The Performance

Date: 10/7/13
 

     This past weekend I got to go to a couple of the boys’ schools and see some performances. One of the schools I went to was Gerson’s school. On Friday after school, Gerson, who’s about 14 or 15, asked me if I wanted to go to a “fiesta” at his school where there would be dancing and cake to celebrate the school’s anniversary. I asked who else was going but he told me it was just him. (He attends Emanuel Christian School which is a different school than the other kids at the home attend.) An hour or so later he asked me again if I would go and the house tutor, Hermana Gloria, asked me if I would take him. So I agreed. I was a little apprehensive because I pictured it as a dance with all high schoolers and I didn’t know what I would do for the 4 or five hours that the event was. (It turned out it wasn’t a dance but a school performance where all the elementary and high school grades did their own dance, skit, or performance, so I didn’t have anything to worry about in the first place.)

     Anyway, we headed out. At first, I thought his school was within walking distance like the other schools the kids attend, but it turned out we had to take a bus (which was really packed – I was standing up and was pressed against the window at one point) and then we had to walk a bit to get to the school. When we got there, they were still setting up and I just sat around and waited and watched as the kids and parents came in. Of course being the only “gringo” or white person there I’d get some glances from some of the kids. A couple girls asked me what my name was and later some 5^th grade boys started asking me about myself and we talked for a bit before the ceremony started. Overall, it was a nice time; the performances were nice, some were funny, and it was cool to see how much they incorporated God into the performance including thanking God for the 9 years they’ve been a school. 

     The ceremony finished at 9PM and Gerson and I walked back to where we could catch a bus back home. While on the bus, though, something happened that really bothered me. On one of the stops, a kid about ten or eleven climbed into the bus along with some other people. I hardly noticed until he had started singing and for the first second I thought he was just singing, but then I realized he was playing a guiro and performing in hopes of getting money. I know it’s not something you would usually see in the U.S. so much, but I knew that kids selling things or performing in other countries to get money is common; so I wasn’t so much in shock but even though I knew about this and have even seen similar things before in Mexico, I was still bothered by it – probably because I know God’s given me a heart to want to help kids like that. When the boy finished his second song, he went around the bus to see if anyone would give him any money. Gerson gave him a coin – I took notice and thought it was very nice of him. At the next stop, the boy got off the bus. I kept staring out the back window to see what he would do (Climb in another bus? Walk away?), but soon he disappeared from my sight – but not from my thoughts. Once Gerson and I got off the bus and were almost at the house, I asked Gerson about the boy. I asked if there were many kids like that in Peru and if that kid was doing that to help his parents get money. I asked if the boy even had parents. Gerson shrugged and said he didn’t know.

     But then he added, “Me too.”

     “What?” I asked.

     “Me too,” he repeated.

     I asked him if he had been in that same position as the boy we were talking about. He said yes. I asked him how long he did it for and he told me he did it for 3 years. I asked him if it was difficult and he said it was. The thought of how Gerson had given the boy a coin came back to my mind and it started to make sense to me.

     There were a lot of good performances I got to see at Gerson’s school that evening. I got to record and take pictures of a lot of them. But that night, as I lay down to go to sleep, there was one performance in particular that was pressed in my thoughts more than the others – and it wasn’t any of the ones I had seen at the school.

 

 

Prayer request: That night, having on my mind that boy in the bus, I lifted him up in prayer. I know I’ll never see him again, but there are so many kids like him all around the world and many are in worse situations.

·         Please pray not just for this boy’s physical health and financial stability, but pray also for God’s will to be done in this specific boy’s life. God has such a heart for the poor, fatherless, and abandoned, and he wants us to share this same heart.

·         Please also pray for the kids around the world that are in similar situations. There are so many of them and even though it’s sad that many may never experience the many earthly blessings that many of us can experience, they can still experience just as much of the blessing of knowing and having a relationship with Jesus Christ. They may be working and performing for physical necessities, but may God reveal himself and his heart to these kids in such an intimate way.