Freedom for the prisoners/ release for the oppressed

To read this blog post in printable form, please click on the following link: http://www.micahcentral.org/may14blog.doc

Last week, a Reuters’ article about a gang-related massacre in a Honduran jail ended this way: “The streets of Honduras' main cities are blighted by maras [gangs], often involved in drug and weapons trafficking” (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03300977.htm). This comes as no surprise to those of us who serve with the Micah Project. Since opening our group home in a working class neighborhood in downtown Tegucigalpa, we have watched the situation on the streets deteriorate with each passing year. Gang members and petty thieves have broken into our cars and our home, and assaulted our staff and young men in broad daylight. Members of our boys’ families have been murdered (one in a drive-by shooting in front of the Micah House; another was hacked to death by a machete in his own home). Yes, violence and drug use (really two sides of the same coin) are tearing at the very fabric of Honduran urban society.

And, while the magnitude of the problem is new, the problem itself is an old one. A quick count of all of the boys that have gone through the Micah Project shows that, of the 26 boys that have lived in our homes, at least 21 of them come from families where at least one parent or step-parent had a severe addiction to drugs or alcohol. That is, in fact, one of the main reasons that our young men are forced to abandon their homes at a young age.

To put a human face on these numbers, I’ll tell a quick story from this past Sunday, Mother’s day. One of our young men wanted to visit his mom in her home in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Tegucigalpa. Rebecca Haver, our director of operations, agreed to take him for a couple of hours after church. When they got there, however, they found that his mom had been drinking with two or three other people and was passed out on her front porch. Rebecca and the young man helped carry her into the house and placed her on her bed. They stayed for a while longer, while she talked incoherently about her tragic life. He asked Rebecca if he could stay the night to take care of her, but they eventually quietly left together.

How does a fourteen year old process the fact that his mom is slowly killing herself by substance abuse? What words of comfort do we say to him? You would think that watching one or both of your parents slowly destroy themselves through addiction would be enough to create a desire for lifelong abstinence. But, if there is one thing that we are learning about this particular bondage, it is that it is most definitely generational. The cold statistics state that adult children of alcoholics are four times as likely to become alcoholics themselves than are children of non-addicted parents.

Why is that? Is there something in their psyche that drives them to addictive patterns that their parents displayed when they were children? Is there something in their genes…some predisposition to addiction? Or is it simply the fact that they can walk a block up the street and openly buy a rock of crack for forty lempiras (two dollars) with no legal or societal repercussions? Is it that on any given day, scores of people stumble past our front door either drunk or stoned? Is it that addiction has become so commonplace in this society that no one even blinks an eye any more? Most likely, it is a combination of all these factors; psychologists might debate nature versus nurture, but it seems that both are working against the urban poor in Honduras.


Knowing that, we consider it a miracle that so many of the young men who call the Micah Project home have been able to avoid addiction as they move toward adulthood. Most have resisted the temptation to slip into patterns and habits that must seem so familiar to them after growing up in addicted households or on the drug-saturated streets.

Since early 2007, we have been praying as a staff that God would bring all that is hidden into the light in our boys’ lives so that we could help them strive towards true healing and freedom from the enslaving bonds of sin. Since beginning to pray in this way, we have discovered addictions or a tendency towards addiction in several of the young men. Many of you have read our blog posts and have been praying about Erick, who seems to have given in completely to his addiction. After refusing several times to enter rehab, he went to live with his mom at the house we built for them in Villa Linda Miller. Currently, he is living with his older sister in the mountains of eastern Honduras; the hope is that he is far enough removed from city life to be able to resist the temptation to consume. Another young man, Darwin, fell back into drug use after having left the streets in 2001; he consumed yellow glue for seven years while on the streets. Although he is trying hard to fight his addiction, he has been hesitant to go into rehab. He is currently living with his mom, who is an addict herself. After sitting down with him yesterday, we think that he may be ready to go into rehab next week.

In the last few weeks, two other young men have admitted to struggling with addiction as well. Juan Carlos admitted to experimenting with drinking and drugs over the last several months. Because of his family background, we were worried that this could soon turn into a full blown addiction. He took our advice and willingly checked himself into a Christian rehab program two weeks ago. The program, called Proyecto Victoria, has a facility set in the wooded hills about ten miles outside of Tegucigalpa. Its director is a Christian pastor who has a passion to bring healing and forgiveness into addicts’ lives. Several of our young men visited Juan Carlos at this rehab center last Saturday with Rebecca and Jessica, and were pleased with his sense of motivation after his first two weeks there. Proyecto Victoria usually keeps their patients for about six months to ensure that they will return to society with the skills necessary to beat their addictions.

