For it was the best of times and the worst of times……..
Yesterday……one day I'll never be able to forget…… Let me start at the beginning…..
Teams take some of Tony's youth with us to do Ministry and so that we can minister to them. Sunday, we took Stacey (our awesome Squad leader), the three sisters, Luis, Herman, and Josue (the boys) and our team with us to church. Pastor picked us up that morning like he does every Sunday…..everything was normal and running smoothly. (just for some quick recap Josue has only been back with Tony for 3 days) We arrived to church and we all pile out of the van and head into church. When we get up there we notice that Stacey, the sisters and the boys are still downstairs but don't think anything of it. The boys had now decided that they didn't want to come inside anymore…. excuses being that they weren't clean enough to come in so the Pastor tried talking to them which didn't get anywhere. So Josue and Herman have decided that they want to go back to Los Pinos (which is where they come from aka not a good place) We call Tony and let him know the situation, and he explained to us the agreement that he has with the boys…… they have the freedom to leave but they know that if they leave they can't come back because they can't have this rollercoaster life of going to get high during the day in Los Pinos and still living with Tony. Stacey and Kayla had really connected with Herman before so this came to quite a surprise not to mention how hurt they both are.
Here comes the ray of light in a very dark situation………
Luis, the youngest out of the three boys, decided on his own that he was going to come into church. I had him sit between Wade and I so that we could keep an eye on him. Liz gave him some paper and colored pencils to draw with and to keep him entertained.
Josue and Herman decided to leave for Los Pinos. Church started with awesome worship, in the middle of worship the two boys returned sat in the back for a few mintues and disappeared again to never be seen again that day. In the middle of church the sisters, Stacey and Luis had to leave because there wasn't enough food for everyone at lunch. Wade gave a VERY AWESOME message to the church! MANY people crying including the Pastor, myself and Jaime! He really touched many hearts….. He spoke on the "American Dream" …… video coming soon!!!!
Now it's after church and here comes Daniel and Carlos (two more of Tony's boys) looking for Josue and Herman and they take off after giving them the only info we know. Then we all get in the van to head for lunch and guess who we see running down the street?!?! LUIS!!! Who we thought was with the sisters and Stacey. We head over to the store to grab a few things for lunch at one of the church members house. We're sitting in the parking lot in the van and we see Luis coming so we yell at him to come over to us. He comes over and we asked why he isn't with the girls. He somehow got left and was looking for Herman and Josue, and clearly VERY UPSET! He's now been left by the girls AND Herman and Josue (who are supposed to be his friends) We ask him to come and sit with us in the van and come to lunch with us but he says no but doesn't leave.
Here comes so MORE LIGHT!!
Me being the type of person I am gets out of the van….. Why on earth should this child stand outside of the van ALONE!?!?!? I get out and give him a hug and ask him what's wrong. In our broken Spanglish conversation he tells me how hurt he is that he was left not once today but TWICE! He sits down and begins to cry…. so I sit down in my skirt and just hold him as he cries. Then I grab our translator, Anna, and I ask her to ask him what is wrong. He tells me that he's ashamed, alone and unloved. I tell him that there's NOTHING TO BE ASHAMED OF! and that he's not alone I'm right here and I LOVE HIM!! I ask him why he feels ashamed…. He tells me that he's dirty…. once again me being the type of person that I am I got up from the ground and go get some dirt and rub it all over my face and legs. I sat back down and I said guess that makes two people that are dirty!! He laughs and gives me a hug and says thank you! He decides to come with us.
MORE LIGHT……..
After that we all went to a church member's house for lunch. While we were there Luis was so polite and thankful. He was like a perfect child. After lunch Pastor took us to the "Valley of Angels" which is a beautiful tourist spot. At this point we are so impressed that he not only made the right choice in coming with us he was geniunely grateful! Throughout the rest of the day he'd come up to me and hug me & whisper in my ear Thank you so much for today and I love you!
I think one word sums this day up perfectly……….. REDEMPTION
　
