Hugo, CFCI Missionary
San Jose, Costa Rica
My dad was 70 years old and my mother was 13 when they were married. I was raised by my grandmother- my mom’s mother. When I was four years old, a young relative introduced me to my dad because I had never met him. I was surprised to see that he was a older man living on the streets, mistreated with multiple welts on his face and drowning in alcohol. Days later, the relative took me to meet other siblings that were from past marriages of my father. Then, my relative decided it was time for me to know who my mother was. I was almost five years old and had never met her. He took me to see a woman who was continually entering the brothel with different men. Wow…. this woman was my home. My eyes filled with tears and I felt pain in my heart. I wanted to run to her, take her in my arms and kiss her; but she didn’t have time for me.
You can imagine how my heart was broken into a thousand pieces. I felt alone, ignored and rejected. After a few months, I learned that my mom took her life. Two years later my father died. These situations marked my life. Fear, frustration, abandonment and loneliness filled my life in such a way that I lost the ability to speak for almost 15 years. I could not express a complete word and when I tried, I stuttered so badly that I couldn’t even pronounce my name. I was made fun of by others. At a young age, I decided to live on the streets, eat from waste cans and sleep on sidewalks where I only had a box as my blanket. My friends were abandonment and loneliness. I did not want to live.
During my youth, I had a friend who used drugs and sometimes slept in the streets. A year went by when I didn’t see him at all. When he returned he was a new person because he had accepted Jesus in his life and heart. He invited me to go with him to church. At first I did not want to go, but he kept insisting… telling me that I needed the Lord and that He could do a miracle in my life. I didn’t have any other options so I went with him one day to get him off my back. I didn’t know that God had a special plan for me, that He loved me. I had never felt love before. I opened my heart and gave my life to Christ and at that moment everything changed. I was no longer stuttering. I fell on my knees and cried like a child in gratefulness to God. I felt loved; something important for someone life me and I decided to be an instrument for Him.
During the next three years, the Lord began to heal the profound hurts in my heart so that He could teach me to work with children and people living on the streets. Later he gave me the marvelous gift of dressing as a clown in order to carry comfort and love to people who are drowning in suffering and pain. I live in abundant life in Jesus Christ thanks to his love and mercy. The Lord has brought me to Christ For the City International, a ministry that is dedicated to serving people in need. Through CFCI, I have been able to harvest spiritual and personal blessings serving as a full-time missionary. I work in a prevention program with children from dysfunctional homes who are at high-risk due to their extreme poverty. The vision is to rescue them from the streets through special programs and bring them to know Christ and be reintergrated into their families, society and schools. I also hand out food in a street feeding program. I teach reading and writing to illiterate adults. And, of course, I continue to dress as “Tikcles the Clown” visiting tribal communities, hospitals, elderly homes, orphanages, prisons and abandoned children that are found as I was, drowning in sadness and loneliness.
