"I'm glad I came"

Last Tuesday, I had the opportunity to accompany Alex to his English classes at a nearby public school, Ava Mba’e. It was an experience that left me nearly speechless.

But before I tell you what I experienced there, let me tell you a little about my friend, Alex.

Alex Mitchell is an 18-year-old from Bellevue, IL, whom I affectionately refer to as my little brother. This is Alex’s fourth visit to Paraguay. He started coming in 2009 on one-week medical mission trips with his church. After getting a few little tastes of Paraguay he was hooked. He prayed about an opportunity to come back and after working his butt off to finish high school a semester early, he arrived here just days before me in January.

Alex is a really hard worker and has a deep passion for the Lord and the people of Paraguay. His goal while here is to disciple others by building intentional relationships with the people he meets. He has gone above and beyond in the last five months to help out at the school and his church and after a lot of prayer he decided to stay an additional month before going home to prepare for college. (We’re all really sad he’s leaving and think he should pray some more and stay forever ;) )

One day, Alex decided he needed to pick up a new project because he had a lot of free time on his hands and still had six weeks before he leaves. He decided to visit a public school to walk around and pray for God to speak to him about a way to evangelize. By the time he left the school, he was committed to three weekly English classes. After hearing about how well these classes were going, I was really excited to go with him last week.

I met Alex at his house and after about a ten minute walk, we had arrived. The school is small, just an L-shaped building, whose classrooms open onto a patio in the interior of the L shape.  We stopped by the office to say hello to the principal and then made our way to the first classroom. The teacher welcomed us in and the students were so excited for our arrival.

Upon entering the first classroom, I realized I was in a whole different world from our nice, missionary-built, private Christian school. The first two classrooms we visited were no bigger than my freshman dorm room, with mismatched chairs and desks, completely covered in writing and scribbles. The students in each grade were a variety of ages, many with obvious learning disabilities. The air was heavy and hard to breath with my already scratchy throat. But despite all the negative, I saw hope.

I saw kids eager to learn English from two rubios.
Kids who were excited to show off what they’ve learned to Teacher Alex’s visiting friend.
Kids who begged for attention, as well as kids who were shy.
Above all, I saw kids who are LOVED by the Lord.

For fifteen minutes we had the opportunity to sit outside while the students played during recess. I happened to notice that just about every one of these students was particularly thin, and each one had a different interpretation of the school dress code.  They ran around playing on the patio and on the soccer field below, which was surrounded by trash that two students were later given the task of starting on fire. There seemed to be an emptiness in the air. A void of some kind that was hard to place. Alex asked what I thought about it all and I barely had words to answer. It was a mixture of the sadness I was seeing before me and the hope the Lord placed on my heart.
“I’m glad I came.” I finally uttered.

The students stared at us, seemingly curious, yet ignored my attempts at starting conversation. A simple “Hola, cómo estan?” was returned with blank stares and averted eye contact, until a sweet boy from fourth grade found me. 

Patricio Samuel. 

He was excited to talk to me and continually made eye contact.
“What was your name?”
“What’s your second name?”
“What’s your last name?”
My last name baffled him so we decided to go ask Alex his names. Which then turned into a conversation about our pretty eyes.

Patricio Samuel.

I spent just a short time with this boy, but the image of him will stay with me for a while.
His dark eyes, one obscured by a gray cloud.
His thin face.
His sweet smile.
His curious spirit.

Patricio Samuel.
A beloved child of the King.

A reason for hope in this dark place.

“I’m glad I came.”