I TRY to see Luis once a week but Church Planting conferences, hosting a Road Trip (Mission Exposure Trip) and life got in the way of getting down there.
Luis and Aide run the home for boys in Tijuana. Luis has a been a friend for more years than I can count. I go so we can encourage one another. I go to see his 20 plus boys, and his amazing wife and the other workers. And when ever I go I try hard to take someone with me. This time it was Nick one of our apprentices. He'd gone through some tough stuff lately and needed a break from the norm and what better way to get cheered up than wrestle around with 20 fun boys.
While at the home Luis told me about one of the new boys. I had heard Carlitos (not his real name) had come but had yet to met him. He wanted to come. he was so glad when he got the news that he was going to get the privilege to live in an 'orphanage'. Wait...nobody wants to intentionally end up in a home for boys do they? Well, no, that is, unless his own home life was so miserable that a boys home looks good. That's sad but that was Carlitos' story.

Luis explained to me that Carlitos had been beaten in the womb. I mean, this kid wasn't even born before the harshness of life got to him. The father hoped to kill Carlitos but Carlitos was born alive... but not well. He needed a surgery to correct some things in his little body. One of the surgeries left a part of his intestine hanging on the outside of his body. His mom put a zip lock bag over the exposed intestine to catch the 'stuff' that would come out. That was a really sterile way of dealing with it huh? I saw a picture of Carlitos with a huge smile as he lifted his shirt to expose the gross baggy. I didn't get the reason for the smile but he was joyful in his suffering.
Here's the real tragedy: the doctor that started the surgery would not complete it until he was paid in advance and in full. Carlitos came from NO MEANS. Paying a doctor was not going to happen. Carlitos lived like this for 4 1/2 years. Unbelievable huh? Why didn't infection kill him?
Along comes Rita, an American, that should not have been in the same scary impoverished neighborhood as Carlitos but she was...and she saw Carlitos and God's plan was unleashed. Money was raised, surgeries were performed and zip locks were thrown away but the scars still remain.
Carlitos, now 10 years old, has still got the smile. He is such a happy kid. He's so excited to be with Luis and Aide and they are absolutely the best to be with...God has spared Carlitos life! Makes me wonder what God has in mind for this broken but healing little man...it must be something incredible.
Shaun

(Carlitos is one of the happy boys pictured below)

It looked like a picture from a UN refuge camp in some far away country. Over 40 languages represented. Styles and colors of clothing were amazing. The kids were going crazy as though they had never seen balls and balloons before...It was total chaos it's in most beautiful form. At any moment I expected a UN truck to pull up with load of food stuff for this refuge camp but that only happens in true refuge camps. This was taking place in the Auburn Apartments in an area of San Diego called City Heights which is a designated refuge center here in the US.
We took some friends from Seattle there to just have fun. Water balloons. Face painting. Games. Dancing. The kids exploded into balloon sword fights mounted on the back of their human horses or played homerun wuffle ball and painted way more than just faces...it was like they had never played before!

The adults loved watching as they gathered on the outer perimeter of the chaotic parking lot turned sports field. Few spoke english so most were translating into one language and then another to get through to communicate to neighbors and us.
But Sayid (the name he let us call him) spoke pretty good English. He and his family just arrived two weeks ago from Pakistan where they had lived the prior year but they were actually from Afghanistan before that. He and his family fled because their live's were being threatened for their mere association with the Christians.
Sayid had seen a lot. Too much death, wounding and misery in my way of thinking. He worked for a Christian organization that was bent on helping his people. It was clear that Sayid knew Jesus...both the Jesus of the bible and the Jesus of the Koran. I am not sure I would call him a Muslim but nor would I call him a Christian. The only thing that was clear was his passion for knowing and following Jesus.We were abel to exchange contact info before we were pulled away from Sayid to go have tea with our Butanesse friends but later I saw my team mate Matt praying with Sayid. That was good.Sayid and his family were moving to a another place the next day. They had no idea where in San Diego county they would end up but before we parted ways he promised to get hold of me when the dust settled...he also ask for prayer as they try to settle in this new place that has a lot of strange dust.
I really hope we do have another opportunity to be with each other. I really hope and pray that the Jesus he follows leads Sayid into the middle of God the Fathers's heart...Jesus is good at that.
Thanks for keeping us in peoples lives like Sayid and his family.
Shaun and Maria

PS...
This just happened:In faith we just made an offer on a house in Sherman Heights. There are no rentals available that our family can fit into there and even the house we offered on is only two bedrooms BUT it's in the neighborhood near our team. Sherman Heights is a Latino barrio full of homeless men and women wondering the streets Sherman Hts. is located a mile from down town San Diego and two blocks from the notorious Logon Heights gangs that are starting to resurge a bit. I know, it's not 'the American dream' neighborhood but it is where the Kingdom needs to be...Will you pray for this house. For our faith finances. For our family in this potential transitional time. For His will to be done here on earth as it is in heaven....
I will let you know what happens ASAP and THANKS for Praying :)