Toussaint’s nephew Luc is a smart, handsome guy in his mid-twenties. When he was done with secondary school, his friend, a young man from France, committed to pay for his studies at a private university in the capital. Luc already had connections to people on higher levels in politics and the professional world, and the future looked bright for him. But then he made some bad choices, hung out with the wrong people, started drinking and missing classes. He even had several accidents while driving drunk. For a while Toussaint tried to talk to him and reason with him, but then Luc stopped answering his phone and avoided any contact. When his French friend went to visit him, he kicked him out of the house, saying he was a complete stranger. We wondered if he had gotten into drugs. Since he was refusing any contact, there was really not much we could do except pray for him. But frankly, things had gotten so bad that we pretty much gave up on him.

I don’t remember when the turning point was, but Luc began showing up again. He had lost some weight, and his eyes weren’t red and swollen anymore. Whatever substances he had been taking, it seemed that he had quit. When Toussaint’s mom came to live with us, Luc became a regular visitor, spending Sabbaths with Grandma so she wouldn’t be alone while we were in church. When we started a major construction project in January, he volunteered to help since he has experience working on big construction sites. For the past five weeks he has been coming faithfully every workday and spending all day on the construction site supervising the workers and helping wherever needed. His only pay is lunch and supper with us. Over the meals we talk, and we sense that he wants to correct the course of his life. He is looking for money to go back to the university to finish his studies.

We praise God that He saved Luc from totally ruining his life, and we thank Him for the reminder that He never gives up on anybody. Please pray with us that Luc will commit his life to Jesus.

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