“Escribe! Escribe!” That’s what they yell when they want me to hand them my iPhone so that they can use the Google Translate app to communicate something to me.

This month we are serving with Mision Adulam, a safehouse for young men 13-18 who are going through a rehabilitation program for various addictions. They come from various backgrounds and home environments. Drugs, alcohol, self-harm, unhealthy relationships, and broken families is a part of many of their stories so far in life. Mission Adulam offers them a safe home, personalized therapy, and a community designed to help them learn to thrive as men. I call them young men and not boys because I believe that’s what they are. They are intelligent, creative, extremely talented, and fully capable of living the bigger story that God has for each of them.

For the first few days, our Google Translate conversations involved their favorite movies, music artists, and celebrities they knew from the United States. When they’d yell “Escribe”, it was fun, almost like a game, to see what topic they wanted to bring up next!

As our relationships have grown deeper, so have our Google Translate conversations. More often it’s about the harder topics - life, family, depression, pain, abuse, relationships, and faith.

Here are 3 Google Translate messages that made me tear up as I read them: 

Translation: “I’m here for my two sisters, to not give them a bad example and so that they don’t follow my steps. I want them to achieve more than I have and I want to show them that everything is possible when we put all of our hope in Christ and let him work on our hearts”.

Translation: “I’m making this bracelet for you so that when you leave, you have this Bolivia and Argentina colored bracelet to remember me as your friend.”

Translation: “[I know that’s true*] but I would have wanted to be with my sisters for Christmas and not be away from them.”

*continuation of a conversation about how God is growing him at Mision Adulam.

Each of these messages is a very small part of a young man’s heart. I know that God placed our team here for a specific purpose: to love these men as innocently as the Father does - to look at them with eyes that choose to only see their goodness - to be an example of the graceful redemption that is found in Jesus. 

Christmastime is an especially hard time at Mision Adulam. Please pray for peace and encouragement. Pray that our Google Translate conversations will continue to comfort their hearts. Pray that our smiles and arms would be a clear example of the welcoming smile and open arms of God.

There is no place I’d rather be this Christmas than with my new brothers celebrating all that God has done and will continue to do in their lives.