“If you are a man come and fight him! Fight! Fight! Fight!” bystanders urged on the little boys, hoping to see something interesting for the day. A small disagreement between two young boys, Sinclair and Rouel, spurred on by aunts and uncles, looked like it might be an all-out fight. Chris happened by just in time to break up the fight between the boys and tell the adults that they should be ashamed of their behavior.
Rouel was from a refugee family that had just moved into an old schoolhouse building on the top of the hill, fleeing the fighting between the Spanish and Miskitu people due to land conflicts. Word of the arrogant 11-year-old boy did not take long to spread all over the village. Picking fights, teasing girls and cussing like a sailor was Rouel’s reputation. Since our house is close by, Rouel would come by nearly every evening to thump out rice for his family’s supper, many times testing our patience with his constant boasting and cussing. We soon found that Rouel was a child abandoned by both his father and mother and left with his grandparents: unwanted, unloved, undisciplined and hungry for love and attention.
After time Rouel began attending children’s Bible class that Karen gives three times a week where she shares with the children both Bible stories and basic principles of life. We soon began noticing differences in Rouel’s behavior from how he acted when he would come to play ball to the way he respected us when we said something. Every time in Bible class he would ask his teacher for a Bible verse to memorize, but when the next Bible class came, he never had memorized his verse. Since he is not able to read, and had no one to teach him. The more and more he started hanging out at our house, the gifts for the other children who said memorized Bible verses caught his eyes. He began to ask Eva to teach him a bible verse so he too could receive a gift, since the reason he had not been able to memorize them before is because he cannot read and also had no one to teach him. Eva in her great patience spends hours teaching him Bible verses. This time spent has not only helped him learn Bible verses that could make an eternal difference, but also has made him feel like he has some self-worth, which has totally changed his behavior. Rouel is no longer known as the cussing fight-picking kid as before, but as a sweet fun loving little fellow. We are all very proud of him as he memorized and quoted twenty Bible verses last Monday.
It is easy to become discouraged when many make a definite choice not to follow God, but the difference in one of these little ones is worth it all. Please be praying for Rouel and others like him to continue to make the right choices and let God’s Spirit begin to work in their lives to make an eternal difference. With much love, Sarah Lee
