12 boys between the age of 8-16 are sitting on a cold concrete bench outside of the surf school. My friend Megan is trying to bring the word to them, but they refuse to be quiet. The wind is blowing and we are all kind of cold because we are still wet.
Three other boys not apart of our group are playing around with a skate board behind me, but I don’t really think anything of it. They mumble something in Afrikaans. The cold concrete bench clears, all of the kids we are watching run over these boys and start viciously kicking them.
I run over and pull them off of the boys, order them back to the bench. I try and check if the kid is ok, but can only get snuffles out of him. I head back to our boys and begin to question them about what just happened.
“He cussed out my mom!” Ashleigh says. I dive into the word of God and talk to them about how that’s not what Jesus would, and while its hard I know they are better than that. When I ask the question, “ What will you do next time?” Ashleigh responds under his breath,” Kick him harder.”
All of the other boys laugh.
Exasperated I pull him to the side. I ask,” Ashleigh I know your better than that. What would your mom think? Would she really want you to go kick the crap outta that kid or be the bigger man and ignore him?”
He simply replys, “ My moms dead, she was shot in our house.”
I was shocked, I am shocked. How are you supposed to respond to that. I probably would have done the exact same thing if I was in his shoes. I responded to him with some more talk about Christ and how Mary had to watch Him die; but I didn’t really know what to say.
The crazy thing about this whole experience, besides the fact that it left me shocked, was that from that day forth I was Ashleigh’s favorite. He would hold my hand almost the whole 30 minute walk home.
I realized that we HAVE to rely on the Holy Spirit in those situations. Though I believe in what I was saying, it definitely didn’t make sense. Respond with peace to someone cussing out my dead mom? Hell no. And yet somehow that connected with Ashleigh, somehow he made sense out of that, now all I can do is pray for him that he Spirit continues to press into his life.
The biggest realization I have come to understand on the race thus far is amongst all the poverty, corruption, inequality, and everything else bad in the world God is still good. I just repeat that over and over and over. God is good, God is good, God is good. If I grasp to that fact with everything I have I know it will all be alright someday.
