Sticks-Sto
Sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you. Yet another ´wives tale´ has proven to be wrong. In my opinion, sticks and stones are a lot more civilized. Life and death are in the lips, said King Solomon. What we say to others, as well as to ourselves AFFECT US. It´s not new age, it´s old age.It is from the Rock of Ages. The Bible tells us to bridle our tongues (if it were possible). God often corrected the people saying negative things to themselves, Sara, (mocking and telling herself that she was too old to have kids), Jonah (suicidal because he helped his worst enemies, the Ninevites). God is keenly aware of how we speak to others, as well as to ourselves.
The attached picture is the first wave of ´LOS PELONES´ (the name of the group of kids I work with). It´s almost a 30 years old picture now. One of the children in this picture is dead. Two are GRANDPARENTS of the kids we are feeding currently: NONE have ever made it out of La Chureca (Managua´s city dump). People CLAIM that the Chureca is no more, but they are deluded. It´s worse than ever. The only difference is that they have scorching hot block houses to swelter instead of tents. But the fact is, The Chureca´s still there, they just changed the name to Via Guadelupe. It is still known as LA CHURECA. (synonymous with garbage). The kids that live there are embarrassed to live there. When they go out with us, or we find them a job, or they go to our school, we do not tell the others where they live. One of the grandparents had the nick name STINKY (Choco),. Well, Choco´s grandson we also call Choco.. Surprisingly enough, Choco II doesn’t like washing either. Hey if you are going to get called STINKY you might as well flow with it and save on water and soap.. I call them both Choco because that´s their name. I have no clue what their names are other than that.
I find with kids they take what you tell them to heart. The older and crustier I get, it´s easier to deflect. But when they´re kids, they are fertile, tender soil Once I was walking with this monstrous military policeman. A little black kid (about 5) walked up to him and said,, ´Whitey, I am going to kick your rear end´. MP responded ´get away from me….´ using the foulest of racial slurs. That little boy reeled back in pain. I think it would have hurt less to have been clubbed. I will never forget the look on that little boy´s face. I just hope that now, as that old cranky exMP is walking around with a walker and in adult diapers, that that ´little boy´ doesn’t recognize him, well maybe I do 🙂
These kids we work with, as Peter said, are a royal priesthood, a chosen line. How do I know they are chosen? I don´t. I just assume the best, and try to facilitate. We are admonished to ERR on the side of love. If I asked all of these little kids at La Chureca what they want to be, they will all say good things. Not one wants to grow up to be a prostitute, drunk, drug addict, criminal or worse. Some will end up that way, most probably,,, but it´s not my job to figure it out. I know one thing, I don´t want to call them a name, or speak to them in such a way as to make them stumble. Jesus said it would be better to have a millstone hung around your neck and to be dropped into the sea than to have caused one of these little guys to stumble. If God is that hard about making them fall, how much more delighted would He be if we LIFT them up.
Let´s give these guys a chance. There´s enough people out there preaching BAD things at them, continually. Let´s SHOW them who they really are in Christ Jesus.
God sees what we do, and how we do it.
PS! WINNIE IS 100% BETTER, THANKS FOR YOUR PRAYERS.
Dean
