November 2002

Update

November 2002 Update

     Three of the Micah Boys have turned eighteen!  In September, Marvin was the first of our young men to turn 18.   His biggest present was a driver’s license!  He has been tooling all over Tegucigalpa in my battered 1984 pick-up, doing errands for the Micah Project.  Now I know why parents start going gray about this time period in their children’s lives!

      On the night of Marvin’s birthday, we invited his grandmother and his father to dinner at a very nice restaurant in Tegucigalpa as a surprise for Marvin.   As we ushered them into this posh restaurant, they looked around them in amazement.  For their whole lives, Marvin’s family has seen dinner as something that they may or may not have each day, depending on how hard the times are.  But on Marvin’s birthday, they celebrated a true feast!

      Marvin’s grandmother Coronada has wrinkles that testify to her 82 years, but she also has the brightest and liveliest eyes I have ever seen.  She sat down in front of the finery at that restaurant, combing her hands through her silver hair, anxious to make sure she looked her best at this special occasion.  During the meal,  we asked her many questions about her life.  For twenty-four years she has sold peanuts on the streets of Tegucigalpa.  She sets up a wooden box on the sidewalk in front of a bank every morning at daybreak.  She lays her little packets of peanuts and cashews in neat rows and sells them to the bustling pedestrians of the city all day long.

      By selling bags of peanuts, she raised almost all of her grandkids and many of her grandnephews and nieces by herself.  Even today, she has two or three young kids living in her tiny adobe house.  Every day, she walks down the mountainside that she lives on in order to catch a bus into the city to her peanut-selling spot, and every night she climbs back up  that same mountain to her home.  These days, she has begun to slow down quite a bit.  When I pass by her selling peanuts, I either find her reading the Bible or dosing on her little stool.  But whenever she sees me passing by, she gets out of her chair, hugs me, and greets me as if I were the most important person in the world.

      During our meal on Marvin’s big night, he asked his grandmother about her life growing up.  She told of a very hard life.  She grew up in a tiny village, and she never once saw the city until the day she moved into it.  With her husband’s death, she became the sole provider for her extended family.   She did her best to raise her grandkids, but there was a time when hunger and abuse from other members of their family forced them to the streets.  Coronada’s story is indeed a hard one.  Yet, amazingly, she never focuses long on the tragedy!   She told her stories with a joy and a spark that made the suffering fade into the background.  How can a person with such a hard life find such joy in living?  About halfway through our meal, Marvin leaned over to me and whispered, “This is the best birthday I have ever had.”  After dinner, we drove up to his grandmother’s home (a very scary uphill drive!) and shared a cake with the rest of Marvin’s family.  It began to rain as we sang to Marvin, and Coronada had to move the cake to avoid it getting wet from the rain coming through the holes in her ceiling.

      At eighteen, it is a miracle that Marvin is finally able to see some blessing in his history which has mostly been defined by tragedy.   Just as his grandmother tenaciously holds on to hope despite a hard life, Marvin too is beginning to see the good in the difficult circumstances of his life.   He even believes that the hardships of his childhood will be used by God as He uses Marvin to reach out to the downtrodden and poor in spirit of this world.  Although Marvin eventually had to leave his home for the streets because of poverty and abuse, it is easy to see that his grandmother passed along her chispa--her spark--to him before they parted company!  (For a picture of Marvin’s grandma, see www.micahcentral.org/marvin.html ).

      We tried to celebrate Jarvin’s and David’s eighteenth birthdays grandly as well.  We celebrated Jarvin’s birthday on our October trip to the United States.  He was able to celebrate his birthday three different times with people who have met him in Honduras and who love him as a son and brother.  Being able to spend time in the States with so many people who love and pray for him was probably his favorite birthday gift!  (For pictures and stories of our trip to the U.S., see www.micahcentral.org/ustrip.html).  David’s eighteenth birthday was last Sunday.  We spent the day at the park, trying to teach the boys how to play American football!

