Over the next couple weeks we got to know the kids. We began to see God's hand at work. They were tired. It was more than not having any food, they had been raising themselves for quite some time.
Rigo stopped by every so often. He would need a favor. "Hey, this guy says he is going to give me a job. Can you take me down the street to go see him?". I obliged.
There were other favors to be asked. I honestly cannot remember them all in detail, but I remember the confusion that followed them. Was this what Rigo really needed to be doing? Was I really helping him or only helping him dig a deeper hole for him and his family?
Then came the day - it was the last week of our camp. 8am.....I walk outside of the church to go pick up some kids from their apartment.
"Hey, Mark...I really need your help this time, man!"
Rigo had tears in his eyes, but even worse than the first time we had met face to face through the church glass doors.
"They are kicking us out. They are throwing all of our stuff out on the curb. The constable says we got to get on out."
It seemed surreal to me, but I later realized that it is a reality for many of the families in our hood. You fall behind on rent....see ya later! Its only fair, right...
So I told Rigo to hop in the car with me and he did. We drove up to his apartment and as we turned the corner, I could see the kids laying on the hot Texas pavement.
His daughter with her baby doll.
His son with his awards and basketball trophy.
His wife sitting there with her night gowns and Sunday best wardrobe....
All strung out in the parking lot for all to see. This was home now.
That was a heartbreaking day for me. I later found out what my naivety had hidden from me. Rigo had a drug problem and every once of money he had was going to support his deadly habit.
This was rock bottom. He split ways with his wife and kids going one way and he another.
As I drove him downtown to be picked up by the folks from a local homeless shelter....he confessed to me that he had never been this broken before. I don't remember saying much.
When he stepped out onto the street and said his goodbye....a familiar face walked up to him. A friend from his past "just happened" to be there to walk with him on his new journey. Rigo cried tears of joy for the first time in months. He did not walk alone on his new journey.
I went and saw Rigo twice at the recovery home that he stayed at. He said he felt like he was in prison....
It was 2 years later, on a Sunday afternoon, that I received a call from my dear friend Rigo. He was back in his hometown....living in a house and his kids were doing well.
Miracles do happen.....but only by God's grace.