The other young man who admitted to addiction last week was Jerson. This was less of a surprise to us, as he has struggled on and off with addiction for many years, well before joining the Micah Project. His off-and-on struggle with drug use was something that he worked very hard tried to keep secret, although we could usually tell when he was struggling. We tried to get him help through outpatient counseling, but he finally reached the point of such despair that we decided that he too needed to check into an in-patient rehab program. Honestly, our first reaction is one of great relief and hope that he can finally receive the help he needs to kick his addiction once and for all.

All four of these young men need our fervent prayers at this time. Additionally, we ask for prayers for little Marvin and Wilmer, who came to us from the streets last July with severe addictions to yellow glue. They are just beginning their process! Currently, Wilmer is back on the streets, but Marvin has been clean for three months. Pray that Erick and Darwin would desire to enter a process of rehabilitation. And pray that Jerson and Juan Carlos will participate in the rehab process with their eyes, ears and hearts wide open, willing to learn the lessons to be able to stand firm. For many of our young men, just as important as healing a present addiction is healing the great pain and trauma from the past that is tied into that addiction.

For those of us that don’t have a personal history of addiction, it’s easy to accuse and condemn the addict for his problems. But, having seen addiction destroy so many lives since serving in Honduras, I’m convinced that it is almost impossible to understand why addicts are addicts without being one yourself. To those of us who aren’t, the destruction that drugs and alcohol bring with them is an obvious deterrent. But, an addict’s brain works differently. Nic Sheff, a recovered meth addict who has written an autobiographical account of his addiction called Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines, says this about his addiction:

“Growing up I’d heard, you know, never to do heroin. Like, the warnings were everywhere and I was scared—do heroin, get hooked. No one ever mentioned crystal to me. I’d done a little coke, Ecstasy, whatever—I could take it or leave it. But early that morning, when I took those off-white crushed shards up that blue, cut plastic straw—well, my whole world pretty much changed after that. There was a feeling like—my God, this is what I’ve been missing my entire life. It completed me. I felt whole for the first time.

“I guess I’ve pretty much spent the last four years chasing that first high. I wanted desperately to feel that wholeness again. It was like, I don’t know, like everything else faded out. All my dreams, my hopes, ambitions, relationships—they all fell away as I took more and more crystal up my nose. I dropped out of college twice, my parents kicked me out, and, basically, my life unraveled. I broke into their house—I would steal checks from my father and write them out to myself to pay for my habit…

…“I’ve spent the last three years in and out of twelve-step programs. Throughout all of it, the underlying craving never really left me. And that was accompanied by the illusion that, the next time, things would be different—I’d be able to handle it better. I didn’t want to keep hurting people. I didn’t want to keep hurting myself. A girlfriend of mine once said to me, ‘I don’t understand, why you don’t just stop?’

“I couldn’t think of an answer. The fact was, I couldn’t just stop. That sounds like a cop-out, but it’s the truth. It’s like I’m being held captive by some insatiable monster that will not let me stop. All my values, all my beliefs, everything I care about, they all go away the moment I get high…” (Sheff, Nic: Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines; London: Simon & Shuster, 2008.)

As we continue to reach out to the kids on the streets such as Marvin and Wilmer, these insights into addiction can teach us how to confront addiction in our boys’ lives. Convincing a kid to give up the streets is not a physical battle…because, to an addict, the promise of a warm bed, three square meals and a safe place to live will never live up to the craving for that next desperate hit of yellow glue. No, work with street kids is really a spiritual battle. As Nic Sheff stated, addiction is like being held captive by an insatiable monster. Well, Jesus himself said that his mission was “to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor” (Luke 4). He can unbind those that are bound in the chains of addiction; truly, He can set them free. He can change the desire to get high into the desire to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34).

You can join on the side of freedom by praying for our young men who are struggling with addiction…and the others who have addiction in their family background. Pray that the oppression will be lifted and the captives set free; moreover, pray that their own healing would allow them to be a transforming presence in the lives of others who have similar struggles here in Honduras.

¡Muchas gracias!

Su hermano en Cristo,

Michael Miller

Baptisms and bruma

Hola, friends!

A couple of quick items before I get to the good stuff:

1. To update you on a previous post, "Night terrors and crime-fighting bananas", I wanted to let you know that we have hired a night watchman for the Micah House. He is a gentleman who lives in the Villa Linda Miller community and has had previous experience as a watchman (if you've ever walked through Tegucigalpa, you know that every store and restaurant has an armed guard!). The guys are definitely sleeping better now that Ennio is on duty!

2. We've added a new feature to our http://www.micahcentral.org/ website: the ability to accept online donations. For those of you who support the Micah Project, but don't like to write checks, now we've got an easier way to donate! Thanks to all of you who make our guys' dreams possible!

