Do you remember us telling you about Jorge Pinto? The man who started Manuelito? After we were done sharing about our calling to move our family to Honduras to serve at Manuelito a man shared something that touched my heart so much that I cannot stop thinking about it.
He was in Honduras with Jorge Pinto when Jorge made plans to go into the city one night to pass out ham sandwiches to the children waiting to be rescued. He first made a stop at the police station and offered them a bag of sandwiches in return for their protection while on the streets. When they first arrived it was quiet, dark and raining. He asked Jorge where the children were. Jorge told him that they were hiding. Why wouldn't they be? Do you know of a child who wouldn't be scared on a dark rainy night in the city of Tegucigalpa? It was when Jorge stepped out of the vehicle and said a few words that a mob of children came out from every nook and cranny that you can imagine and ran to him saying "Pappy Pinto!" That translates to Daddy Pinto. They threw their arms around him, climbed into his arms and soon had brought him down to the curb. These children are what some might consider the unlovable. I say that because some would only see the dirt on their skin, the lice in their hair or the odor from their lifestyle. Yet Jorge held as tight to those precious children as they did to him and Jorge looked up at this man with big tears running down his face. He begged and pleaded with him to go back to the United States and get him some help. "I need help" he cried. "I need help! There are still so many who need to be rescued, who need to experience the love of Jesus Christ!"
They prayed together that night, which was approximately 4 years ago at midnight on the streets of Tegucigalpa that God would send him help. What amazes me most about this story is that it was approximately 4 years ago that we started this journey by answering, "Whatever you are asking of us Lord, we'll do it, whatever that means, wherever that might bring us, we'll go." Last night, this man looked at us and said to us with such confidence in how BIG our God is, "Your family is part of God's answer to our prayers that night on the streets of Honduras." Wow, how honored I am to be worthy enough to be His servant, His hands and His feet to these precious children.
The reason I say that there are moments in life when we are given a glimpse of what it must have looked like to see Jesus walking the streets of this earth is because I believe that what that man saw that night with the children running to Jorge calling him "Daddy" had to be Jesus in action through his willing followers. Wow!
