Prayer Request

This week we are serving with some amazing young men and women from our home Church. 

We went to paint Pastor Araceli’s church and feeding center today. We had told Pastor Araceli that we wanted some of the people who attend the church and feeding center to come paint with us. 

When we showed up Saturday they had already started working. There were 4 men, a woman and a 13 year old girl working with us. Pastor Araceli introduced us to these people and then later shared a little bit with us about their story. These people were all homeless with alcohol/drug addictions. Some of them lived on a corner about two blocks from the church.

We had driven past that corner many times and saw them all sitting (or passed out) on the grass. I always prayed for them and felt a little sick to my stomach every time we passed by. I knew they came to eat at the feeding center almost every day but I didn’t expect them to be the only people that showed up to help us paint. They were happy to work alongside us and to give back to the place and people that have given so much to them.

As the day went on we started to hear more about the 13 year old girl that was there working with us. She was sexually abused by her father at a very young age. She started smoking marijuana and was then kicked out of her home by her mother.  She was now involved with drugs, prostitution and some scary people. 

She started to warm up to a few of us and started to open up a little more. Especially a girl named Emily. She sat down beside me and said to me (through Emily who translated for me) “what do you want to know about my life? Ask me anything”. I was really taken back by her question and I replied saying “you can tell me anything you want me to know about you”. She told me that she smokes marijuana, and that a lot of her friends are really bad, they kill people and do bad things. She told me that she doesn’t want to live like this anymore. She asked me if I could help her. I told her that I would do anything I could to help her.  

Emily & the 13 year old girl

She later told Emily that was translating for us that she didn’t want to go to a children’s home, she just wanted a mom and dad to adopt her.

As I talked with the pastor, it didn’t seem like there are any options in Guatemala for a girl like this to get help.  That night I made a decision that I wouldn’t stop there because I know that God can do anything. I saw him close down an orphanage in Haiti when everyone in child protection was against us. God cares about this girl!

When we left that day she gave me a big hug and would not let go. Then she ran to the car to hug Sean. As she walked away and looked back at us, I saw in her eyes, a young girl, longing for a second chance and someone to love her.

Today we went back and she showed up all smiles with some of the new clothes our girls and friends had given her. A friend had given me a number of an organization that might be able to help her. Pastor Araceli and I went into her office to call this organization. I could tell by the look on her face and the tone of her voice it was good news. She got off the phone and said, “they will take her”!!! We celebrated together then we said lets go tell her. We pulled her and Emily aside and said we wanted to talk to her. The first thing she said to us before we even got a chance to say anything was, “I don’t want to go to a home”. My heart sunk…. The reality is, if she doesn’t take this opportunity, she will probably end up dead. She has to make a decision tomorrow. Please pray with me that she will let us take her to the home!