3. Now for the good stuff: Oscar Amaya was baptized this past weekend! This was a special and memorable event in the life of the Micah Project. We have been talking to the guys this year about taking responsibility for their own lives and spiritual journey. A Christian project runs the same risk as a Christian family: the kids are around all sorts of Christian people and participate in all the usual Christian activities, from youth group to church to daily devotions to outreach. The danger is that the guys go along with all of these good things without ever taking ownership over them. So...we've been challenging the guys in our Sunday evening worship times to "choose for yourselves today whom you will serve" (Joshua 24:15); to make their own decision to make Christ the Lord of their lives.

After one of those meetings, Oscar came to me to talk. He has been maturing greatly this year as a leader in the Micah House and as a young Christian man. As he prepares to graduate from high school this fall, he felt that he was ready to proclaim his faith to the world through his baptism. This past Sunday, most of the Micah boys gathered around as Oscar claimed Christ's death and resurrection as his own through his baptism. Oscar recounted his Christian testimony to those in attendance, and I couldn't help but to be newly amazed by how God used trials and great tragedy in Oscar's life to mold him into the man that God wants him to be.

I am very excited to see what God has in store for Oscar's life, even in the year to come. After he graduates from high school in November, he hopes to do a six month mission project with YWAM (Youth with a Mission). After that, he is considering his options for college in the fall of 2009. Pray for him as God leads him into great things!

4. One last thing: did you notice the third picture I posted? April can be a tough month in Tegucigalpa because of smog, which is called bruma in Spanish. Because the farmer's burn off their fields, a thick layer of smoke and dust covers the city until the rainy season begins in the middle of May. Normally, you would see beautiful green hills in the background of the above picture...not in April, though!

We appreciate your continued prayers for the guys!

Su hermano en Cristo,

Michael

Using talents to build God's Kindgom

I wanted to introduce you all to Mary Yates (standing in the middle in the photo above). Mary and her husband Malcolm are from the Bristol region of southern England, but Mary has left part of her heart here in Honduras! Since 2000, when Mary first came down to Honduras on a missions trip, she has felt called to make a difference in the lives of street kids in this country.

Mary started a foundation, called Friends of El Hogar (www.foeh.org.uk), and part of the funds that Mary raises are donated to the Micah Project. What is really wonderful about Mary's efforts, though, is the way that she uses her talents for God's glory! As a classically trained musician, Mary organizes several concerts a year so that she can continue to raise funds for the children of Honduras. This year, she has ten concerts planned. The first one was on April 19th, and featured music from Handel, Mozart and Pergolesi. It was a great success!

One of the things I love about Mary is the way she views the world. Every aspect of God's creation is a source of wonder to her. On her last trip to Honduras, I took her to visit Zamorano University (she was instrumental in helping our Zamorano grad Darwin Pavon set up his internship in Bristol last year). I think Mary could have spent days observing all of the trees and beautiful flowers on Zamorano's park-like campus! She truly lives life with her eyes wide open.

Mary is one example of how God puts a burden on someone's heart to help the suffering children of Honduras. Instead of letting that burden rest in her heart, however, she has used her tremendous gifts to create action. That, in turn, is creating hope in the lives of many children here in Honduras!

Thanks, Mary! And thanks to all of you who have given your time and resources to build God's kingdom in these young lives.

Su hermano en Cristo,

Michael

Prayer Request

Jessica here... I'm writing a quick blog entry to ask for everyone's prayers.  As the economy of The United States has taken a drop so have the donations for The Micah Project.  I have been amazed and humbled watching how God always provides for us and I know He will continue.  He knows our needs and will provide and so I ask you to be in prayer for the Project.  Financially we are struggling and to give you a bit of an idea... last year-to-date we had $139,709 donated to the project and this year-to-date $27,730.  That is a pretty big difference.  I also believe in letting people know where we stand financially so you can pray for this project financially.  We covet your prayers and trust God to provide for everything we need.

Night terrors and crime-fighting bananas

Well, nobody at the Micah House got that much sleep last night. That's because the night before last, an intruder shimmied up the street lamp next to the house and got onto our second story terrace at 12:24 a.m. The unknown thief proceeded to spend almost an hour and a half moving around the Micah House, bundling up CDs, clothing and even a bicycle and sending them over the terrace wall to the street below. We know about this person's movements not because any of us encountered him...no, all 12 of us, including our dalmatian Cheetah, slept soundly as he moved from room to room pillaging our house.

We know what he did because our new system of security cameras has a playback feature. So...when we finally found the time on the surveillance tape that he carefully stepped from the lightpost over our razorwire and onto the patio, we were able to watch all of his movements on recorded tape. Unfortunately, since all the lights were turned out, the images on the tape were even more horrifying...he was just a shadow moving in and out of the light of the street lamp, with only an occasional detail, such as his stocking cap, coming into focus.

