October 2003 Update

October 10, 2003

Dear friends,

There is a haunting picture of Jarvin, one of the Micah boys who has been with us since the beginning of the project.  He can’t have been more than seven or eight years old when it was taken.  Although there is no context to the photo, no background to show where he was or what he was doing, the picture speaks volumes about his life on the streets.   In fact, maybe it is that very lack of context, the sense of empty space, the frightening nothingness around him, that informs us so well of this street child whose face is half hidden in the shadows.  Indeed, the picture speaks of a child who is used to the shadows.

I have heard the story of this child; he has told me in great detail of the things he suffered on the streets. It is a story that I do not want to tell you; it contains horrors that would fill a thousand dark hours with nightmares.   While Jarvin’s stories are better left to the demonic pit in which they were created, they are nevertheless written in all of the lines and shadows of his face in this one searing photograph.

That face…it wears the expression of an old, world-weary man who has seen too much, yet it sits on an eight year old frame dressed in tattered rags.  It expresses a sadness that already seems to have given up on a life that has only just begun.  It is a face that seems to ask, “What horror awaits around the next corner?”  It seems to demand, “I am eight years old.  How much more must I bear?”

I don’t share this picture with you to inspire pity; rather, so that you might understand the enormity of our joy when Jarvin turned nineteen this Monday.  For if this picture is the physical definition of depravity, Jarvin the young man is a physical reminder of awesome grace.

There is no earthly reason that the child in the photo should be the confident, peaceful, caring, intelligent young man who blesses our lives here on a daily basis.  There is no earthly reason why Jarvin’s spirit was not destroyed before his ninth birthday.  Yet I stand before you as a witness to testify that this young man is, as he stands now at the doorstep of adulthood, one of the most remarkable people I have ever known.

Jarvin wrote some reflective words on his birthday this Monday.  In his eloquence, there is great insight into how he survived the worst that Evil could throw at him.  He wrote, “I have learned that God is a just God.  I am happy that I can see his hand, manifesting itself in our lives on a daily basis.  I know that He has chosen us for a great purpose.  We might not know why he has chosen us, but we have seen how faithful he has been.”

If there is a living, breathing sign that God can create a beautiful new work out of something that was unrecognizably damaged by evil, that would be Jarvin.  He has become an amazing man who does good things with his life, not to be noticed, but rather to humbly share with others the love that infused new life into him.

On Saturdays, for example, he hops on a bus early in the morning, which then winds up treacherously steep dirt roads back into the slum from which he fled so many years ago.  He spends all day Saturday teaching four different levels of English classes to very poor people who are enrolled in an adult education program.  At the end of a long day of teaching, he spends the night on the floor of a shack inhabited by his sister and brother-in-law, only to get up early on Sunday morning to be back at the Micah House in time for church.

No one told Jarvin to do this.  It was not a part of our ministry plan at the Micah Project and Jarvin doesn’t fulfill any requirement for doing it.  Besides asking for a few lempiras now and then to make some copies for his classes, he never makes a big deal about what he is doing.  Somehow he seems to know that this slum, which was the scene of some horrific events in his life, no longer holds any fear for him.  Rather, he takes it on himself to shine the light of hope in the place that for him held the darkest memories.

Turning nineteen may not seem like a big event for a boy who has already lived an entire lifetime of struggle and change.  Yet it is huge for a boy who knows clearly that he will be used greatly by God in the years to come.  The first part of those coming years will take place in the Leadership House, where Jarvin and five other Micah boys will move next January.  Although the Leadership House is only a few blocks from the existing Micah house, that transition will be a physical sign that the boys are moving every nearer to that big life purpose that Jarvin talks about.

The Leadership House is a beautiful building.  It’s tall ceilings and airy rooms open onto a patio that overlooks Tegucigalpa.  But what will go on inside the Leadership house will be even more beautiful than the bricks and mortar of its physical structure.  The house may have a wonderful view of our city, but the boys who live inside the house will gain an even better view of the kingdom of God and their place in it.  As a “chosen people” who belong to God, the Leadership house will prepare the boys to “declare the praises of Him who called [them] out of darkness into his wonderful light” (I Pedro 2:9).

When we bought the Leadership house in July, we paid half of the purchase price (because that’s all we had!).  Now, because of your generosity and faithfulness, I will meet with the owner of the house this Friday to pay the rest of the price.  The house will be ours!

The day that the boys found out that donations had arrived to complete the purchase of the Leadership house, we had an impromptu worship service.   They boys celebrated the fact that God has them in his hands.  Perhaps Cristino said it best when he wrote these words about the Leadership house:   “God has a purpose and a plan for our lives.  It is not just by chance that we were chosen to be in the Micah Project.  God had this place prepared for us just as he prepared the Promised Land for the Hebrews when they left bondage in Egypt.  God has poured so many blessings into my life…both material and spiritual.  This tells me that He is preparing something even bigger for us and for our lives.  For all that He has done, for all that He is doing, and for all that He will do in our lives, we give him thanks.”

I would like to echo those words of thanksgiving.  I give thanks to God for the blessing that these boys have been to me and to many other people whose lives they have touched.  I would also like to give thanks to you all, who continue to be a physical sign of hope in the boys’ lives.   As we continue to raise funds to complete the remodeling and furnishing of the Leadership house, I constantly remember that only a few months ago, the Leadership house was nothing more than a vision.  Even the leaky roof and broken plumbing that must be repaired before we move in seem like a miracle when I think about how quickly God has moved to provide this place for the boys’ future!

        It is my sincere desire that you can join with us in celebrating the fifteen miracles that are the Micah boys and the big plan that he has for each of their lives!

 Your brother in Christ,

 Michael Miller

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