I wish I could say that this was a happy Christmas story. I wish I could say that this Christmas story was filled with candy, a bunch of presents, snow, and Christmas carols. This Christmas story is not a fanciful jolly holiday in America, but one that happens in Guatemala.
While children in America get more toys and clothes and an abundance of items that they really don’t need but are blessed to have, there are children around the world, even some in America, that don’t get these blessings. There was a young boy who plagues my mind. I think about him often. He is the one that doesn’t leave. He’s the one that makes me think twice about buying something. He’s the one that makes me want to sleep on my floor at night instead of a comfy bed. He’s the one that breaks my heart when I think of him. He’s the one.
America is plagued by a fast paced, needy, me, me, me society. America also has a lot of ‘religious’ people. Why do I put ‘religious’ in quotations? James says in James 1:27, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” Webster’s definition of religion is “a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices.” Religion has become a system and rituals that people practice which has become more tradition than anything. People do things just because that’s what they were taught or because it’s the right thing to do but has anyone done it because they love God? Do people help the widow and orphan just because they know they should or do they do it because they want to spread the love of God?
Guatemala is a place that is filled with luscious crops, nice weather, and great music of the culture. Guatemala also has drug filled streets, sex trafficking, anger, disease, and a great amount of poverty that leaves too many children as orphans. When we think of orphans we think that the child has no parents at all. In Guatemala most of the time the kids at least have one parent alive but their family cannot afford to take care of them so they are put in orphanages. Guatemala needs to feel the love of God and needs a revival of fire. Guatemala needs to be awakened as does the whole world.
Now you’re probably wondering where this Christmas stuff comes in to play. Well, here it is. Christmastime is supposed to be wonderful and a time spent with family and friends. At least that’s the American definition. In Guatemala it is quite different. Have you ever heard of Operation Christmas Child? It is a great organization and I don’t speak anything against it but have you ever wondered what happens to the boxes after they are sent? This brings me to my story.
I traveled to Guatemala a little over two years ago on a mission trip. While there I went to an orphanage called Bienestar to minister to the orphans. It was a great experience, one that I haven’t forgotten and one that has left a lasting impression on my heart and memory. One student changed the way I think, the way I desired to live and the way I minister to others. Paco was an interesting young man. He loves to joke around and would laugh at me as I tried to pronounce Spanish words in my southern twang. He knew how to speak some English but where we really connected was music. Music was something we both enjoyed. I connected with Paco so much the directors of the orphanage told his story and this is why Christmas and my life will never be the same.
One Christmas, Paco, his mother and other children flooded the streets as the Operation Christmas Child truck pulled up. The joy on the children’s faces was that of a bright sunny day. You could see the light of happiness in their eyes. Paco was happy to receive a gift and his mother was glad that he was able to get presents for Christmas, but Paco had a sense of sadness still in his heart. You see, Paco and his mother were very poor and didn’t have much food. It was really hard for Paco’s mother to take care of herself let alone Paco. That night Paco decided to give a Christmas to his mother because he loved her so much. Instead of enjoying the gift from Operation Christmas Child he sold it for money. With the money he bought his mother a month’s worth of food and still had some money left over to buy himself a drug that would reduce his hunger and make his mouth close so he wouldn’t eat his mother’s food. He got addicted to this drug and kept taking it because he didn’t want his mother to starve. His mother couldn’t bear to see him suffering for her sake. His mother put him into an orphanage so they could take care of him. The orphanage, Bienestar, helped him get off the drug and helped him gain his weight back. He was at Bienestar when I visited and has forever captured my heart. He no longer sees his mother. It’s not that she doesn’t want to see him but she works all of the time trying to get money for food and shelter for herself. He no longer can be educated because they stop educating the orphans at age 16. He is now 17. They figured this out as we left Guatemala because they thought that he was 15 while we were there. Paco is no longer at Bienestar. He was not adopted and his mother did not bring him back home. All of the boys at the orphanage got transferred to a worse orphanage in the inner city of Guatemala City where drugs run more ramped. I pray for him and think about him daily. He is ‘protected’ by the government therefore I did not give his real name or enclose a picture but the government is also corrupt and some of the orphans are not taken care of properly. Paco, just another human being trying to live in a fallen world. Paco, a young man of compassion for others and a lover of music. He gave up his Christmas for his mother and now cannot spend any Christmas’s with his mother because his mother does not know that he was moved. He’s the one.
He’s the one that doesn’t leave. He’s the one that makes me think twice about buying something. He’s the one that makes me want to sleep on my floor at night instead of a comfy bed. He’s the one that breaks my heart when I think of him. He’s the one.
