Standing Tall and Proud
In early 2007, I had a brother ( B, aged 10 ) and sister ( E aged 7 ) join our group. They lived in a large mobile home community known as The Homestead… between Alvarado and Venus… it was supposed to be the largest such mobile home community in Texas… this community was where most of my original Youth Ministry group of children came from.
B and E did have their biological parents raising them but both parents were marginally retarded and had difficulty keeping jobs or raising the children. They were kind parents and there was never any indication of physical or mental abuse.
B and E were both very mentally sharp but had major self esteem problems. B was already getting bullied and ridiculed in school about his parents condition and it got worse in middle school.
The singlewide mobile home the parents rented was in very very bad condition…. several large holes in the flooring were covered up by a small rug with a piece of small furniture on it… the roof leaked all the time… it was rat and roach infested.
In the summer of 2010, I took B and E along with the other children to a lake swimming outing one Saturday… 13 year old B stayed by me and when I was not looking, covered himself in lake bottom oozy mud… his self loathing was so strong.
I worked on he and his sister, engaged them as tutors on the younger children and did everything I could to fight the self loathing. Scripture has many many tales of imperfect human beings being the tool of God’s great plan for us all.
The family moved away the next year and I lost contact with them.
In the summer of 2018, one Saturday evening, my son Jacoby came back from an outing and had a companion with him…. I could not believe it but it was B, all grown up, standing tall. He had graduated from high school and was working in a high skill construction trade to support himself and his parents. I was very very proud of him.
The nature of work with high risk children is that immediate success stories like B’s are rare, but always very very welcome when they come.