When my wife, Mary, and I filled out our application to sponsor two children, one boy and one girl, we had no idea that we would soon be visiting their Latin American location as LACC volunteers.
We were delighted to be assigned to the LACC-sponsored school in Villa Riva, Dominican Republic. This is an historic community whose 10,000 residents live among rice and sugarcane fields in much the same way as their ancestors have for 400 years.
On the day of our arrival, we met Anabel, the fourth grade girl that we sponsor. Throughout the next three weeks she and my wife Mary spent hours together, forming a precious relationship. Anabel is intelligent and talented, although very shy. She has lived in the care of her maternal grandmother since she was three months old. She loves Sunday school and playing the tambourine.
Mary taught Anabel her English lessons and how to
cross-stitch. Anabel taught Mary to play the favorite
Dominican game of dominos, and spoke patiently and slowly in
Spanish so that her new “patrocinadora” understood
everything.
Our last day of work was also the last day of school — the “Dia delos Niños” — where all the children assembled in chapel to receive a gift from their sponsors. The school staff also prepared a wonderful feast of barbecued chicken and rice and beans for all the students and visitors. |
Anabel was thrilled,
because God had shown her that He knows where she lives —
by bringing her sponsors to her! It also began to sink in
that she was now a newly sponsored student at the school,
not just attending until a sponsor could be found.
After connecting with this dear little girl, we turned
our attention to finding the 9-year-old boy we sponsored,
Ruben. We found out that his paperwork hadn’t cleared yet.
But three days later his mother brought a beaming boy to us.
Ruben had just learned of his new sponsorship and
was so excited to meet us that his shyness was short-lived.
We shook hands and he realized that his life was really
going to change after the school break when he would start
attending this Christian school. Anabel and Ruben wouldn’t normally have been included in all these festivities because they were so newly sponsored, but the Lord made a special provision.
We gave Anabel her much prayed-for dolls, and Ruben his longed-for tow truck. Mary and I were delighted to see them runaround to show their still-wrapped gifts to the other children. They felt loved and included.
Because he lived so far away, we drove Ruben home. His face beamed as he rode in our big truck and gave directions to his “casa.” We turned off the main road onto a dirt path lined with banana and palm trees, then around a corner until he called for us to stop |
His mother greeted us, new baby in arms, and invited us inside the wood-sided, tin-roofed house. Soon we were sitting in two of the three chairs in their sparsely furnished living rooms. The wall was decorated with two big calendar pictures and the floor was concrete, something unusual for such a poor family. Two naked light bulbs lit the joyful scene as Ruben finally opened his wrapped gift in front of his stepfather, two sisters and many neighborhood children who had gathered for this unique event.
I suggested that we take a family photo outside, and then we hugged and shook hands before we drove off. When we return to work in the area again in February we will bring a first-ever family photo to Ruben’s parents.
But even more wonderful, we had the joy of seeing a new beginning in Ruben’s life, and soon his family will be exposed to the life-changing power of the Gospel through this humble LACC School’s ministry. A solid Christian education is the only hope of breaking through the bondage of poverty and slaying the death grip of ignorance upon this young boy’s life.
As a post-script, I would add that we have been informed that Ruben was used to being laughed at because he is small for his age, making him shy. But since his teacher, Tier Daliga, told his class the story of Zaccheus and also about Emperor Napoleon, Ruben has not felt inferior because of his small stature. He says that we are all big in God’s eyes! |