This weekend we
celebrated my lovely friend, Gema's, quincenera. For those of you

who are not
familiar with Latin culture, the quincenera is the 15th birthday celebration
for girls. It is a HUGE ordeal. I would most closely related its significance
with that of the bah mitzvah for Jewish boys because for these young ladies
their quincenera is a moving from being a girl to becoming a young woman.

    I was blessed to be
able to take Gema out shopping for her quincenera dress. Gema didn't think that
she was going to have a traditional quincenera celebration because her family
couldn't afford the dress, celebration, etc. The Lord blessed me with some
extra money (through my parents' house fire), which, in turn, gave me enough to
be able to take her to buy her dress for her celebration. It was such a
wonderful day! She has completely surprised and excited. And I was
thrilled to be able to help out a young lady is so sweet and deserved such a
wonderful celebration.

   The morning that we were to go out shopping,
Gema came by my house. We were just sitting in my room chatting while I
finished getting ready. She started telling me how easily she gets embarrassed.
“Tengo pena� is the phrase that they use
her when they are embarrassed or ashamed. I feel as though I hear that phrase
100 times a day. Gema

was confessing to me that she is filled with pena over
almost everything. She told me it is one of the reasons that she never
volunteers to pray during youth activities. She has pena to pray in front of anyone (even to the point that if
she is in her home just praying to the Lord, she will hide in her room and
barely pray above a whisper so that no one else will hear her).

   As she
was sharing all of this, my mind kept flashing back to our prayer time the
weekend before when I prayed over her ability to speak truth and to hear from
the Lord for other people (to read more, read Drawn to our Knees). I saw that
the enemy is using her embarrassment to keep her from stepping out in the gifts
that the Lord has given her. I told her that this pena doesn’t come from the Lord. “For I have
not give you a spirit of timidity, but of power, of love, and of
self-discipline.â€� 2 Timothy 1:7  I challenged
Gema that this 15^th year that is such a turning point in her life is
the perfect time to begin to step out in greater faith and step-by-step get rid
of this overwhelming pena in her
life. This is the year without pena!

      Later than morning, we arrived in
Leon to go dress shopping. We decided to stop for

breakfast first. We are
sitting in a crowded restaurant in the middle of the city. When our food
arrived, I asked Gema which one of us was going to pray. She just answered “I
don’t know� so I took a chance and asked
her if she would pray for us. She smiled at me sheepishly, nodded her head, and
began to pray.

   I’m sure
no one really noticed this moment. Two girls sitting in a restaurant praying
over the meal seems normal enough, but this moment was extraordinary. A girl who hours earlier had confessed that she
won’t pray above a whisper in her own home for fear of being heard, is praying
in the middle of a crowded city restaurant. She has decided to take a risk. To
take the first step in a year without pena. I’m so proud of her!
I can’t wait to see what the Lord is going to do in this next year of her life!