“If someone refuses to join the maras, they are given 48 hours to get out of the country or they will be killed. But really, they usually don’t get 48 hours.”
The Rev. Héctor Mauricio Rodríguez Lainez, pastor at Aposento Alto United Methodist in Fuerzas Unidas, Honduras, often goes walking around his dangerous neighborhood. If he sees young girls and boys, he stops and prays with them. Prayers are especially needed in Fuerzas Unidas, a marginalized 11-block neighborhood controlled by gangs that target young girls for sex and boys to sell drugs.
Read related story, Honduras, Guatemala pastors rely on power of prayer.
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