Blurb
When Kayla Shaw travels to Bogotá to help renovate a house for a
mission to street children, nothing can prepare her for the ever-present
mission employee Mateo Luis. He looks like he could be one of the rebels who
have caused so much fear throughout Colombia. Then she begins to see him with
her heart instead of only her eyes.
Mateo Luis Gómez Días has dedicated his life to the mission, and
he's determined to help as many street children as he can. Unfortunately, he
can't keep his thoughts off the beautiful American helping renovate the new
children's home. Although he would love to have a relationship with Kayla, his
past and the bad neighborhood God has called him to serve in prevent him from
pursuing her.
Has God truly led Kayla and Mateo to each other, or does He have
something else in mind for their lives?
Excerpt
He stepped outside and gazed at the clear
blue sky framed by stucco and brick buildings in various states of repair. A
group of children played fútbol down the dusty block, their clothing
ragged and their faces dirty. His heart went out to them. He had been like them
once, one of los desechables—the disposables—impoverished and starving,
barely surviving his life on the streets spending much of his time looking for
ways to get food or money. Then he had been taken by the Fuerzas Armadas
Revolucionarias de Colombia, and his life had become a waking nightmare.
Those years before he’d been left for dead were the reason he worked so hard to
keep the street children out of the hands of the FARC.
Mateo drew in a deep breath of cool air to
clear his mind of the memories of his teen years. The FARC was in his past, and
God had forgiven him for the things he had been forced to do. What mattered now
was helping to insure the street children of Bogotá were given the best
opportunity to survive and possibly, by some miracle, even thrive.
He headed toward the group playing fútbol,
regulars at the mission. They grinned and ran toward him, their game forgotten.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a handful of hard candy in distinctive
green wrappers with yellow letters.
“Is this what you’re hoping for?” Mateo
said, showing them the coconut-flavored sweet he carried everywhere.
“Please, Mateo, may we have a piece?” one
of the boys asked.
“I have enough for all of you.” He passed
out the candy, then unwrapped one and popped it in his mouth. The sweet coconut
flavor took him back to the first time he had entered the mission as a
seventeen-year-old on crutches, barely healed from a surgery that saved as much
of his left leg as possible. Maria had welcomed him warmly and given him a
piece of the coconut candy to keep him occupied while he waited for Carlos to
arrive.
A tug on his sleeve brought Mateo back to
the present, and he looked down to find Claudia standing beside him, her
hopeful brown eyes peering out of a dirt-smudged face. The six-year-old was one
of his favorite regulars at the mission, and her sweet smile had melted the
heart of more than one volunteer.
He pulled out two pieces of candy and
handed them to her. “Here you go, Claudia. I haven’t forgotten you. There is
one for your brother as well.”
“Thank you, Mateo,” she said with a shy
smile.
Then she darted away, presumably to find
her nine-year-old brother, Juan Miguel. The two children claimed to live with
relatives, whose supposed relationship to them changed with great regularity,
but no one from the mission had ever seen evidence of an adult presence in
their lives.
The fútbol game resumed, and Mateo headed
for the parking lot behind the mission. He would love to save every needy
child, with or without family, but it was an impossible dream. The best he
could do was brighten their lives with a little candy now and then, share the
love of Christ with them, and help however many children he could. If by doing
that he kept even one desperate youngster from voluntarily joining the FARC for
the promise of three meals a day and two sets of clothing, he would consider it
worth the heartbreak of seeing so many kids suffer in extreme poverty.
About the Author
E.A.
West, award-winning author of sweet and inspirational romance, is a lifelong lover
of books and storytelling. In high school, she picked up her pen in a creative
writing class and hasn’t laid it down yet. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys
reading, knitting, and crocheting. She lives in Indiana with her family and a
small zoo of pets.
Connect with E.A. West and learn more about
her books in the following places:
Blog: http://thewestcorner.wordpress.com
Website: http://eawest.mcphitty.com
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/EA-West/34280264617
Twitter: http://twitter.com/eawest
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/eawest
Amazon: http://amazon.com/author/eawest
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