Puzzle Pieces

I love when the puzzle pieces of life come together. God has been working right underneath my nose for the past two years or more, and in this past month and this morning I’ve been able to see some of them be pieced together.

For about a year and a half, while living in Tegucigalpa, in my spare time I’ve been able to participate in a ministry called Micah Project. Micah Project is a boy’s home that has a youth home and a leadership house. In the youth home are currently about 11 boys under the age of 17. These boys have entered Micah Project to get off the street and/or to get an education. You’d imagine most of these boys to not have families and that’s why they are on the streets. That’s usually not the reason. Typically socio-economic status pushes children to the street. Their families simply just aren’t able to provide for everyone in the family. Thus these children turn to the streets in search of food and many times much more. Each of these boys has a different story. You can learn more about them on the website: http://www.micahcentral.org/ The Micah Project provides these boys with a Christ focused home and education. My participation has usually been joining them for Sunday night worship gatherings and having them join us for Ultimate Frisbee on Sunday afternoons. But more than anything, I’ve enjoyed investing in relationships with these boys.

Micah Project has a good balance though. They still also make sure to minister to those still on the streets. Thus, every Friday night some Micah staff and many International School teachers including myself come together to host street kids for an hour of soccer, sharing in God’s word, dinner, and foot washing. It’s a great time of fellowship together. Yes, sometimes the street kids bicker and fight with each other or someone tries to steal food, etc. However, God’s presence is there. Each of those street kids is now willing to give up his glue bottle to join us in this time. Almost each of the street kids is a glue user. They buy shoe glue and put it in a Coca Cola bottle or a baby jar and huff it. It’s a quick high that removes their pain and hunger. It’s what they use to fill them because they feel there is nothing else to fill them. More so, glue is a drug that can cause severe irreparable brain damage. These boys and an occasion girl or two are looking for what’s going to fill them. When they’re ready to give up their glue, that’s when Christ is able to step in and fill them with what will last, what they are really hungering for.

Since we’ve started the New Year, God has been working in my heart in regards to these boys and their needs. I should have realized that this was going to happen when I realized over Christmas that I was not only missing my friends and my students but I was also missing the street kids. Since having returned, a couple friends and I have realized that as we’ve invested and developed these relationships with some of these people through Friday soccer, that there is no reason that we can’t spend more time with them. Thus, now on Saturdays we also invite them to lunch with us downtown and then we hang out for hours after. These two Saturdays so far have been absolute eye openers and blessings. The Holy Spirit’s presence is there with us the entire time. For example, this past week we were able to take 12 guys to lunch and afterwards we walked around and the group lessened in numbers quite a bit. We were able to relax in a park and the next thing I knew our conversations had led to singing Christian songs. Right there in the middle of the park were these gringos (white people) and street kids singing songs about Jesus. AMEN! I’m sure we looked ridiculous to one who can’t see with Christ’s eyes. We were singing and dancing around and playing soccer and we were “locos por Cristo” (Crazy for Christ). I crave my time with these guys because in so I’m spending time with God. God is so present in our time together.

And here’s where another puzzle piece comes together. For the past two months, I’ve been reading a book called Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer. While reading it, I’ve been inquiring God how he wants me to fast. What does he want me to give up/sacrifice? Well, this morning as I lay in bed copying down into my notebook all the quotes from pages I had dog-eared, the puzzle piece connected right in front of my face. The entire book was about Isaiah 58.

Isaiah 58
True Fasting
1 "Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.
3 'Why have we fasted,' they say,
'and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?'
"Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?
6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness [a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
13 "If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the LORD's holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
14 then you will find your joy in the LORD,
and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob."
The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

So although I’d been asking God for how I could be fasting and felt I wasn’t getting an answer until this morning, I realized I already was fasting. According to these verses, I’ve been breaking bread with the hungry (vs 2), seeing the naked and covering him (vs 4), being sympathetic to those that have the same flesh as I do (vs 7), and giving my soul to the poor and afflicted by sharing Christ with them. I’ve been fasting without realizing it! I’ve been doing these things and loving it. I’ve been fasting in order to seek God and have found him!

