A nervous young man began to speak one recent Sunday at the Atlanta Temple Corps, giving his life testimony about God, his family and The Salvation Army. By the time 17-year-old Corps Cadet Josue Mendoza finished speaking, the hall was silenced by the impact of what he had said.
On the outward face of things, Josue is a typical teenager with a passion for sports, particularly the soccer that he plays every Wednesday at the Temple Corps. Mendoza lives in a tough section of the metro Atlanta area. His life journey has also been tough in every sense of the word. While the family was living in California, his father abandoned them, leaving them in dire poverty. For Mendoza, having no father figure around him is a void that is keenly felt. Josue speaks of Jesus as being the father figure in his life, a father that is “cool.”
The family moved to Atlanta in hopes of finding a better situation, but significant improvement has been hard to find. In the last year they have gone long periods without heat, water or power in their home. The one-bedroom apartment they live in is cramped for the four members of the family.
Mendoza’s mother is homebound due to illness and is able to walk only with considerable difficulty. He cares for her every day after school, turning the lights on for her, assisting when she needs to go to the bathroom and helping her cook meals for the family. Mendoza also oversees his younger brother’s schoolwork as well as his own.
Gangs roam his neighborhood, and he has resisted any urges that might beckon him to that lawless lifestyle. Still, he often finds himself fighting the boredom and feeling of entrapment.
“I stay here; it’s like I’m stuck, stuck here,” he said. “Never going outside, just stuck, bored and miserable.”
Having to quickly make the transition from communicating in Spanish at home to English in the school environment has also been a challenge for him.
Feeling isolated, living in a desperate and hopeless environment, Mendoza found hope in Jesus Christ through the social ministries of the Atlanta Temple Corps. The Salvation Army van regularly rolls through his neighborhood on weekdays to pick up children for after-school character-building and educational programs. One day he got on the van with his brother Junior. Arriving at the corps building, he found a feeding program, tutoring for his language and school needs. He also found a sense of belonging when he became a part of the Corps Cadet brigade after accepting Christ as his Savior at the Temple Corps. The corps also helped his family when the time came to move.
Mendoza said that helped him understand that there was more to life than just surviving, that there was more to church than just God talk, it was about being.
At this point in his life, Mendoza desires nothing more than to serve God and to be a part of The Salvation Army the rest of his life. He envisions himself in five years becoming an officer in The Salvation Army, responsible for his family, reaching out to the young children and the poor around him. He wants them to discover the same hope that The Salvation Army and Jesus Christ has given him.
