"'We have to kill him," he heard his mom say. "We can't have a Christian here."
"The minute Faraj told people in his Senegal village that he'd decided to follow Jesus Christ, he was beaten and sent home to his parents. They then locked him in his room and began to plan how to finish him off.
"Faraj kept his ear to the door late into the evening. When the house went silent, he slipped out the window and ran to a house where the door was always open for him --- Jorge Reina's house.
"Jorge Reina, a burly Venezuelan man, moved to Senegal a year ago to take in young boys who needed a place to go -- boys like Faraj. In the sandy West African country, it's normal for villagers to turn their children over to leaders of the local religion who promise to give them care and education.
"More often than not, the kids end up begging on the street.
"But Reina is different.
"He has taken in as many young boys as he can, with plans to provide a home for more of them. Many of those who have come to Reina's door have roamed the streets barefoot, begging with dirty bowls. He invited them in, fed them and showed them what Christ's love looks like.
"'Many of them have no love at home because their parents think that the more they mistreat them, the better men they will become," Reina said.
"Reina knows personally what many of these boys have gone through. He himself -- once drug-addicted and desperate -- walked off the streets and into the arms of people who loved him like Christ..."