Special Prayer Requests

Greetings! We have had another good week here at Casa Hogar. We all enjoyed working with the team, who left Saturday morning. For the next two weeks, we will be without teams, and as the school year comes to a close, we will have extra time to spend with the kids. The teenagers are already out of school, so we will be doing special activities with them this week. The younger kids finish school on Friday, so next week we will do special activities with them. Please pray that these weeks with the kids will be productive in deepening our relationships with them and building them up in their faith.

We also have special prayer requests for two young men at Sobre el Puente who have especially been on our hearts in the past several days. I can't use their real names for their safety and privacy, so I will call them Pedro and Andres.

As you may have read in our previous posts, Sobre el Puente ministers to street children with a drop-in center that offers them food, showers, and educational and spiritual training during the day. Sometimes, kids who have been coming to the day program for a while are given the opportunity stay and live at in the house there, if they follow the rules and don't do drugs. Pedro went camping with us three weeks ago, and after spending a week at camp, he and two other guys accepted the offer to live at Sobre el Puente. We were trilled when we heard about this, especially when they came to church that Sunday along with the Sobre el Puente staff. Last Monday night, however, Pedro had a conflict with one of the other boys over their personal space, and the other boy, who was bigger than Pedro, ended up physically attacking him. One of the staff members intervened, broke up the fight, and talked to them about how fighting is not the way to deal with conflicts. They prayed about it together, and it looked like everything was going to be fine; however, the next morning, Pedro was gone, and he hasn't been back to Sobre el Puente since. This is distressing for everyone who had hoped that this would be his opportunity to get off the streets and clean up his life. However, we know that God has a plan for his life, which may or may not involve him being at Sobre el Puente. Please pray that if it is in God's plan, He will give him courage to return to Sobre el Puente, and that either way, God would work protect him and work in his life wherever he is.

We also want to ask you to pray for Andres. During the camping trip, we kept noticing that he sometimes had trouble breathing, as if he had asthma. Last week, there was a doctor on the team that came to work at Casa Hogar, and on Thursday, when part of the team went to do activities Sobre el Puente in the morning, the doctor went along to do check-ups on the kids there. His diagnosis for Andres was not good. Years of abuse, life on the streets, and drug use have left him with a weak heart, weak lungs, and generally weak body. The doctor said that if Andres continues to live on the streets and do drugs, one day he will simply not wake up. He has been given the opportunity to live at Sobre el Puente, but he has not accepted. Please pray that God will work in his life, spiritually, physically, and mentally.

Working here in Acapulco continues to show us both the heartbreaking power of sin and the marvelous power of God. Praise God for His wisdom, love, and power even when we don't understand His plans. Pray that God will be glorified in these young men's lives and all throughout Acapulco.