Thursday was like any other day. Kristen and I went to El Jordan, and the other three went to construction. We had a total of 6 kids in the little kid’s room. We had three, 2 year olds, one 3 year old, one 5 year old, and a one 14 year old, who happens to be the brother to one of the crying 2 year old little girl. We played many games, and even had the blue tunnel out which was a change for me. We had snack, and even built a fort. After we were all finish Kristen and I took the children down stairs to wait on their moms to get out of class.
I went upstairs to get my camera to take pictures of the little ones playing with the soccer ball. I opened my purse, and picked up my ipod case to get to my camera. It felt very light, and I noticed that it was opened and my iPod wasn’t inside. I took my bag and dumped it all out, and checked once, twice, and three times to make sure I wasn’t going crazy. Realizing that it was nowhere in sight. I went down to talk to Heidi, one of the heads at el Jordan told her that my iPod is missing and that I had it before we started with the kids. Heidi, asked me to double check while she went to go talk to the 14 year old boy name Benjamin.
Heidi asked Benjamin were the other iPod is, because had his own little MP3 player. He kept on avoiding the question, and saying it’s in his hand. Heidi kept saying not that one, the other one, but he really didn’t answer the question and started to put up walls. So Heidi went to get Abram one of the staff men at El Jordan to have a male presence. At this time classes were ending and Benjamin’s mom was ready to leave, until Heidi told her what’s going on. She said they were not leaving until he finds it, or until it turns up.
After about 20 mins of Benjamin just standing around the room, while Abram sitting at the door staring at him waiting for him to make a move. Benjamin leans down and pulls my iPod out of his sock. He tries to hide that he stole it by saying he found it, and kept it in his sock for safe keeping. Abram gave the ipod to Heidi, and told her that he had it the whole time, and that he is still denying that he took it.
After a few minutes of talking to him, Heidi calls me over and told me that Benjamin would like to give me the iPod back himself, and that he would like to ask for forgiveness. I told Heidi that I forgive him, and that I hoped he learned that stealing is wrong, and it doesn’t just hurt himself but his family. Also that if he had stolen something, someplace else he would have greater consequence, and then he is having at El Jordan. His mother started to cry and say, “I know I have done wrong in my past, but I have been working very hard the past few years for my family and children have a better future then I had growing up.” She went on saying, “I don’t want you to end up on the streets like I did, I don’t want you to experience the things I had, for there is no real life for you out on the streets. The only life there is on the streets is hardship and misery!”
I really do hope that Benjamin learns that stealing is wrong, and that there are consequences. His consequences for stealing at El Jordan are not able to be upstairs with the other kids, but to sit in the office while his mom is in class. I have to say, that I also learned a lot from getting my iPod stolen for three hours. I learned that it’s just a material thing and that it is replaceable, and greater things could happen to me. Also I was able to stay calm the whole time, and not over react. Heidi even came up to me at the end of everything and wanted to thank me for staying calm. I told her, it was no problem for, God was teaching my patience and forgiveness!
