February 2003 Update

It is amazing how sometimes we, as Christians, in our fervor to do good things for God, rush ahead of His will and end up doing things our way.  One of the biggest temptations for those of us who work at the Micah Project as missionaries is that, in our zeal to do the Lord’s work in Honduras, we forget to seek out His will.  Every time we leave the Micah House we encounter people who are killing themselves with drugs and alcohol, others who are barely surviving because of the base poverty in which they find themselves, and still others who, quite simply, need to know the love of God.  It is so tempting to jump into the thick of things and reach out to everyone who needs our help! 

It is especially hard when innocent children like Belsy are dying violent deaths in the streets.  As I mentioned in our January report, Belsy was a young street boy who was caught in the crossfire of a gun battle in the market section of Tegucigalpa.  As we grieve for Belsy, our desire to work with street kids has grown.  Yet, for the past couple of years, we had been frustrated in “our” desires to get involved in the lives of the street kids.  We used to have many informal encounters with the street kids.  We knew which kids slept in front of the downtown Pizza Hut, which ones lived in the park in front of the Honduran National Congress, and those that lived by the National soccer stadium.  Yet even those encounters have ended since January 2002, when violence in this city threatened to escalate out of control and the Honduran army began patrolling the streets.  Since that time the street kids, especially the older ones, have become invisible, using their intimate knowledge of the back alleyways to avoid attention that, these days, could get them killed.

How then can we reach out in ministry to the kids on the streets?  Just when we couldn’t find an answer to that question, God answered it for us.  In two very clear ways in February, God called us into a deeper ministry with street kids.

The first occurred one night when we were returning to the Micah House after a late meal with some guests from the United States.  Driving by the national stadium, we heard someone shout “Michael!”  As we pulled our van to a stop on the deserted nighttime streets, a lanky street boy named “Pirocco” came running up (we are using his street nickname for privacy).  I’ve known Pirocco since 1998 when he was temporarily living in a group home with some of the other boys who now live in the Micah house.  But Pirocco’s story is the same as so many other street kids; after a few months of stability and growth, the drugs called him back to the streets, where he has been ever since. 

For almost six years, Pirocco was best friends with the Micah Project’s Darwin.  Darwin and Pirocco were infamous for their money-making scams on the streets.  One of their most successful schemes was taking a bus out to one of the middle class neighborhoods, where they would go door-to-door asking for old clothes.  Once back downtown, they would sell the clothes and use the money for drugs.   When we asked one of the older street boys what Darwin and Pirocco were like when they were together, he just shook his head in mock exasperation and said, “They were terrible, terrible!” 

The night that Pirocco approached our van was the first time we have seen him in many months.  As he stood talking with Darwin, I couldn’t help but notice the difference between the two boys.  Although Darwin still struggles occasionally with the effects of his long term drug use, his robust frame and shining eyes seemed out of place there on the streets when compared with Pirocco’s emaciated body, drug-hazed expression, and street-wary stance (for a picture of Darwin and Pirocco together, see our "Street Kids in Honduras" section).

 Wavering from the effects of the yellow glue he was inhaling, Pirocco asked us to buy him something to eat.  As we talked, a whole group of street boys and girls approached us; suddenly there were almost thirty boys and girls surrounding our van.  Many of them were well known to us; kids that we used to see all over the downtown area.  We learned first hand from them that only at night do they feel safe to emerge back onto the streets.   It was hard to tell from their deadened eyes, but it seemed that there was a new desperation in the group now that they were not welcome on the daytime streets of Tegucigalpa.

After talking with them for awhile, we drove off to look for a late night place to buy food and returned to the stadium street with seven whole chickens and thirty bean tacos.  As the kids flocked around our van door, the food disappeared in seconds into ravenous hands and mouths.  Several of the kids asked us to take them with us to our program.  Painfully, we told them that we did not have the space, but we promised to return soon.

Handing out food to street kids is not going to change their lives, but that night was nevertheless a beginning point for our ministry with them.  The next day, three street kids showed up at the Micah House, including Pirocco.  Erin, our missionary from Chicago, sat him down and taught him to write his name.  Later, when I walked onto our patio, there was Darwin, his ex-partner-in-crime, teaching him how to write the alphabet!  Erin has begun meeting with Pirocco every Monday in a downtown park to begin to teach him basic lessons.  So far, he has shown up early to his class for three weeks running!  Today, he brought another street boy along with him.  I imagine Erin will have an entire school in the streets before long!

A second opportunity to work with street kids was provided us last month by Sister Martha, a feisty and compassionate nun who runs the home schooling program through which our boys study.  She told us about a municipal soup kitchen that wanted to do more with the kids that arrived there than simply hand out food.  Sister Martha agreed to donate the curriculum and materials to begin educating the kids, but they needed teachers to teach it!  Thus, three weeks ago, our boys, along with a few teens that we have been discipling from Villa Linda Miller, arrived at an abandoned factory, where thirty young street kids were awaiting!  Since then, our boys have worked with the street kids daily, doing simple games and Bible songs, and preparing the kids to begin their first grade curriculum.

When I think about all that has happened in the last month, I am amazed both at God’s perfect wisdom and at our habitual stubbornness thinking of this as OUR ministry, rather than HIS.  He has brought us into contact with the street kids once again in his perfect timing.  Not only is our staff ready and willing to take on this challenge, but our boys, after working with kids all last year at Villa Linda Miller, are also equipped to undertake this ministry.   And that is truly a miracle: ex-street kids being used by God to reach out to those still on the streets. 

            To “wait upon the Lord” is a hard lesson to learn sometimes.   Every time we have waited upon His will, however, he has brought people and ministry in our lives at just the right time, and for His glory rather than ours.  It is a great comfort to me that the Apostle Paul says, “but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (II Corinthians 4:7).   What a joy to know that he uses us, fallen, imperfect  and breakable as we are, to be His light in a dark world! 

As we watch the Micah boys develop day-by-day into fine Christian men, as we see our ministry in Villa Linda Miller touch the lives of hundreds of people, and as we wait expectantly to see where God will take this new ministry with the street kids, we praise Him for loving each and every one of these people and drawing them closer to Him.  Please pray that we would have the wisdom, courage, and love needed to reach out to the people that God places in our path in His good timing!

Your brother in Christ,