Street Kid Spotlight: Kevin

For our second street kid spotlight I have chosen a young man by the name of Kevin.  Kevin is 17 years old and has been a regular participant in our Friday afternoon soccer games.  His father died when he was little, and he says he has been living with his grandfather since he was about ten.  However, his grandfather is 85 years old and not very healthy, so he is unable to give him the care or discipline he needs.  One of Kevin’s aunts makes food for his grandfather, of which, occasionally Kevin gets to partake, but if his aunt is mad at him, he won’t get anything.

This picture of Kevin was taken in February 2003 in the market of Tegucigalpa

Because of his harsh home life, Kevin spends most of the day wandering around the downtown marketplace enjoying the adventure, but also suffering the oppression that comes with street life.  He clings tightly to his bottle of yellow glue because, as he inhales its fumes, it gives him a temporary high and helps him to forget, even if just for a moment, the difficult family situation he calls home.  Occasionally he can be seen at the front door of Micah hoping for a plate of warm food and a glass of water, to which our wonderful cooks, Ana and Aida happily oblige.

Kevin at street kid soccer on Friday afternoon

Recently Kevin decided that he was ready to give up the street life and try to get clean from his addiction to glue.  Staff member Hector Licona accompanied him to a downtown center called Casa Alianza (Covenant House… where Micah had its early beginnings), to see if they could do something to help our young friend.  However, the staff there refused to give him a chance because they had already accepted him 3 times prior and he never showed any real motivation to change.  Hector explained to him that there were other options for a better future if that was really what he wanted.  We know of several rehab programs and we could have helped him get into one.  But he would have to be the one to make the decision to turn his life around.  And in the end he chose to return to the streets and the glue.

Eduardo smiles with Kevin after the game.  Don't you think they look like they could be brothers??

Kevin tells me that on the 20^th of this month he plans to board a bus and make the long trip to a small fishing town on the Caribbean coast of Honduras called Limón.  There he claims you can’t find the yellow glue, but it certainly has its own form of addictive substances including beer and guaro (a liquor made from sugar cane that is comparable to vodka).  He says he will stay in Limón until he gets bored of it, but he doesn’t know whether he will return to Tegucigalpa or not.

Our prayer for Kevin is that he would seek the Lord’s help as he attempts to turn his life around.  We hope also that he would enter into a relationship with Him and allow Him to be the Father he never knew.  Please join with us in prayer for Kevin, and claim the words of Psalm 10:14 over his life “But You, O God, do see trouble and grief; You consider it to take it in hand…You are the Helper of the fatherless”


Thanks for your prayers!
Jenna Miller