Betrayal stings like acid on an open wound.
As my team and I finished five weeks of working at Casa Betesda, an orphanage in Managua, Nicaragua, we decided to travel south for a day to San Juan del Sur, a picturesque beach town on the country’s south western tip. We celebrated the end of our trip hiking water-worn cliffs and eating dirt-cheap lobster. A day later, we returned relaxed and rested, assuming the challenges of our trip had ended.
Oddly, when we walked through the orphanage’s front gate, the director met us with a vexed expression. She informed us that Jordy, one of the older boys at the home, had run away the day before. She added that our rooms appeared to have been broken into and that many of our possessions were sprawled about the floor.
I went to investigate my bunk, and instantly noticed my iPhone had been taken out of its case. Not wanting to steal a phone with a broken screen, someone cracked it open and stole the inside electronics. One by one, my teammates began reporting more crimes: $100 missing. Jewelry stolen out of a bag. Even a souvenir candy bar had been taken.
Putting two and two together, we quickly realized we had been robbed by Jordy, the 14-year-old boy we had just finished mentoring for five weeks. I had even personally written him a letter two days prior encouraging him with scripture and complimenting his maturity. He thanked me saying, “Muchas gracias mi hermano.”
Twenty-four hours later he stole from me and left– but can I really judge him?
In Managua alone there are about 15,000 street children who have grown up fending for themselves. These youth beg, steal, rummage through garbage and hustle for drug dealers in order to survive. It may be unreasonable to assume that a month of mentorship could undue the years Jordy spent learning this lifestyle. If I were him, I probably would have done the same thing.
This reminds me that love always has to be given without condition, and that more often than not, genuine change takes time. Sadly, the poverty mentality often adopted in third-world countries teaches that life is found by fighting for yourself first and consider others as a distant second.
Yet as kids like Jordy receive unconditional love given with thick-skinned patience, I know this poverty of the heart can be filled. Wherever Jordy is, I believe God will continue fathering him and teaching him the truth that we find life by trusting and giving, not through survival of the fittest.
