Mission Update Archive

The first 10 years of young Chey’s* life were nothing but spiritual and emotional despair. Born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia he grew up illiterate and was quickly moving toward the traditional curse of the uneducated poor: begging, stealing, or selling himself to simply survive one day to the next.

Chey’s family was forced to live on less than a dollar a day, leaving Chey hungry, undernourished and lonely. He spent the first ten years of his life virtually without being touched. His soul longed to be touched by love.

What could one woman, bedridden, nearly blind, and well over 100 years old, do with her life? I found out: she could change the world for many.

We were in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, holding a pastors’ conference, when I asked a bishop to lead us to the infamous ghettos known as the favelas. The area is notorious for poverty and mindless violence, particularly among its very young people. Thousands of street kids in the favelas have been gunned down by rival gangs or killed by secret “security squads.”

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.