I saw him early on a Sunday morning two weeks ago.  I was headed through downtown Tegucigalpa, eager to grab a cup of strong Honduran coffee before church.  The normally busy streets were nearly deserted, since many people were sleeping off the traditional Saturday night drinking and partying.

That is why it was easy to spot Don Luis, the father of one of our  Micah Project boys.  His disheveled and dirty appearance made it obvious that he had spent yet another drunken night on the streets. As I passed two rifle-toting watchmen who were guarding a bank were making fun of the drunken and stumbling man as he vainly tried to communicate some point with them.

I have known Don Luis for six years, having worked with his son for that long, yet on that morning he lurched past me without recognition.  Most likely, he was headed to the nearest alcohol vendor or out to beg enough change to buy some guaro, which is the local high potency alcohol.

This man's son was talking to me about his childhood one day in the kitchen of the Micah House.  Now a handsome, athletic teenager, this Micah project participant fled his home when he was eight years old.   As we talked, he described his father's drunken tirades.  Don Luis used to tie him up and beat him bloody with a long pole or his belt.  At other times, he burned his little boy's fingers on the skillet in which his grandmother was making tortillas.  This usually happened when the father came home to their small wooden shack after a long day of selling wares in the streets.  As the abuse became increasingly more drastic, the boy learned to dread the time of day when he could hear his father's footsteps come crunching up the dirt path.

After years of drunken abuse, the boy, along with his brothers and sisters, took to the streets of the capital city.   While this teen, who is the youngest of his siblings, has survived his tortured childhood, his older brothers have not fared so well.  Both of them are heavy drinkers and drug users, getting a young start to the repetitive cycle of family disintegration.

While I say that this boy has survived his childhood, it is not to say that he has overcome it.  Part of our job here at the Micah Project is to help our boys seek healing from the painful scars of abuse and abandonment that only their Savior can bring to them.  The scars of the past often surface as anger, self-hate, and, if they are not confronted head-on, a nihilism that gives the boys little hope for the future.

Don Luis is one of our most angry kids.  It often takes very little for him to fly off the handle and he can stay angry for days over the slightest conflict.  When he finally does get over his anger, he refuses to talk about it.

Through much prayer and patience, this boy is beginning to come out of his anger.  One day after our classes, I walked into my office to arrange the boys' school papers and found him waiting for me.  Having just completed a wonderful day of classes, I was surprised to see him so sullen.

"I don't know what's going on inside me," he lamented.  "I feel bored and nervous angry all at the same time."

For years I had prayed for this boy  to open up; I now began to pray silently that God would use this talk to begin the healing process.

Carefully, he began to open up about his past.  For the first time in the years that I have known him, he admitted his anger toward his father for the drinking, the abuse, and the neglect.  He also admitted that he was angry with his mother for leaving his family when he was just a toddler.   Tears began to flow as he struggled for words to explain that he was angry with them and yet he loved them--he didn't know what to feel.

As we talked, it became clear that, for this boy to fully relinquish his anger, he needed to forgive his father and his mother.   When I asked him if he was ready to do this, he nodded. Through his tears, he began to pray that God would help him to forgive his parents.   With our heads bowed, we also asked God to help this boy accept God's forgiveness in his own life.

A huge burden lifted as we prayed.  The boy's countenance was different when we opened our eyes.  He looked as if he had just wrestled a giant; at the same time, he looked joyful.  I gently told him that this was a beginning.  Since we are human, we are not able to forgive in one act, as Jesus forgave us through his sacrifice.  This boy will probably have to forgive his parents over and over again, until he can fully conquer the pain and anger that have been a part of his life for so long.

I know that many of you are praying for the Micah Project and our boys.  Please know that your prayers are responsible for leading this boy to the point in which he is willing to accept forgiveness and to forgive; to accept the liberation that forgiveness brings to the sons and daughters of God.  Your prayers are powerful and effective!

Please keep praying.  While the Micah Project consists of school, sports, service opportunities, and an active home life at the project site, it is also so much more.  It is the center of a spiritual war--a war between Light and Dark, fought on the battlefield of these boys' souls.  Your prayers are pushing the Dark back, and letting the Light enter in.

Three days ago, our youngest boy, who also harbors a lot of seething anger, went to visit his brother, who shines shoes downtown.  His brother had exciting news--he had found their father!  They went to visit the man, whom our participant had not seen since he was two years old.  When they arrived at his house, in which the man was raising a second family, the boy's father was drunk--are you beginning to see why these kids are driven to the streets?  It was his first time to see his youngest son from his first family in ten years.  It is likely that he did not even remember the next day.

Will the reunion help this thirteen year-old begin to deal with his past?  Will it spur him to more anger or to healing?   Part of me wants to say, "No!  Don't go back there just to be abandoned and rejected all over again!"  And yet, another part of me knows that it is only by knowing and naming our brokeness and sin that we can accept our Lord's freedom from it.

"Oh Lord, help this boy on his path to your liberation.  And give us the wisdom to know how to help him."

Your prayers will be a part of this boy's victory!

Thank you for joining us in the battle,
 

Michael Miller
The Micah Project

Post Script:  The Micah Project is funded entirely by you!  Just as we need your prayers, we also need your financial support in order to help this ministry thrive!  Please consider a one-time or ongoing commitment to the Micah Project.  You may mail your tax-exempt check to:  "The Central Presbyterian Church, c/o Mr. Randy Mayfield, 7700 Davis Dr., Clayton, MO 63105.  For more information, contact Randy at (314) 854-0133, or, write me back!
 
 

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