entertaining angels

One Saturday morning a few weeks ago, an older man wandered onto the property. I was in the kitchen making breakfast when Luis came running in and asked me for an extra plate of food and some juice to give to a guy he met outside. As I brought the food out, I saw Luis running down from the house with a box of brand new white Nike shoes. He took them out of the box and placed them on the feet of his new friend. 

"Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!"

--Hebrews 13:2 [NLT]

I love seeing the FAITH of these street kids begin to take ACTION!! There are so many ups and downs in our everyday life at Zion's Gate, but seeing these little breakthroughs is truly a blessing!! We can have peace knowing that the seeds we are planting are beginning to take root in these kids hearts and lives. As leadership here, we have been talking lately about how WE can't do anything to change these boys...only God can! And he IS!! To Him be the glory!!

Henry is back!

Two weeks ago, Henry returned to Zion's Gate to begin working full-time on the property. For the past ten months, he has been living in Los Pinos and every time I saw him and asked how he was, he would look down at the ground and tell me he was fine. I knew he had been without a job for quite awhile and he was moving around a lot living with different friends or family here and there, but nothing had been stable in his life. 

[Burger King]

When I was here in October 2010 on the World Race, Henry was always around. He was staying with Tony on the weekends, and we saw him almost daily in Los Pinos. He was learning english and had a somewhat stable job working as a street sweeper in Los Pinos. He was always fun to be around and liked to joke with everyone. He enjoyed practicing his english with us and playing soccer and even duck-duck-goose. He was finally enjoying a childhood he never got to experience growing up.

[Molly, Henry, & me]

Last week, Molly and I had the opportunity to take Henry out to eat at Burger King. He talked to us in english and tried to teach us new words in spanish (especially words that we had to roll our "r's"). We weren't very good students! On our drive back up to Los Pinos, he wanted us to teach him "Old McDonald Had a Farm" and "BINGO". We sang kids songs and laughed the whole drive up the mountain. By the time we got into Los Pinos it was late and very dark. As we drove in, he recognized some men that could potentially be dangerous so he decided to stay in the car with us until we got back onto the paved road to leave because he wanted to protect us.

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Please join us in prayer for Henry as he tells us he really does want to change. He has a special place in my heart because one of my teammates on the World Race led him to Christ. Although he fell away for a time, he is getting back on track and joining us every morning for our Bible and prayer time before work. Pray that God continues to tug at his heart and draw Henry closer to His.