Sometimes it takes seeing poverty and brokenness in person for God to really break your heart.
This past month, I gained a handful of new little brothers, little Hondurans, who I completely fell in love with. One set of brothers, Stefen and Carlitos (a.k.a. Little Carlos), stepped into my life one day, and God gave me the opportunity to truly love and bless their family.
Tony (Founder of Zion's Gate) & Stefen
Stefen is 13 and Carlitos is 8. They are two of the boys from Tegucigalpa's roughest neighborhood, Los Pinos (The Pines), who Tony, the founder of Zion's Gate ministries, has taken under his wing. Stefen and Carlitos are being raised by their mother, Mavel, who is a 38-year old single mother. They are much like many, many other single-mother families in Honduras.
The difference is, Mavel had been at home, sick with extremely intense stomach pains, unable to leave her bed. Her business, selling underwear door-to-door, was failing, and she was unable to care for her children, or even buy them food.
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, my team had tagged along with Tony to buy an abundance of food for the upcoming feast. On our way back to the Zion's Gate property, Tony decided to stop by Los Pinos to check on one of his adopted teenagers, and he stopped in Mavel's tiny two-room home to check on her. He found her, still in bed, and without a scrap of food for the past two days.
The following Friday, Tony decided to take her to a different hospital than she had previously been to, where hopefully she would find more answers to her stomach ailments than the previous hospital gave her. She was admitted and told there was a high possibility of stomach cancer. She was given a multitude of tests and was asked to wait until Saturday afternoon for the results.
The next day, all 52 members of B-Squad rallied around Mavel, traveling to the hospital , gathering in front the building, to fight for her with prayer over this deadly diagnosis. After spending 5-6 hours praying and worshipping God, Mavel walked out of the hospital with a diagnosis of a stomach infection and a plethora of medicines.
We could hardly believe how God had showed up and the power of our prayers.
The previous night, while I was sitting on Tony's front porch, skyping with my family, Stefen came to join me. He plucked one of my headphones out of my ear, stuck it in his, and proceeded to talk to my mom, dad, and sister, Emily, like he was an old friend, while I attempted to translate.
The most amazing part, was that God tugged on my mother's heart, and she asked if Stefen needed any help. What timing! I shared his family's situation with her, and after talking with Tony about how we could help, we decided that we would buy Mavel some groceries.
So, Monday morning, Tony, Mavel, Stefen, Carlitos, and I loaded up into Tony's car, headed to the grocery store, where I was able to bless them with a cart-full of food, laundry soap, toothpaste, and more. We then drove them back to Los Pinos, where I was invited into Mavel's home. I spent a few moments with them and prayed over her for health, safety and schooling for her boys, and for God's love to be wrapped around their family.
Me & Carlitos in Los Pinos
Please pray for Mavel, Stefen, Carlitos, and their older sister, Marila. Pray for Mavel's continued improvement in health, pray that she would be able to work again to provide for her family, pray for safety for these boys in this extremely dangerous neighborhood, pray that a sponsor would rise up to send these boys to school. The cost for Stefen to attend the eighth grade from February to November is about $25 a month (this covers registration, uniforms, school materials including textbooks and special events).
If anyone is at all interested in helping, I urge you to pray about it and contact Tony Deien at [email protected]
What a blessing this month has been… on to Nicaragua! I can't believe we're already on our third month and third country!! Thank you for all your prayers and support. I pray God is blessing you all in the States during this holiday season.
