Well, I’m not on the 1 week track, but we will shoot for 2
week track….
What I have realized while writing is that its more
difficult that I expected to tell the stories of those I’ve met along the way.
Their stories are precious to me and I want to get it “right.� I want to write
in a way that you will love them as much as I do. But that is not within my
control. So, I continue with my charge to simply write…..
Win-Air).
Winer, is a 17-year old who lives by himself, provides
for himself, and relies completely on God. We met Winer on our first day of
ministry in Mijo, Dominican Republic in July 2010. When you first meet Winer, his smile
captures your attention. It is bright, white, shiny, and always a full sized grin from
ear to ear. Joy leaps out of him as he plays and jumps in front of our cameras
making sure to be caught on film.
Winer was born in Haiti as
the middle child in a brood of eight. At the age of three his mother told his
father that she was going to the grocery store but she never returned. At that
point, his family moved to the Dominican Republic and his father remarried a
woman who disliked Winer. She would beat him and turn other family members
against him. This made sneaking out to friends’ houses a nightly occurrence.
After months of enduring this violence and pain, Winer made a decision: it was
time to end.
Although he loved his father
and siblings, he felt he had no choice but to run away.
The next few days were spent roaming the streets of
San Juan, scraping by for food and shelter. Yet, as Winer told his story he
told us how he knew at this time of roaming that God was with him. He always trusted God and that He could come through for him. He was soon
taken in by a woman who found him and wanted to help — which meant putting him
in an orphanage. On the day he was go to, he received the unexpected…his father
showed up on the doorstep.
While his story could’ve easily concluded there,
Winer’s temporary caretaker would not let that happen. Convinced that his
father was the one who had beaten him, she was reluctant to give up Winer. He
was given a choice: go to the orphanage or go home with his father. In an
emotionally charged move that would forever separate him from his family, he
chose the orphanage.
Winer didn’t share much about his experience at the
orphanage except after three years there he felt that God wanted him to leave.
Once again, he found himself on the streets, alone, homeless, seeking the Lord.
He has since forged onward solo – spending the past
six years as a teenage bachelor. He build his one room house in Mijo, just outside of San Juan and is very active in the church there. He has been taken under the wing of the pastors
we worked with training and empowering him within the church. His days are
occupied by church services, helping the local farmers harvest crops, looking
after the children of Mijo, serving his community doing various projects, and just working
harder than any man I have met.
Winer has a heart of service and sacrifice. He will
always put your needs before his own and give you all that he has if you are in need. Despite his pain, abuse, and abandonment,
he loves with his whole self and is incredibly generous. When we sat and talked one day, he shared his favorite
Scriptures with me in his Spanish Bible while I read them to him in my English Bible.
He shared his desire to be trained as a pastor and to become a missionary
to spread the good news of an all-loving God, “A God who provides and loves me.�
Winer is one of the most incredible boys I have ever met! He is strong, determined, loyal, loving, generous, and highly favored. Please pray for him as he continues to live alone without family, for his protection, provision, and that his dream of being a missionary would come to life.
