By Raul Garcia –

I am 28 years old, born in small town west Texas. We moved to Holland before I started grade school. Our family later bought a home in the neighborhood on 20th Street and I attended Van Raalte elementary school. I had an amazing childhood.

When I was in high school my perfect world turned upside down. My younger sister began running with the rough kids at school, getting involved in gangs, and becoming a mother. She was in seventh grade. Around that time my parents, pastors of a local church, also separated and a few years later divorced.

I felt abandoned and alone. I felt partly responsible, like I had something to do with it. I found myself asking God, “Why–why all this? Why us? How us?” Although I never received the answers I hoped for, God spoke to me what I needed to hear, “I love you, trust me.”

Years later I now see how those experiences taught me to trust and rely on God in a way I had not before. I love him more because of it. When we love Him and trust Him, things always work out for the best. I still live in the neighborhood and now own a home on 15^th Street, have a gorgeous wife and two beautiful children. I am also the program director for Westcore Neighbors.

My story is only one of many of God at work in the neighborhood. God is faithful.