Hope and Proof

This morning I was really discouraged thinking about some of the drug/alcohol addicts that we love. After seeing them three times a week or more at the feeding center, listening to their hearts, sharing in their struggles week after week it just absolutely breaks your heart to see them stumble. A few weeks back a quite infamous drunk came to the clinic we were holding at the church. Eduardo, one of the many unemployed homeless in Alajuelita, has, for as long as I have known him, been in a constant state of intoxication. Just the week before the clinic he had started a fight with Dave and me at the feeding center. When Eduardo sat down in the chair before me at the clinic I honestly could not believe it was the same Eduardo that stumbles into the feeding center each week. “Three days without drinking,” he told me. I cannot explain how my spirits soared at this transformation right in front of me: bathed, shaved, sober, and so polite! Yesterday would have been his sixteenth day without drinking. Sunday night I had a long talk with him as he walked me through some things he thought about the Bible (he has amazing head knowledge about the Bible!) and he told me he had taken a few sips earlier that afternoon. By the feeding center on Monday his few sips had escalated, I am sure, into quite a few bottles. That, in combination with some other friends of ours that have recently begun drinking again, brought me crying out to GOD. Not only was I praying on behalf of each and every one of them for strength and perseverance, I was praying for GOD to give me hope. Praying for proof that change is possible through the redemptive power of His Son.
Immediately my mind flashed to the graduation I attended on Sunday for two previously addicted women who had completed their nine month program at the women’s center. I thought about the guys at 6:8’s own men’s center, the Refugio, who all just moved into the second phase of their recovery program. If that is not proof that there is power in the name of Christ to break the bonds of addiction than I don’t know what is. I would ask that you would join me in lifting up all the men and women who struggle daily with the chains and slavery of substance abuse here in Alajuelita because it is possible. I have seen it. There are living testimonies of people who have done it and are doing it. The pastor at the graduation ceremony asked all of those who had already completed the program at an earlier time to raise their hands and about ten hands shot up within the audience. Yes, I am surrounded by examples of people who cannot seem to conquer their addiction and it is often very discouraging, BUT, I cannot forget the success stories with which I am surrounded as well. Praise GOD, the almighty healer and restorer! GOD BLESS,

Becca