Bravery To Be a Barber

Carlos is one of the founding children of the Los Pinos CarePoint and has been in Children's Cup for nine years. Through this time and we have seen him grow both physically and spiritually.

During his growth in the CarePoint, we have seen his family lifestyle where dad, just 36 years old, suffers from a hernia which prevents him from doing his job as a loader in one of the city's markets. Carlos's mother cleans houses and washes clothes. (His two sisters, Jesi, 15, and Natalia, 11, also participate in the CP.)

Carlos struggled with the increasingly chaotic family life at the beginning of last year. His father's unemployment and health issues, combined with his mother's mental state, made him believe that if the family was going to survive, it depended on him.

He made the fateful decision to join the 18 gang. Some of his so-called friends had been talking to him about the gang, and he had decided to take that life path. While walking one day with his friends and discussing this decision, Carlos heard a voice loud within him say DO NOT DO IT. When he heard this voice, it frightened him, and Carlos ran to the safety of the CarePoint. When he entered, he fell on his knees and trusted God as Jehovah Jireh, the provider in his life and family.

This year Carlos is in his junior year at high school and is part of the Children's Cup Foundations Program. One day, they were studying a section of the program called Brave - about how the divine courage of God lives in each of us to move bravely into the more excellent plans that He has for our lives. Carlos had an epiphany that he could be brave to learn to cut hair. He knew nothing about cutting hair, but at the end of the school day, he went to the barbershop near the CP and received permission from the owner to observe in exchange for cleaning up the barbershop. He also watched every tutorial on hair-cutting styles and techniques that he could find on YouTube. After six months of observing and watching videos, Carlos began practicing cutting hair for the children at the CarePoint, free of charge. His only desire was to serve the CarePoint that had served him for so many years.

Currently, Carlos is determined to be a professional barber. He transferred from day school to night school so he could work in the morning to provide for his family. He is very proud to trust Jehovah Jireh and is an outstanding role model for the other kids at the CarePoint.

We are so excited to see how God uses Carlos to change the world!