So, as a continuation from the hard I just talked about in the last post, I wanted to give you a story that was both hard and redemptive at the same time.
As I said, we had a team that came from one of our supporting churches, Bethany Cov in Berlin, CT. We attended different groups, the first being in Caranqui, Ibarra where we have expanded our SUMAK team and project. In that area, many non profits and agencies are being closed because a lot of financing comes from the U.S. and without it, they have had to close. So, there are many displaced people who are without care or access to care. We saw these patients with general medicine, psychiatry and pediatrics. The 2nd day we were at the Home for At-Risk Children and saw many family members and beneficiaries of the projects where we serve, some coming from 1-3 hours away for care.
I saw a 17 year old boy. He was very nice and answered questions more than most 17 year olds do. But I noticed he was very low on the growth chart for weight and height. I started to ask some questions about this and after a few minutes, I realized that he didn’t know when the last time he ate a meal was in the last few days. He said he drank some coffee that morning, that was what he was sure of. I asked him more about his family. He lived with his mother and 3 siblings. He was going to start his final year of high school. I asked him what he wanted to be and a little light started in his eye that he wanted to be a mechanic. When I pressed a little more about his family he said that he was taking care of his mother. He hadn’t been going to school. She was in an accident in the recent past and wasn’t able to get out of bed. Although she was getting better, she wasn’t able to cook for the family. They lived with a grandmother, but I found out that most days she was at the neighbors drinking homemade alcohol and would come back drunk and abusive to the family. He said that he wasn’t afraid of her anymore, but the younger kids were and he needed to protect them, although he alluded to many years of no one protecting him. I deduced he was giving his food to his siblings which is why he is so underweight. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes so I politely excused myself and went out in the super crowded waiting room. All I wanted at that point was a space to just fall apart, but there wasn’t any place to do that, so I went to the corner and cried. The team was there and they weren’t sure what to do. Asking if I was OK and what I needed. They put a hand on my shoulder and I’m pretty sure they were praying for me. I went to talk with our team and found out this family was known to our SUMAK project. The mother had been part of SUMAK up until her accident. Although she was mobile this day, she was almost catatonic when I saw her. I remember I had sent her to talk with our psychiatrist that we had on the team. Talking more with the team, I voiced my concerns and we came up with a plan.
I went back and talked with the young boy. I cried and said I was worried about him, but that we were going to do what we could to help. I asked what we could do and he thought for a couple of minutes and couldn’t come up with something.
Although this story and family really hit me hard, the redemptive part of the story is that we had avenues that we could help. Two or three years ago, this family would probably be living in silence, but now all of this is out in the light and we have a team surrounding them that can help, tangibly help!
After talking with the mother, she was so fearful and anxious that her kids couldn’t go to school because she has no way to afford buying them uniforms. By the end of the day, the uniforms had been financially covered and the team was going to be giving an additional food pack to the family for the week before they visited them in the next few days.
You may wonder if what is being done in Ecuador helps at all? Do medical caravans matter? Doing a VBS, what difference do we make? Having a project for women and teaching children that violence isn’t OK, does that matter? Well, I think it does. I may not have been able to do much for this sweet 17 year old 3 years ago, but I can now with the help of the amazing team on the ground in Ecuador and we all get to be witnesses to it! Yes, was this is a hard day with hard stories, of course, but the redemptive power of presence and helping them be able to talk with people that are present with them in their suffering makes a difference. It matters. People matter, presence matters.
The Santiago Partnership