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December 2002 |
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A Christmas Letter from the Micah Project Dear friends, This past Sunday, the Micah boys and staff gathered around our kitchen table. It is our tradition to spend some time at a Sunday meal for reflection and community time. On this day, we lit a candle at each of the three tables in our little dining room. We then read the famous Christmas-time verse from Isaiah: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” We then reflected with our boys about the coming of that light…the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Being on the missions field, I must admit that sometimes the darkness of this world seems overwhelming. I recently read a news article which ranked Honduras in 78th place out of 80 countries in terms of economic viability. The United Nations Population Fund indicates that 72% of Hondurans live in poverty, and 3.5 million people live in extreme poverty. This poverty threatens to tear at the very soul of a society. There are an estimated 20,000 street children in Honduras; six percent of these children end up taking their own lives, unable to bear a violent and seemingly hopeless life.* This year, hundreds of teens and children have been killed in the gang violence that is turning poor neighborhoods into war zones. Just last week, one of our boys was walking on a downtown street when a group of armed men attacked an armored car. Our boy looked on as a female cop and a twelve year old boy were killed in the shootout that followed. Sometimes, I dream about moving our project out onto some distant mountain, far removed from the terrors of city life. Yet if our boys are to be light-bearers in their society, they must be fully involved in it. And while we try to make the Micah Project and warm spot where the light of our Lord brings peace, our boys must face the darkness of this world head on. And, occasionally, they lose a battle with the darkness. Recently, one of our boys did something that was extremely hurtful to himself and to the other boys. For many weeks, he let the darkness of his sin eat him up and drive him deeper and deeper into “the shadow of death.” But what our boys are learning is that, once you have basked in the glorious light of our Savior, it is impossible to turn your back to it for long. Finally, this boy came to me and confessed all that he had done. He prayed that God would forgive his sin, and he received that forgiveness! We talked for many hours that day, and he was restored the joy of his salvation. About a week later, the same boy said that he was ready to confess to the other boys in the Micah Project. His actions had created a tension in the project, and everyone felt the oppression of unspoken acts. Two days ago, we called all of the boys into my office in the Micah house. It is a small room, and the fourteen of us were tightly packed in. This boy began to confess what he had done. He told of how his actions had destroyed him on the inside, and how he understood their anger and resentment against him. He said that the worst part of his actions was that he had hurt them as well. We reflected on sin, forgiveness and grace for a while and then, one by one, the boys hugged this boy and told him that they forgave him. At that moment, you could almost see the light shine anew in this boy’s life! Then, he did something that I have never before seen. He got on his knees before each boy, and he bent down and kissed their feet. One by one, he moved around the circle, humbling himself before each boy. It was the purest and most beautiful act of gratitude, humility and joy in forgiveness that I have ever seen in my life. While this boy did hurtful things, his confession was a gift to me and the boys that we will never forget for the rest of our lives. In an age in which it seems that it is “every man for himself,” in which humans will go to great lengths to avoid saying “I’m sorry,” this boy modeled for us the true meaning of grace. For that is truly what Christmas is about…second chances. Our God became man and died a sinner’s death so that we may throw our sins before him in utter assurance that he will say “you are forgiven.” His sacrifice is our one road out of the shadow of death, the one road that leads to the Eternal Light of his Kingdom. In a way, the Micah Project is about second chances as well. The tragedy of abandonment and the horror of street life ingrained in our boys a darkness that, as I mentioned in the statistics, seems hopeless. Yet, in the three years that we have ministered to these boys, we have seen the bonds of darkness broken. What a joy it is to see them live in the Light! Let me be frank, though. As with all of us, sometimes the darkness that surrounds our boys calls them back to itself. Sometimes, darkness seems easier, sometimes it seems more pleasurable, and sometimes, it seems downright unavoidable. Will they always be able to avoid this world’s temptations? No! Will they always be able to come back to our Savior’s light in repentance? Absolutely! In our same Sunday dinner last week, we read
one more Bible verse together. In
Philippians, Paul asks us to seek purity, “so that you may become
blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked
generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold
out the word of life.” Perhaps
the most amazing thing about this season is that we realize that, broken
and darkness-loving people that we are, Jesus allows us to reflect his
light to this world. I beg of you to join us in prayer for the boys of the Micah Project. Pray that the dark corners of their souls that were damaged in their childhoods would be purely cleansed by their Savior’s light. Pray that they would resist the great temptations to jump back into the darkness. And pray that, day-by-day, their Lord’s light would shine ever brighter in their lives. May we all throw ourselves before our Savior’s feet in joy in this season of Light! Merry Christmas! Your brother in Christ, Michael Miller * See www.projecthonduras.com for more statistics and details about Honduras. |