Reaching for the Rejected

Yustre was walking; I couldn't believe my eyes. This little boy who just a moment ago was crying was now filled with giggles and smiles as he struggled to take a few steps.

Let me explain just a bit. My class has been visiting and ministering to an orphanage of mentally disabled kids on the outskirts of Bogota. One Saturday a month we take a bus there to play with them and give them a snack. The first time we went, our hearts broke to see so many children who were abandoned by their parents and yet could not understand why. So many young girls who had been violated and abused and could not comprehend that the fault was not theirs. We did not know what to do, we had no way of understanding their situation. As the time passed we became more comfortable with the circumstances and their random fits of rage and frustration. For our class missions trip we decided that it would be better to dig deeper in the ministry we had already invested so much time in instead of skimming the surface of a ministry we will most likely never visit again. Although people thought we should go farther away from the city for our trip, we knew that it didn't matter where we were helping, just that we were helping.

Back to Yustre, on the second straight that we were at the orphanage I was helping kids with their watercolor projects as I caught a glimpse of Yustre. I had always thought he was about 3 years old until one of the nannies told me he was eight. He was tied in a stroller and didn't seem very responsive. As I walked towards him I saw Cam and Lina sitting with him. We thought of him as incapable of communicating and of anything of the sort. His hands had been tied to the arms of the stroller and he had large scars and wounds on his hands. We soon found out that he bit himself. He was quadriplegic and had defects in one of his eyes. Soon enough all three of us were standing around him with tears in our eyes as we tried to grasp the severity of his condition. We wanted so badly to reach out and hold him. He was restless, he convulsed; we wanted to understand, but we just couldn't.

One of our favorite nannies told us that he could walk, we were completely caught by surprise. But how? This unanimous question ran through all of our minds. As she showed us how to hold him up he started taking steps and the nanny encouraged him on. Huge smiles and dimples ran across his face as we walked with him and shared this, what we thought to be, miraculous moment.

Soon enough we noticed he was getting a little tired so we settled down on the grass with Yustre in my arms stretching out his freed limbs. Some of the girls told us he could say a couple of words. We thought it would be amazing if we could get a few words out of him. We started with "hola" and as he progressed we encouraged him on and saw him giggle and laugh as he boasted about his progress. Soon enough he had said "Lina," "Camila," and "Sierra." Now we knew how responsive he could be. I couldn't help but be completely overwhelmed with joy. The biggest smile took over my face as I listened to the laughter of this little boy who I had thought was completely unconnected to the world and was now interacting. I couldnt help but love this child of God who could not understand hope and salvation yet was loved all the more by his Creator.