I spotted an older boy in a salmon colored shirt in between my hopeless attempts to kick a soccer ball to one of my younger Brazilian teammates. No one had jerseys or spoke the same language so I didn’t even know who was on my team… Only after one of us scored a goal did the high fives give it away. But it was fine.
A crowd of roughly 50 people waited under a shade tree to register for the services we provided… doctors, dentist, pharmacy, messages, hair cuts, etc. The older boy wandered around the back of the crowd watching us play. He was hesitant and seemed to stay a safe distance away. Nonetheless, he was content during his wandering and gave the impression he was watching over a couple of the children near him. I assumed they were his.
The sun was beaming on this 50ft soccer field that consisted of six year old flip flops as goal posts. The teams stopped for a quick bible lesson and picked up again with Frisbee. This time the older boy felt confident to join in. He found a spot next to me and tossed the Frisbee in some wild direction for another member to fetch. I thought, “Hm, he must not have played before.”
When it came back around, he tried again. Nope. And again. Nope. With a smile on his face he walked away to something more interesting.
We played jump rope. He jumped in with the rest of the kids and attempted to keep the rhythm when it was his turn to go. One jump. Nope. Try again. One jump. Nope. Oh well. He wanted to help man the rope on one side. One spin. Two spin. Woah, too fast! But all the kids went along with it. No one complained or refused to play just because he didn’t get it right.
Then it was his turn for a hair cut. Focused on testing my time lapse skills, I was unaware it was him when I filmed his hair cut. I thought to myself, “I hope whoever this is doesn’t feel uncomfortable by me filming them.”
“Como se chama?” (What is your name?) we asked in his native language of Portuguese, but were met with a head that shook back and forth as our only response. Then I heard him try to speak and realized the boy was mute. He hung around with us until we left for our next village, and he even followed us there.
Again, he played with the rest of the children and joined the swarm of kids the surrounded the hair cut table. Roughly 10-15 kids (including the boy) were surrounding the table and as I was watching them pile on top of each other to see what was happening, I suddenly I thought to myself, ‘One of these kids in an angel. There is an angel here…’
This is not just a normal thought, and it was a statement thought-not a question. I assumed it meant that God had placed a heavenly angel here disguised as one of these children like the verse in Hebrews…
“Continue in brotherly love. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so some people have entertained angels without knowing it.” – Hebrews 13:1-2
This boy had spent all day with us and was one of our last patients on the boat. He stepped out of the dentist and whether it was the pain or his uncertainty, he had the saddest look in his eyes when we prayed a quick prayer for him and gave him hugs before he headed home.
About an hour later we found out he has another disability and that his name is Hangel… pronounced Angel.
Even if he walked away from that day with a pulled tooth, I realized the love we had shown him that day by spending time with him, playing with him, caring for him, praying with him (and even videoing him) made him feel like the most special kid in the world.
That is what God’s love looks like.
