Carlos

This time I have a really cool story about Carlos (14 years old). I met Carlos last summer when he was staying with Tony on weekends. His mom lives in the dump, and he’s usually with her there. He is so desperate for someone to show him love and attention and you can see that in everything he does. The hardest thing was seeing him cry sometimes when we would take him back to his mom in Los Pinos after a weekend on the property. He doesn’t want that life, he doesn’t want to live amidst gangs or in a dump, and he shouldn’t have to. I was really excited to see this time that he’s now living full time with Tony, and making awesome progress. He’s doing really well in school and maturing so much. Last night, he invited me to go to a house church with him and some of his friends down the road. We walked all over to pick up other kids, and finally were walking to the church. Now honestly, me and Kelly didn’t really want to go. Honestly I was being stupid. So when we told Carlos we might just walk back to the property since we wouldn’t be able to understand the Spanish anyway, he said ok he would just come back too. That kind of shocked me back, the fact that I was DISCOURAGING him from going to church. I felt terrible in that moment, and decided to go with him and I’m so glad I did. I was the only white person there, and of course Carlos decided to pull me up into the middle to dance during worship, talk about uncomfortable for me. But I wouldn’t have rather been anywhere else. I got to see those kids worshiping, got some good God time of my own, and I got to see Roni (another boy on the property) be a leader in the church and speak and pray with the boys.  It was an amazing day start to finish. 

Talking with Carlos and his crazy wisdom, he explained I me that language doesn’t matter because God understands us and we can understand God. In that moment I felt like such an idiot for not wanting to go and passing on this opportunity. If I’m not here to help the boys spiritually, be involved in their lives and show them love, then why am I here? I’m not here to be comfortable, because little to no work gets done that way. If I wanted to be comfortable, I’d be sitting in Chapel Hill, eating some sushi, and taking a hot shower tonight. But no, I’m here to serve, to give all I have for the sake of others and not look back. Plenty of people would love to be here with these boys right now, so I need to make the most of this awesome opportunity. Like I said in my goals before, use every second and put myself in uncomfortable situations. I’m proud to say God made me accomplish both of those today, even when I tried to say no. Just be praying that it begins to come naturally to put myself in uncomfortable situations, day after day, and that I can see the beauty in them.