmas dinner to this year. When we started feeding the street kids in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, on Christmas in 1995, we fed about 75 people in a small, dirty abandoned building. I never guessed it would become such a tradition. By Christmas 2000, our help had increased and we shared a Christmas meal with nearly 700 street people. For Christmas 2001, six local churches and Youth With A Mission (YWAM) volunteers offered to take meals to locations all across the city. Many others helped with donations and the preparations. 

“We are preparing around 900 meals,” I answered the waiting man. When he heard how many people we wanted to feed, he offered 50 livers and 50 stomachs. 

“Do you want anything else?” he asked. 

I countered with 20 livers and 20 stomachs, and since I didn’t feel like preparing udders, I asked for 20 hearts as well. In the end he sent 30 of each. So the preparations began.

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How We Began: My Dream

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Published: Friday, 12 April 2002 15:46

Written by Corina Clements Soria

This is something that I (Corina Clements) wrote back in August 1999… a reflection on where all this had started. This was written before El Jordán officially came to exist but it gives you a bit of history of the heart behind the place… if you have the patience to wade through it all.

I look around me... the pictures of some of the kids on my bulletin board... the "street kid storage room" - all the shelves of clothes and things for the homes and kids... the stacks of Bible correspondence courses and Bibles to give out to the kids and people in jails... my love and desire to reach these kids...

Where did it all begin?? Back on that night in October, 1995?? When Pajarito with tears in his eyes pleaded with me to pray for him... pray for him??? At that time I was searching in my own life for what God had for me to do... I was willing to do anything or go anywhere... That night on the way home from our Bible study, Luz Marina's car broke down on the edge of the city... we prayed for help... and God sent us drug addicts... Pajarito appeared out of no where by my side... and helped fix the car... It was my first direct contact with drug addicts... and people who live on the streets, under bridges, in the woods or in drainage/sewage canals of the city... It was on that night God opened my eyes and heart to this needy group of people...

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Where did the name El Jordán come from?

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Published: Tuesday, 12 March 2002 15:46

Written by Corina Clements Soria

Our place is called "Centro de Apoyo y Orientación: El Jordán." The "Centro de Apoyo y Orientación" part will not necessarily be used all the time... but at least on paper to describe what type of place it is. It basically means a place of help and direction. The El Jordán (The Jordan) part comes from the first chapters of the book of Joshua where after years of slavery in Egypt and the 40 years of wandering in the desert because of disobedience, the Israelites are allowed to enter the promised land. It reminds us of their legacy of God's covenant - and that promise turning into a reality.

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