Cleaning chicken, chopping off it's head and breaking it's bones to make separate pieces to eat gives me the hee-bee-gee-bees. It's not the smell of it, or the random organs and body parts that creep me out, it's the sound of the bones as I snap them.
On to a more important story:
Meet Jonathan:
Jonathan is 11 years old, and moved to Quito 2 months ago from the coast. His mom works from 8am-10pm in a shop, so he rarely sees her. His biological father left him when he was young, his step dad doesn't seem to be in the picture much, and his step brother is rough with him. He says that he doesn't really have friends here since he is so new, and this past weekend was moving back to the coast to live with his grandparents.
I met Jonathan last Monday while working at the church site, digging a hole to place the poo-poo pipe. He had missed his school bus, and was locked out of his house, so really had no place to go. He spent the day with us, even helped us to dig. Jan and I told him about Jesus, and that is when he started opening up about his life.
Now the site where we have been working (another blog and pictures to come), is a rather hilly place, with the most GORGEOUS view of the Andes Mountains. Because of the setup, you can look down into the back yard of the neigbor's house. The house next to the church just happened to belong to Christopher Columbus (no lie that's his name), who had helped us find the line we were looking for earlier in the day. Jonathan, still getting a hand on the city life, looked over this guy's backyard, at just the time Christopher was coming down the hill. Uncomfortable with the situation, Chris grabbed Jonathan by the arm and started dragging him back to his house, calling him a thief and liar. Jan, knowing the boy needed love and even if he was a theif, Jesus would have loved him anyway, talked Christopher down, who released Jonathan to our care.
But Jonathan was hurt and upset. I spent the next several minutes giving him a hug, gave him a few small presents and reminded him that he is loved, and he has friends, both in us and in Jesus. We prayed for Jonathan- for his future, his dreams, for protection, for love, and that he finds friends. The poor boy has so many things going against him- the schools on the coast are even worse. He needs/needed someone to believe in him.
Jonathan came to the English class I taught a few days later. He was the most respectable student there. After class, we chatted and ate ice cream together.
On Saturday I had to say bye since he was moving away. Jan and I made a steep steep hike up the mountain to his home. It was the first of many World Race goodbyes to come. It's amazing how attached one can be come after only a few days. Sad to think that I won't see the fruits of our actions, and need to trust solely in the Lord to make his dreams come true, and to protect him. But my God could do far more than I ever could for that wonderful little boy.
