on the road to recovery.

meet Ronnie.

This is his story:
Ronnie is 18 years old. He lives with his mom, younger brother, and two younger sisters. His dad is an alcoholic and left the family a few months ago. Ronnie dropped out of school when he was in 5th grade because he preferred street life over school. He got involved with drugs and alcohol which resulted in him assaulting people, stealing, and getting in fights. 


One year ago, he was living out at the farm with our World Race group, completely clean from drugs and alcohol. He read stories from an illustrated Bible for hours every day. When we went into Los Pinos to hold programs for the kids and youth, Ronnie taught the kids Bible stories. He told us his dream was to be a pastor one day.

[October 2010--Ronnie reading Bible stories]

[October 2010]

A few weeks ago, I went into Los Pinos to pick up Luis and I was met by the sight of Ronnie--shirtless and stumbling down the path towards me, clearly high. I hadn't seen him in nearly a year, but that was not at all how I remembered him...I could tell he was shocked to see me.

When I got to Ronnie, I opened my arms wide and gave him a HUGE hug. I was immediately hit with the fumes of paint thinner on his breath. I told him it was good to see him and that I love him and have missed him so much this past year. I walked away with tears in my eyes, not knowing what to do other than pray. 

A few days later, his mom told us she was worried about Ronnie and asked if we would go with her to visit a drug rehab center in downtown Tegucigalpa. We went with her to find out more information, and the next night we had a meeting with Ronnie at his house explaining the program. He was completely against it at first--saying he did not want to be away from his family for 3 months. We assured him that they would be able to visit him regularly, and he reluctantly agreed to at least think about this opportunity. At the end of our meeting I took some time to pray over him and remind him that God still loves him so much--no matter what he has done--and He has BIG plans for Ronnie's life!!

[meeting with Ronnie and his mom]

As we were leaving Ronnie's house that night, we invited him and his mom to come to church with us on Sunday. Not only did they show up, but Ronnie also took a huge step of faith during the worship service. As we were singing, Ronnie went over to Pastor Nicolas and got on his knees as Pastor prayed over him. Ronnie was crying and completely broken. Once the service began, Pastor Nicolas invited Ronnie up to share his testimony and his desire to change. Pastor invited the congregation to join him in a time of prayer for Ronnie.

[Ronnie sharing his testimony]

After church, we invited Ronnie to join us for a few days to detox and have more time to talk, think, and pray more about his options. He was very excited about the opportunity to come out to the property and be off the streets. During these few days, I was able to spend more time with him one-on-one to encourage and pray for him. One day, I took him to get a Coke and we talked for nearly an hour about many different things. I told him that it made me sad to see him high and reminded him about our time together a year ago. 

He became excited when I talked about how he used to read Bible stories and teach the kids. I also asked him if he still wants to be a pastor. He looked down and seemed to be ashamed of the past year of his life. I could tell that he thought he could never be a pastor now, after all he has done. I went on to tell him I believe in him 100% and if he wants to be a pastor, I want to help him make that happen!! I also told him that he will have so much influence as a pastor coming from his background. He will have the ability to minister to people coming from broken homes, drugs, alcohol, and violence with absolutely no hope. His testimony is powerful and God is going to use it to CHANGE his community.

[Luis & Ronnie]

About one week ago, Ronnie took his first step on the road to recovery by entering the drug rehab center and committing to spend 3 months there. We are currently working on finding options for his next steps when he finishes the program in December.

Please keep Ronnie in your prayers as he continues on the road to recovery!