This Time It Was Our Isabel
Sadly enough we become accustomed to headlines of youth violence and gang killings. But, me and my 4 Honduran kids gathered around the paper today and did no more than just stare at it. It was their sister who was photographed face-down in the street. We had received the news yesterday, but seeing it in the paper today seemed to authenticate the news and opened the emotions that for some reason were dammed-up initially.
Our emotions were of sorrow, of course; we lost someone that we loved. She was one of the first of the girls in the youth prison who placed her faith in Christ when we moved to Honduras nearly 7 years ago. As a new believer in Christ, her request to Kim and me was to visit and help her brothers and sisters, so that they would not follow after the criminal, gang life that she had lived. Kim and I politely refused to go searching around some gang ridden neighborhood with our broken Spanish searching for children that we did not know. The risk would have been too much, but we prayed faithfully with Isabel each week for her little brothers and sisters. And, as the Lord would have it… they came knocking on our front door, begging for food, clothes, or whatever we could give them. Well, to make a God-story short… these 4 little brothers and sisters became a part of our home and our hearts.
Not only did we feel sorrow, upon hearing this news, but we all shared the surprising emotion of anger. It was not anger at the gun men. It was anger that seemed to be directed at Isabel for not taking what was offered to her by the Lord, and by so many others who wanted to help her live right. Shortly after her release from the prison nearly 2 years ago, we all saw a gradual redirection to the life-style that eventually lead to her death.
A pessimist would look-on and doubt our effectiveness… that there was no change and she died tragically like most other gang members. “Tragedy”, yes, it is a tragedy, but I believe that her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ was real and that she was born-again as a daughter of the Lord Most High... the same Lord who gives tragic stories tremendous endings. I believe that just seconds after Isabel closed her eyes on that dusty curb-side path, she opened her eyes to see her heavenly Father, face to face. Not only would the optimist consider this, but would also consider the victory that is won in the lives of her 4 little brothers and sisters who are now my sons and daughters. They each have also placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They all just finished their school-year strong last week, as they all studied their hearts-out. Because of their history of years on the streets, they are all behind educationally. But, that has just given them each a gratitude for school and a desire to study all the more, and to be whatever the Lord leads them to be.
Regarding Isabel’s prayer from 6 years earlier and her request to Kim and me to help her brothers and sisters, it is being fulfilled. Her little brothers and sisters are not following in the life-style that so entangled her life. Accepting the Lord’s wisdom, Michelle, Nuri, Kevin, and Jimmy see through the lies of the devil and, now, know well the end result of the popular and glamorized gang-life.
