"I lost my best friend!"

It has been a rough few weeks at Mission Adelante. Our community has been rocked with death, separation, and incarceration. As each tragedy has hit our community, the children affected by hardship have responded in different ways. I would like to share with you the story of D.

D. is a big teddy bear of a guy. At thirteen years of age, he stands almost as tall as I do. D. has a hard, protective shell that, for as long as I have know him, has surrounded him. God has blessed me with being able to reach through that protective covering and unearth the beautiful heart underneath over these past few years.

A week ago, I received a phone call letting me know that his stepfather had been killed in a random act of violence in Mexico. His mother had frantically flown to Mexico to bury the man that she loved. D. and his younger sister were left behind with family friends but he was experiencing a great amount of grief. D.'s stepfather had been the man in his life and as he put it, "I lost my best friend."

I went with a few volunteers to see D. as soon as I received the news. We entered the situation with prayer because we knew in the past whenever tragedy had hit D., consuming anger towards God had always swiftly followed. I sat with him for a few moments and he began the barrage of questions asking why God hated him and why he was being punished so greatly. I had heard these questions many times before from him but this time God had chosen a different path.

God had asked me to step back and let David, a Teens Adelante volunteer, step in. How else could D. understand what true, Godly, male strength looked like unless it was from a man?
At the end of the night as I was saying goodbye to D., he looked me in the eye and told me something I have desperately prayed to hear him say. "Megan, I know God has a plan for everything, even this. And I know He's with me."

I can't express how much those few simple words rocked me! I had never heard him speak this way and I can see the light of God's love not just shining through but blasting through his heart. Please pray with us as we are grieving as a community but also holding fast to the promise of God's faithfulness. After all, "...He is our shield, the strength of our salvation, our stronghold." (Psalm18:2)