      Our next eighteen year old will be Cristino in February, and Danilo will be crossing the line into adulthood in May. Our boys are proud to turn eighteen, but they have shown some fear as well.   Since they lost years of schooling on the street, they have two or three years of high school left; they will graduate high school at the age of 21 or 22.

      We are committed to supporting our boys until they can achieve the dreams that God has given them.  At the same time, we recognize that our young men will need greater independence, more decision-making responsibilities, and a place where they can take those last important steps into adulthood.  That is why, for the last year, we have been planning the Leadership Project.  Next year, we will be purchasing a building which will serve as an independent-living facility for our older boys.    In this way, the boys will have the space to make their own decisions, while still participating in Micah family life.

     The Leadership House will have a residential director(s), as most college dorms do, to continue to mentor the boys during this transitional stage of their lives.  We hope that the Leadership House will accomplish the following goals in our boys’ lives:

      1.)  Provide a safe and healthy living environment for young adults, where they can experience independent living while at the same time receive support from a caring and guiding residential mentor(s).

     2.)  Provide maximum support to the young men in order that they may receive the education necessary to become servant-leaders in the career or ministry they choose.

     3.)  Assist the young men in making a smooth transition into Christian adulthood, including discipleship, job training, financial counseling, help on college studies, marriage or pre-marriage counseling, etc.

     4.)  Provide spaces where the Leadership house men can reach out to their non-Christian peers, including a library, computer center and good study environment.

      The young men who live in the Leadership House will pass through three stages.  In each stage, they will acquire more responsibility as well as more independence.  By the end of the third stage, they will be able to make a smooth transition into an independent adult life.   We have developed outcomes which we hope that the boys will display in their lives through their experience at the Leadership House.  These outcomes refer to the spiritual, emotional, intellectual, professional, and material aspects of the lives of the young men.  Below are some examples of these outcomes:

      1.) Spiritual:  The young men will choose to formulate habits of a growing spiritual life, such as prayer, devotional time, Bible study, church attendance, Christian fellowship, and service in an ever increasing desire for holiness.

      2.)  Intellectual:  The young men will have a thirst for knowledge and a joy of learning, and will know how to obtain knowledge in order to deepen their understanding of God’s general and special revelation, and thus, know Him better and serve Him with wisdom.

      3.) Emotional:   The young men will seek counseling, encouragement and support when making important life decisions or when life’s burdens threaten to overwhelm them, and will learn to avoid self-destructive behaviors through the support of a loving Christian community.

      4.)  Material:  The young men will learn how to manage their money in a God-pleasing way through such skills as formulating a personal budget and finding an appropriate balance between spending, saving and giving.

      If you would like to know more about the Leadership House, I would be glad to send you a complete profile.  It is our goal to have the Leadership House running by January 2004.  We have identified six buildings near the current Micah House that are options for purchase to use as the Leadership House facility.  In October, we began a capital funds campaign to raise the $80,000 to purchase and rehab a facility.  It is our goal to purchase a facility by July 2003 in order to spend the last months of 2003 to get the building ready for the Leadership House.

      We ask that you would prayerfully consider supporting the Leadership House building purchase.  If you would like to donate to our Leadership House capital funds drive, you may write a check to “The Micah Project” with a note indicating that the funds are for the Leadership House.  The check may be sent to the following address:  Mr. Randy Mayfield, Micah Project Vice-President; 7700 Davis Dr.; Clayton, MO 63105.   We understand that many of you donate generously to our operational budget; those funds support the daily activities of the Micah Project and are still much needed for 2003!  Anything that you might be able to donate over-and-above those funds would be greatly appreciated for the Leadership House.  All funds are tax-exempt according to our U.S. non-profit status.

      So many of our boys have already developed a vision for serving our Lord in the future.  We believe that He will use their time at the Leadership House to bring those visions into sharp focus these young men.  It will be the launching pad for lives lived for Christ and His Kingdom. 

      Thank you for your support of these budding Kingdom-workers! 

     Your brother in Christ,

      Michael Miller