We visited an invisible city within the city today. According to all the maps of Buenos Aires, this city is non-existent, though over 35,000 people live in these 65 hectares of land.

During the 1978 world championships, the government hid the city by building a wall around it. It doesn´t have a real name, but is referred to as "the neighborhood" or in politics, shanty town #21.

50 years ago this area was a complete waste land, the garbage dump of the city. It is situated on the bank of the most contaminated river in the world and there is no avoiding the rotting stench plaguing every corner. Even today the roads are paved with nothing but trash and dirt. Though part of a world-class mega-city, this community receives no electricity, running water, or any sort of public services. The police don´t come here to protect but to repress. For an invisible people, there is no such thing as law enforcement.

The children do not trespass through the borders of the surrounding communities. They have no place in the fancy new malls and plazas, grand avenues and high rises, or classy neighborhoods that fill the same city. Some of these are 2nd or 3rd generation shanty-town dwellers and know nothing else. For so many of them, there is no work ethnic, no effort, no hope. Young people will hook up just to conceive children and relieve their poverty through government aid.

And the government´s role in all this? The only response the government has supplied is eradication. Eradication means plunging into shanty-towns with bulldozers and the instant destruction of thousands of homes. Within the urbanized culture of anonymity and passivity, institutionalized politics is selfish and corrupt; a vote means nothing but an exchange for a kilo of food or cash.

A more prominent and hopeful source of informal politics is the church. The church is more than a religion, but a social movement. The front of the church is painted with a revolutionary Jesus advocating for peace, equality, and justice, followed by children and flags of every nation. This holistic incarnational ministry organizes an invisible people and serves social, political, and spiritual purposes.

Over the past year, the population of this shanty town alone has increased by over 30%, and towns like this have been popping up all over the province of Buenos Aires. Though Argentina is a huge country with abundant natural resources, the system is such that the capital city usurps resources from the rest of the country. People have no other way of survival but to try to find work in the city. And as Argentina "progresses," the disparities and inequalities only grow greater.

This is only a snippet of what I have been seeing. The crazy system under which humanity operates is so broken, I don´t even know where to begin fixing it. It is in the face of hopelessness that I hang on to God and His promises and faithfulness to us. I am such an idealistic person and want so much to see our world transformed, a transformation that will only take place when Jesus comes in all His glory.

Still, I hope I am ready to listen and obey when God shows me my place and role in all of this while I am here on Earth. Please pray for peace, wisdom, and discernment, as there is so much running through my mind right now. And don´t forget the millions of invisible people living in slums and shanty-towns all over the world tonight.

-Annie