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“Seemingly Impossible” In April of 2006, Missouri Baptist University published an article titled “Saving Grace: Three Honduran Students Reflect on the Road that Led Them Here.” The article describes the incredible obstacles that Olvin, Marvin and Tino had to overcome on their long journey from the streets of Honduras to the classrooms of Missouri Baptist. At one point, the article states, “After graduation from high school with above-average grades and unmatched hard-learned life lessons, three of those boys are now pursuing what was once seemingly impossible: an undergraduate degree at MBU.” “Seemingly impossible”: don’t those words encapsulate perfectly so many of the journeys that God asks us to undertake in this life? When we received a calling in 1999 to establish a home in which street kids could be formed into Christian leaders, the words “seemingly impossible” were always somewhere in the back of our minds. Is transformation possible in a kid whose only idea of “living” is to sell enough peanuts on the streets to buy a few tortillas for dinner? Can vision and purpose be instilled in hearts so damaged by abuse and neglect? Whenever these young men even dared to have ideas about what their lives might look like beyond the misery of the streets, the world always seemed to shout back at them: “IMPOSSIBLE!” “Who then, can be saved?” Just as the disciples asked this simple yet desperate question to Jesus Christ, his answer was equally simple but also incredibly profound: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). Through human lenses, opening the Micah House in 1999 to create disciples out of the “lost children” of this world was at best a quixotic dream and at worse a fool’s errand. And, I’ll admit, that there have been challenging times in the last six years in which we have wondered if this dark world wrought too much damage in the lives of these young men; perhaps true healing was impossibly beyond our reach. But those times are when God always worked most clearly. The greater the obstacle to overcome, the more clearly God seems to proclaim: “Just wait and see how I will display my glory through your lives.” Now that nine of our young men have graduated from high school, the prevailing feeling around the Micah Project these days is not one of impossibility but one of hope. Not a Hollywood-happy-ending kind of hope that says, “Now everything will turn out perfectly for me.” In fact, each of our graduates can tell you how challenging it is to begin their university studies and adapt to a new way of life—in some cases, even a new culture and language. Nevertheless, the seemingly insurmountable obstacles always seem to get surmounted, and the guys continue determinedly onward towards their future.
It is with that future in mind that we ask for your continued support. We have prayerfully worked together with our graduates to identify the institution that will best prepare each of them to meet their future goals (see below for details). While the young men have been able to obtain $29,000 in institutional yearly scholarships, we will still need to raise approximately $96,000 for the 2006-2007 school year to pay for college costs, over and above the funds we raise for our operational costs here in Honduras. Your donation to our scholarship fund is an investment in our young men’s future and a physical sign of hope in their lives. If you would like to contribute to this special fund, we ask that you send a check to “the Micah Project” with a memo that it is to be used for the scholarship fund (see address below). In the same Missouri Baptist article mentioned above, Tino was asked what the Micah Project meant to him. He responded, “For the first time in my entire life, I found love. That love gave me hope that I had never felt before.” Many of you have given of your time, energy, prayers, and financial resources to show our young men that they are indeed loved. Please know that, through your support, the words “seemingly impossible” have been replaced by a confident assurance in what God will do in the lives of these young men. |
