Antonio: Turning it all around

Originally posted December 5, 2015

By Michael Carson

We have watched a lot of teens fall back into addiction over the years, and our hearts are broken as a team each time. We know how hard it is to break the cycle, which is why we couldn’t feel more proud of Antonio and all his hard work.

Antonio started at the beginning of this year using crack cocaine and came to us within a few days, terrified of how helpless he felt to this addiction forming in his body. He begged us to send him to rehab, and he spent the next two and a half months in a rehabilitation facility several hours outside the city.

When he finished the program, our friend David Logue from Mountaintop Ministries agreed to take Antonio to his small boys’ home. We didn’t want Antonio back in our downtown facility with the temptation of drugs so close by for him. We’re so grateful to David for taking in Antonio, investing time and money into him and believing in this quiet, sweet boy. Antonio worked all summer with different U.S. volunteer teams building houses and serving others.

Now Antonio leaves the house each morning around 4:30 a.m., catches the bus and travels outside the city. He works with a Honduran team doing a building project for another local ministry. He does that all on his own.

Antonio has made such a transformation over the course of this year and has seized his opportunities at a fresh start. He joined our BC family nearly four years ago, and he’s changed so much from that scared little boy who he once was. He let God transform him into a determined, kind-hearted young man. And I’m proud to know him.

Please reward Antonio’s transformation with a relaxing trip to Amapala with his Breaking Chains family!