The brazenness of his crime was also horrifying. He went into a couple of our boys' bedrooms, removing things from their tables and placing them on the floor in search for valuables. When he brought his loot back to the terrace, he took his time in folding the clothes he had stolen into nice, neat bundles. These two facts tell me that he was probably armed, since he had no fear of any possible encounter. Because of this, I thank God that none of our boys did wake up and provoke a possibly violent encounter.

So...you can understand why we were all on edge as dusk moved towards nightfall last night, and we all faced the prospect of falling to sleep without the sense of safety and security that we usually took for granted. Reactions to the intrusion were mixed, depending on our boys' personalities. Wilmer and Cristofer decided to take matters into their own hands, having recently seen the movie "Home Alone". They gathered up about 20 banana peels and spread them over the terrace at the point that the thief entered, sure that, upon entering again, he would slip on a peel and suffer a massive head injury. For added measure, they spread a liquid detergent all over the terrace to make it as slippery as possible. I think they were actually disappointed this morning when no one broke in and they couldn't put their booby-trap to the test. (I've attached a picture taken this morning with Wilmer, Cristofer and their banana peels...with the offending light post in the background).

One of our other boys suffers from very real and frequent night terrors. You'd think that, with the trauma of our guys' past lives, that would be even more frequent than it is. Well, how do you explain away the bogey-man to a frightened boy when you've got lots of footage of him on candid camera? This one stayed close to me all evening long, not venturing very far way.

Before bed, I got all of the guys together for an evening devotional. I talked them through fear, letting them know that it was natural to be afraid, but that we, as Christians, have a greater hope. I shared Luke 12:4 "...do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more" and a good section of Romans 8: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" We reflected on the fact that, as Christians, while our bodies may face danger, our souls are locked away safe and sound, waiting for their entrance into God's eternal household. We ended our devotional time by singing a song in Spanish based on Psalm 121, which is all about the Lord's protection.

I think the guys felt better after our time of reflection and prayer. Even so, we left all the lights on in the house. When I went to check on the rooms, Jeferson was earnestly reading his Bible on his bottom bunk; it wasn't hard to discern the anxiety on his face.

So...though I dozed off and on, I pretty much stared at the surveillance monitor until 3:30 in the morning. Sometimes, it can be a heavy thing to have 12 young lives depending on you. I gave my own anxieties up to God whenever they floated their little tendrils of fear into my heart. I just kept remembering, in the words of Psalm 121 "He will not let your foot slip--he who watches over you will not slumber..."

We ask for your continued prayers for safety. In the last month, our cars have been broken into twice, once in front of the Micah House and once two blocks away, and now our house has been breeched. We appreciate your prayers for God's protection!

Su hermano en Cristo,

Michael

Prayers for Micah--April 13

1. Continue to pray for Wilmer and Marvin as they make daily decisions to walk away from their addiction to the streets and to yellow glue. Wilmer was on the streets the entire week before last…we had gone to the airport to drop off one of our volunteers, when we gave us the slip while going to use the bathroom in the terminal. Dan and the boys found him on their way to church last Sunday, and he immediately reentered the Micah House as if nothing had happened. I admit that we’ve been scratching our head regarding how to get him to realize that life at Micah is so much better for him than life on the streets. His decision-making ability is almost zero…he grew up living a life of impulses. Please pray that God would free his mind and body from the destructive power of yellow glue!

2. Pray for the boy pictured with me above, Jose Daniel. Our street team, headed by Dan Paul, has been spending time with this street boy several days a week in the market district of Tegucigalpa. Many people have begun to pray that Jose Daniel would one day give up life on the streets and join the Micah Project. He is a smart kid and seems to be a good fit for the project. One thing, though, keeps Jose Daniel on the streets: yellow glue. Pray that God would change this kid’s heart and give him the desire to begin a new life! (Dan featured Jose Daniel in a video about our street ministry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXzN90tWjG8 ).

3. Continue to pray for Erick. Many people have been praying for Erick, especially on Tuesdays which we have dedicated as a special prayer time for him. He continues to live in Villa Linda Miller, consuming drugs or alcohol on a daily basis. I talked with him on the phone for a while yesterday. It’s almost like talking to two Ericks: one that desperately wants help and wants his life to go back to the way it was before his downward spiral into drugs last year; and the other, who can only see his way forward to his next hit. We still pray for him with confidence, while we are saddened by what the daily abuse is doing to him.

4. Pray for Juan Carlos, Miguel and Jarvin, who are on a missions’ trip to the northern region of Honduras called Yoro. They will be translating for a medical mission’s brigade all week. Pray that God’s light would shine out of them in all that they do this week! (Juan Carlos is pictured above).

5. Pray for Tino, Oscar and Marvin in St. Louis and Olvin in Houston as they finish up their spring semesters at their respective universities. Pray that God would continue to be real to them in all that they do…on a daily basis.

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