A lesson here, if we will hear it . . .

The answers are not always easy, but these are children our Savior loves. And so will we.

Enrique is a 17-year-old with a lifetime of bad choices behind him. He was first brought to Hope Mountain when he was 13 and terribly addicted to drugs.

He was gone within two hours.

Another few months on the streets, and then he was brought to Hope Mountain again. And again, he was gone within two hours.

That cycle was repeated over and over again—at least ten times in the next few years.

Sometimes he even stayed as long as a day, but the call of drugs and the lure of the streets outweighed the promised security of a home on our campus.

With every return to the streets, Enrique fell deeper and deeper into the cycle of drug abuse. Using turned into dealing until one day Enrique crossed the drug traffickers in his neighborhood, and they placed a death warrant on him.

Finally Enrique hit bottom.

He was finally low enough that he was ready to stay at Hope Mountain—and to hear the voice of God’s love.

The lesson? Simply this: transformation is often several shades in the painting.

Each time Enrique walked away was an opportunity for us to quit on him. But God does not give up on us, even in our repeated rebellion, and we don’t give up on the Enriques of the world either.

In the work of caring for children whose lives have been virtually destroyed by the world, there are many, many  fits and starts. But transformative love stays with it—in our families, our churches, our communities. In our world.

And Enrique?

He still has a long road in front of him, but he has been at Hope Mountain two years now, is clean, and on track to graduate in December. He is at a good place in his life, with a job off-campus and the promise of a future—all because some serious followers of Christ did not give up even after multiple failed chances.