On the way to the church, we passed by his old middle/high school. “Your ‘old’ school?” I asked him. “Aren’t you only 13?”
“Yeah, I can’t go there anymore because it wasn’t safe. All the kids there drink and smoke and carry around knives, thinking that they’re older than they are, because they get involved with older guys in gangs. When I wouldn’t do all of that, because I’m a Christian, they started threatening to kill me. My parents didn’t want me to go there anymore.”
A pastor’s kid, a local Tico, can no longer attend public school for fear of his life. This is the first time I’ve been exposed to a situation like this, and I’m floored by the injustice of it all. I know that dangerous schools are a fear throughout the world, including the States, but that doesn’t soften the blow of injustice, it just makes the wound fester even more.
My initial reaction was to try and solve the situation, bring peace, bring healing, bring whatever solution I can . . . but what could I do? Our legal system in the States works on fear—fear of the police, fear of the courts, fear of losing money, fear of jail, fear of losing your life. Legal fear doesn’t exist here. There’s no such thing.
A pastor’s kid, a local Tico, can no longer attend public school for fear of his life. This is the first time I’ve been exposed to a situation like this, and I’m floored by the injustice of it all. I know that dangerous schools are a fear throughout the world, including the States, but that doesn’t soften the blow of injustice, it just makes the wound fester even more.
My initial reaction was to try and solve the situation, bring peace, bring healing, bring whatever solution I can . . . but what could I do? Our legal system in the States works on fear—fear of the police, fear of the courts, fear of losing money, fear of jail, fear of losing your life. Legal fear doesn’t exist here. There’s no such thing.
With the culture that has infested that town, the only thing Nata can do to keep safe is to keep his mouth shut and stay out of the way. Nothing else will make the problem disappear. Nothing else will bring closure to the situation. Fear of punishment, and therefore punishment itself, has been rendered worthless.
So I was left with nothing, except being angry. And I don’t like that.
However, there was one incredibly redeeming factor about my evening in Concepcion de Alajuelita: the youth group service. Because at El Sinai Iglesia Evangelica Metodista, in the middle of this dangerous pocket of San Jose, 40 youth (ages 10-25, I would presume) came together to worship the Lord freely and without abandon. They sang worship songs, they gave tithes and offerings, and they responded to the sermon with an intense time of prayer, praise and worship.
So I was left with nothing, except being angry. And I don’t like that.
However, there was one incredibly redeeming factor about my evening in Concepcion de Alajuelita: the youth group service. Because at El Sinai Iglesia Evangelica Metodista, in the middle of this dangerous pocket of San Jose, 40 youth (ages 10-25, I would presume) came together to worship the Lord freely and without abandon. They sang worship songs, they gave tithes and offerings, and they responded to the sermon with an intense time of prayer, praise and worship.
A lot of these kids looked like they didn’t belong in a church. They’d probably be ostracized at a vast majority of churches in the States. But to the Lord, everyone belongs in the Church, and no one is rejected in the eyes of our gracious and loving Father.
And I was reminded of one very important thing: while I may not be able to do anything to right the injustice at Nata’s school and in that community, Jesus can. And Jesus will. I know this, because He’s already begun.
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