Imagine those times in your life when you have faced tremendous and strenuous circumstances. The kind that keep you awake at night, causing you shortness of breath and rapid heartbeat as you frantically search for answers…and find none.

It seemed, at least for a time, that Kenya might escape the violent and disastrous fate that has plagued its neighboring countries. But frighteningly, this once tranquil African nation is now on the brink of utter disaster.

Every evening, as the sun sets over a large downtown area of Durban, South Africa, the sex industry thrives. The streets are filled with “massage parlors” fronting as brothels, and young men and women roam around looking to sell their bodies for drugs or cash.

One billion people in the world live in impoverished nations without safe drinking water. The markets in their slums sell sour milk, tainted chicken and spoiled meat. They are dying of starvation. They wear worn-out shoes and ragged clothes, and travel extraordinary distances for food, water and employment. Only one percent of them ever go to college, and most can’t even sign their own names.

Isaac Katontoka was twelve years old when he was “picked.” That’s the term our field missionaries were told the street kids of Mulfulira, Zambia, use when they speak of being targeted by the Holy Spirit.

Isaac had been living on the streets for three years, since the age of nine. During that time he was exposed to violence in many forms. Most nights he slept on the streets or in dark corridors. On the few nights he returned home to his family’s hut, where food was scarce or nonexistent, he had to share floor space with six other people.