i am reminded of this walking home tonight. danny ended up in los chiles today and as we were walking home tonight we met 3 girls he goes to school with. as we said goodbye to them danny gave his money to cindy, a petite, 16 year old girl he calls his baby. for all his 17 years he said he feels like her father, her protector, she lives with her mother and brother as her father is in jail for trying to rape her. danny gets 300 colones (less than $1) a day for lunch. he said if cindy doesn't have a lunch he will give her his or he will give her 250 colones and keep 50 colones for himself to buy candy. they leave the house at 6 am and don't return til 4 pm. no wonder he's always so hungry when he comes home from school.
some nights he goes to bed at 7.30 cuz he's so dead tired. other nights while his brothers are playing soccer, he teaches math so he can earn a few colones. he uses it to buy his brothers school books, he gives it to his father when he has no money for food and he gives it to cindy. he has nothing himself but what he gets he gives to others who have less.
it makes me ashamed that i count pennies.
he's said that if people would pay him to play soccer he would build a new church, then buy musical instruments for the church, then buy a new keyboard for jose, then a new house for his mother. never has he mentioned anything that he would spend on himself.
some of us don't give out of our 'wealth'. how many would give out of their poverty.
2 comments:
Teri- in your descriptions of yourself, as "housewife" and soccer mom, etc., I hope you also see that you are a minister.
I think I've said this before, but I cannot thank you enough (ever) for your posts. As you are figuring out your next steps, you are coaching me through my walk with God. God has been using your posts in a powerful way in my life- your trip came at a pivotal. I wish I could thank you in some way. I guess I'll have to trust God with that.
you already have. minister is not a word i would've used to describe myself. i can see so many people laughing at that. especially my family.
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