Weekly Prayer Requests

  Dear Friends and Family,

This week, instead of our usual prayer requests (which are frequently being posted late due to our currently hectic vacation schedule), I wish to draw your attention and prayer to Marvin Coban, one of our young men. Marvin is a brilliant and funny young man with deep emotional scars and a much darker side to his normal cheerful personality.  Over the course of this past year, he has continued to struggle with his anger issues, drug addiction, and psychological trauma.  It is difficult for us to watch Marvin struggle and to feel him pushing us away, even as we try to aid him in his "dark nights of the soul."
  Many of Marvin's struggles stem from his time on the streets and his life before the streets. Marvin grew up in a poor home here in Tegucigalpa. At some point during his childhood (no one is sure exactly when), Marvin left for the streets in order to spend time with friends and to enjoy the "fun" of the streets (and, although he has never verbalized it, it is also likely that he left to escape the poverty of his crowded, small childhood home). Additionally, few years ago, around 2005, Marvin's mother left for Guatemala. She returned to visit a few times, but eventually vanished. Her current location and status remains a mystery. As a result, Marvin's "family" here in the city is his aunt and cousins, who also shelter his younger siblings. However,  Marvin's chronic addiction to glue and street life led his aunt to bar him from her home shortly after his mother's disappearance. When we met him in 2007, Marvin was a angry, wary street child.
However, once he was in Micah, another side of Marvin has emerged.  He has shown incredible intelligence, recently graduating from the sixth grade after two years of formal schooling. His happy laugh would be frequently heard in Micah house. However, even as he has grown, he continues to battle the demons of his past.  He has frequent outbursts of violent anger against staff members and other boys in the house and still struggles with the temptation of his addictions.
We can feel the warfare over Marvin. We know that he has incredible potential and we love this young man dearly and want him to succeed. However, as Michael once put it, "It just seems that we can't love this young man into wholeness." There just seems to be walls of anger, trauma, and darkness shielding Marvin's heart from us. Therefore, we are asking you, our supporters and prayer team, to set this week aside for prayer for Marvin. Pray that his heart is softened and that he can begin to understand God's love for him.  Pray that he gains the desire to fight against his own sinful impulses. Pray that Christ moves into and establishes sovereignty over Marvin's heart. Pray that he starts thinking about his future and begins looking to realize his potential. This will be an ongoing fight for this young man's future, but we want to take the offensive and hit back at the dark powers which are seeking to consume him. We beg you to please join us in this process of reclaiming Marvin from the darkness. Thank you all very much.

Lord Have Mercy,
David Hawthorne