Now don’t get me wrong. This is not a “Hey, look what I’ve done” kind of post nor am I saying “give your life to the poor and then you can be saved”. Not in the least. I hope through my words you can sense how exciting this all is for me and how excited I am because of what GOD is doing. I pray he’s changing other’s lives while changing mine because in these verses he gives us promises. He promises the darkness in your life will become light, and it has in mine. He promises to be with us (vs 8), to guide us (vs 11), and to satisfy my soul with Him (vs 11). God also promises that if we give ourselves to the poor, God will restore the ruins of his city and his people (vs 12). These promises I already see God fulfilling in my life.

There are two promises that I cling to in hopes of seeing them laid out. He promises to guide us in verse 11. I pray that God will guide me in showing me how I can make a difference. Right now we are just meeting their immediate needs but I don’t feel that can always be enough. I’ve contemplated many things. Do I open a soup kitchen? Do I open a home for these guys? Do I start dance classes for at risk kids? What do I do? Tegucigalpa has few resources for these people. God will guide. Please pray for me in that I could hear and see his guidance clearly.

I also cling to the promise that God will restore the ruins of this city and his people. These street people live in the ruins of the city in my opinion. Last week we were able to go with them for the first time and see where they live. Our friend Edwin led us through tight winding market streets and we popped out into a back alley, walked down the alley, and stopped in front of a large mound of scrap metal, pop bottles, and trash. He didn’t call it home, but when he started introducing us to his dogs and his wife, I realized this was what he led us to see. As I stood there kind of shocked, I finally asked, “But where do you sleep at night”. He pointed to the black tarp. Edwin, his wife, and his underdeveloped 5 year old sleep there together. Some of them don’t even have that. They just find their pavement and lay down. God has the power to transform their lives and this area.

Although they are precious jewels in God’s eyes, society doesn’t see them that way. Society sees them as trash. Yeah, they smell bad and are dirty. But I’ve been blessed to see who some of them really are when they respectfully stop huffing their glue to spend 3 hours with us on Saturdays, and their souls are beautiful. However, just walking around town with these people, my eyes are opened to their lives….they are the rejects of society. They’re willing to venture around with us, but they are more comfortable down in their alley and I realized yesterday why. I realized why when the man in the pharmacy was short and not friendly with Edwin because of his appearance and manner. I realized why when we were in the grocery store and one of the managers was asking them to leave. (Edwin has more control than I do because I was ready to make a scene. He was a client with us for Pete’s sake!) I realized even more embarrassingly so when the police made sure to stick close by as we hung out in the park. Or worst of all, I realized how society treats them when Edwin got kicked by a drive by motorcyclist while walking too close to the street! A God firing rage rises up in me when they are treated like this. This is not how God intended it to be. Thus, I cling to God’s promises for change.

So as I excitedly share with you what God is doing in my life, I encourage you to believe the promises that God has for you also.

I leave you with this to be encouraged that we too are nothing without Him. I am no different than the people on the street. We all need Christ.

A version of Psalm 63:3
Father, I’m empty but you are full. I am hungry, but you are the Bread of Heaven. I am thirsty but you are the Fountain of Life. I am weak, but you are strong. I am poor, but you are rich. I am foolish, but you are wise. I am broken, but you are whole. I am dying, but your love is better than life.


My friend Jenna who joined working with Micah Project this year with street kid Rosa. Rosa has to hide her appearance as a female to survive the streets.
Playing a little bit of soccer.
Al digging through the dump behind the soccer field with young Eddie.

Foot washing afterward.

This is our crew that we hung out in the park with on Saturday.
Two of the children of street kids. They are the CUTEST kids ever! However, not being well nourished they are underdeveloped.
Kevin is very special to me. I've known Kevin for over a year now. He's made moves towards getting himself into a youth home. This past Friday he showed up to soccer and shouldn't have been there. He had glue on him. I want to believe that he was given 3 days to see his family. Pray for Kevin.

These guys know how to make us laugh.
Al and I have been investing in Jonny a lot. I know God has huge plans for him. I see Jonny getting closer to being ready to make a change in his life. Pray for him.

If it works, you can see more photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/album.php?aid=2088841&id=15305745&ref=mf