The Miracle of Pollito

If anyone were a poster child for project transformation, it would be Pollito. You might recognize him from his picture – four and a half feet of dusty clothes worn too big, and a grimy smile that spreads from ear to ear. I had heard much about him before I first saw him. He is well known among the garbage sorters as the little boy raised in the trash. His mom is a drug addict and he has been in the garbage every day without fail since he was one year old. Now that he is eight, there has never been a harder worker. The older guys call him “Pollito,” which means “little chicken,” because they think of him as sort of a pet. You can see he takes pride in being allowed to hang around them. I suspect no one gives him attention “at home” – wherever that is.

How long, little Pollito, will you grow up in garbage? Will you ever learn to play instead of lift heavy bags twice your size? For seven years, since AFE began, Pollito has been the subject of our hopes and prayers. Every time we encounter him, he promises to come to school the next day. But for seven years, the next day found him in the trash once more. Until last week.
On Monday, and mouths dropped open when Pollito and his little sister walked through AFE’s doors, clean and ready to learn. They were not alone. Their mother, sober for the first time, brought them and enrolled them in classes immediately. Since that day, Pollito and his sister have not missed one class, have arrived promptly every day, and even came to church on Sunday! There is no other explanation than God’s timing, and we can do nothing but thank God for this miracle.

We thank God…but we still fervently pray for Pollito and his family. While he and his sister are enrolled in AFE and showing good intentions to change, it is still an uphill battle to rescue them from the forces that keep generations in the dump. In fact, Pollito has a particular challenge in education since he has never learned the motor skills to even hold a pencil. He is receiving special tutoring for this, but please continue to keep their family in your prayers. We will keep you updated as to Pollito’s progress!

Incarnational Living

In a week we will be able to practice a fundamental law of mission work: incarnational living. It means that just as Jesus put on flesh and moved into the neighborhood (John 1:14), so are we to do everything we can to live with and like the people to whom we minister.

The house in the Miller community will still be a step up from the poverty of the people of the dump. But it will be closer to them, in geographic and economic distance. Electricity comes and goes, and water may prove to be an ever scarcer commodity. It will be much easier for our weekly Saturday visitors (the young people of AFE) to find us and I hope the visits will become more frequent. But just as importantly, it will easier for us to share life with the Honduran community around us. I dream of starting a Bible study for mothers of the Miller community, who will then reach out to the matriarchs of the Tegucigalpa Dump. And I know that Rey is especially looking forward to the Sunday evening kickball games!

I am certain that my family will be tremendously blessed through this move. Children greet Elijah in the streets and we will have the best neighbors ever! (The Ordoňez family). Shane Claibourn once said: “I believe that the great tragedy of the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor, but that they do not know the poor.” We feel so blessed that Elijah will have the opportunity to know the poor, who are also our friends. Thank you so much to Michael Miller who has helped us find housing in Honduras, become acquainted to the country and culture, and made this move possible.

First Week of Class

We just finished our first week of classes. It was an incredible experience. We registered 49 news students all connected to the garbage dump. We were all surprised by the sudden interest in many of the new students. To think that these 49 new students will experience love unexplainable and hope of a new future is really exciting. We all believe 2009 will be a pivotal year for the garbage dump. We plan on starting the nursery this year along with a special education class. We will have a fulltime teacher who is helping the children with learning disabilities. We also started 9th grade this year. We have an English class which will help with speaking the language and a new literature class where we will be reading Honduras authors along with classics such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Uncle Tom’s Cabin. We also started another year of our discipleship program called Impacto Total. This program was such a success last year as the students learned how to practically apply their faith to everyday life. The testimonies were so beautiful as many students spoke of incredible growth in different areas.

Along with the 49 miracles God gave us, he provided another miracle for AFE. Due to the increase in our students, we have had to hire new staff. The problem is we do not have any funds to hire new teachers. All of us were feeling the pressure and stress of not having any funds. I would wake up every morning at 5 am with the weight of the world on my chest. Where would we get about eight thousand dollars in such short notice? One of the students saw me worrying and asked what was wrong. I decided to use this opportunity to grow in faith. I told the student, “I am looking for some money but can’t find any. But let’s pray and God will provide for us.” We both prayed asking God to look out for us. That was Tuesday. On Thursday, I got an unexpected email from Mike Douris of Orphan Outreach which is a partner organization. He told me a group from Florida Baptist Children’s home was giving exactly $8000 towards operations! I was stunned. I know all the stories of George Mueller and William Carey praying and living by faith. But this might be the first time I experienced it. It has taken us a while, but I am realizing how much God cares for this ministry.

We have new prayer request so please don’t forget about us.