“I have learned to appreciate a plate of food!”
He sat in a circle with five of our teachers looking at him with a mixture of love and memories. They remembered his past–the poor decisions, the many interventions, the destructive choices. They knew about the loss in his life. They remembered how our hearts were broken when we gave his school papers and told him that he could no longer study at our school.
He had been part of Grace Ministries for nine years. For nine years, he was provided daily meals, bags of food, school supplies, and a loving environment. Grace Ministries was the only stable thing in his life. He knew a hot meal would be waiting for him each day. Despite our love and support, we had to make the difficult decision to not allow him to study at our school because of his decisions in the street.
Only six months later, our teachers and students stood in the cemetery as he said his final good-bye to his mother. We watched this young teenage boy weep as he felt the sting of death. We hugged him. We cried. We prayed over him. We prayed that every day the Lord would bring to his mind every single Truth that he had been taught for nine years. Loved by God. Created for a Purpose. Salvation through Jesus Christ.
As the following months passed, our teachers would see him in the streets. He was skinny. He was alone. He cried on their shoulders as he experienced even more loss in his life. He made the comment to the teachers, “I made some really bad decisions when I was at Collegia JET, but they always loved me.”
For the past two years, we have walked through life with this student. We have made sure he has food in his home. We have made sure he has continued in school. We have loved him on his most difficult days.
As he is about to start high school, he has basically begged us to return to Colegio JET. Of course, he had to answer some hard questions as we considered the possibility of allowing him to return to the school.
“What have you learned during the two years of not being coming to Colegio JET?” one teacher asked.
Without any hesitation, the skinny teenage boy responded,
“I have learned to appreciate a plate of food!”
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