Tony's triumph

Tony has been a friend of the Micah Project for a long time. Several years ago, when he began have serious troubles with his father, who lives in the Villa Linda Miller community, several Micah guys "adopted" Tony. He spent many weekends at the project and especially enjoyed playing soccer with our guys. (Above: Tony with Micah Project soccer team in 2003...third from left in bottom row; second pictures Tony with Karen in 2008).

Then, almsot three years ago, Tony had an accident that would alter the course of his life forever. While swimming in a creek near Villa Linda Miller, this athletic teen decided to attempt a head-first dive. He smashed into a rock, crushing several vertabrae in his back and permanently damaging his spinal chord. Tony would spend weeks in the public hospital in Tegucigalpa, clinging to life. When he finally left the hospital, he was a 17 year old looking at the rest of his life as a paraplegic.

Tony moved back in with his dad and step-mom, but life became pretty miserable. Since they both worked during the day, they locked Tony into the house by himself, with no way to feed himself or change his colostomy bag. When one visiting doctor looked at his bedsores, he only gave Tony a few months to live. Finally, when things got unbearable, Tony's mom allowed him to move in with her at her home in a little village about 45 minutes from Tegucigalpa.

That arrangement seemed to work pretty well, until another tragedy occurred. When Tony's mom was busy changing him one day, his three year old stepsister fell into a water cistern in their backyard and drowned. Her death left a huge burden of guilt on Tony, who felt responsible because of how time-consuming his needs were. His mom felt that she could no longer continue to live in that house because of the memories of her daughter's death.

Finally, we made the decision to move Tony and his mom into a home in Villa Linda Miller that we have previously used as office space. We also began to pay a gentleman in Villa Linda Miller to take Tony to therapy at a rehabilitation hospital in Tegucigalpa a couple times a week. Tony has no use of his legs, and while he has good movement of his arms, his hands are still curled up and he has little use of his fingers. Even so, therapy has given him enough mobility to be able to draw, and he has done some amazing pencil drawings.

This year has been an important one for Tony. A group of American volunteers from a program called STEP (based in Pennsylvania) have been helping out since February. We decided that this would be a good year to sign Tony up for classes in a home-schooling curriculum. This now-twenty year old signed up for the seventh grade, and began his studies with the help of the STEP volunteers. We were able to get him a donated laptop, on which he types out all of his classwork while sitting at the kitchen table in their borrowed home. (Above, Karen helps Tony with his Social Studies homework.)

The STEP volunteers have been very impressed with Tony's humble spirit and sweet smile in the midst of great adversity. This past week, they decided that they wanted to get him out of his house (for three years, the only times he has left his house is to go to the rehab hospital). When they asked him where he wanted to go, he said that he wanted to visit the Micah House! All six STEP volunteers brought him by last night for dinner. Tony was as happy as I have seen him since the accident, able to reconnect with his friends at Micah at last.

Since Tony mostly knows our older guys, after dinner, I had him call Marvin Soto (who is studying in St. Louis) and Olvin Funez (who is studying in Houston). Almost as soon as they answered the phone, he proudly told them that he has begun taking classes again! I realized what an important thing his studies are for his sense of well-being. Before this year, he must have felt that his life had just ground to a halt. Taking classes gives him a sense of purpose...something to look forward to and something that creates hope for the future.

I want to thank the six volunteers from the STEP program, who are headed back to the States in a few weeks, for helping to create this hope in Tony's life. Without them, I don't think Tony would have been able to continue his studies this year. I know that they have spent many hours talking with him, which has given him the confidence to open and share his experiences with them.

Please pray that God would give Tony the eyes to see how he can live an abundant life even through his physical strugges!

Muchas gracias,

Michael