Many of you know the story of Luby. He came to Casa, after having been beaten by his parents, and living on the streets for some time. Luby was very hard for anyone to handle and he had a street mentality because thats where he grew up. So in his mind, whoever fights the hardest wins. While he was here he had a very bad temper and was hitting and kicking some of the other kids, and trying to run away. This got to be more than anyone here could handle, and besides that 15 other children had found refuge here, and we couldnt take that away from them, that wouldnt be fair for them. For many of these kids its the only place they've ever been that they can feel safe. Jen made a very, very rough decision, and had to take Luby back to the judges office and tell them that he couldnt live here. She told him that if he would change his mind about wanting to live here, and promised to obey, that he could always come back. This past week when our group was here we visited Casitas Kennedy and found that Luby ended up there, which is a horrible, horrible place. He cried tears of hurt, the whole time we were there and begged Jen, literally begged her to let him come home. Luby wasnt able to come home with her that day.
Tonight we were all supposed to meet up with the TORCH group that is here and eat dinner with them and go out to Santa Lucia for a devo. Well someone had borrowed our car..and they werent back when we were supposed to leave. As we were getting ready here in the apartment, and waiting for the car to return, Cindy, one of the kids here, told Jen that Luby was here. So Jen walked out, and sure enough, there stands Luby at our gate. She let him in, and asked how in the world he got here. He told her that he had escaped from Casitas at 5:00AM this morning and had an empty Wrigleys Gum wrapper with him{pic is at the top}, in which he wrote Santa Ana. He showed this to every bus driver in town begging them to bring him here. Well he was taken first to Jimmy Hughes orphanage, and Jimmy apparently gave him shoes,and a little money. Luby again found his way onto a bus,and all the way to Santa Ana. Going from Casitas, to Jimmy Hughes, to here, is about an hour and a half drive, this boy is 10 years old, and found his way to Santa Ana with a wrigleys gum wrapper, with a Wrigleys gum wrapper, that shows just how badly he longed to be here. So sure enough he found his way home, he finally realized that he has it good here, and once you see Gods love, its hard to turn away from it for very long. When Jen brought him in the apartment to inform all of us that he was here, he came in and through his arms around Ashley. Jen made a few phone calls and Luby is here with us tonight, sleeping in his own bed, with clean clothes{when he showed up today he was wearing exactly what he left here wearing}. We were also very excited that the kids here welcomed him, Yovani had expressed to us this past week when we mentioned him coming back that he did NOT want him coming back because he had hit him and his brothers, but tonight Yovani forgave him, and Luby appologized for the way he had acted and promised not to do it ever again, tonight these boys became buddies again, it was quite a beautiful thing to watch. Tomorrow Jen has to go into town and talk with the judge to see if things will work out the way we all want them to, so that Luby can stay. So tonight we are all reminded of God love for us, how even if we turn away he is always there with open arms waiting for us to come home, once you catch a glimpse of Gods love for you, its hard to turn it away, and never come back. Tonight I am convinced thats what Luby saw here, and he knew he couldnt turn it away. So tonight Im begging each of you to get on your knees for this little boy who we love soooo much. He needs prayer, as well as us, as we try to work through this, its going to be a rough couple of days, but we'll get through it. Please, please, plead this little boys case at the foot of the throne tonight, we all love him, and want him to be here, he needs to be here. As I sat in the car with Luby next to me tonight..I couldnt help but think that the reason we are here is because of all the little Lubys in this world. Please join us in prayer tonight.
We did end up going to Santa Lucia, though we were late, we joined the TORCH team is some praise and worship, then Jen shared this story with the group, and then we went out to eat. On our way home, around 12:30 Gracie broke down, she wouldnt go anywhere. We ended up trying to push start her, which meant all of us pushing her backwards, hoping that with some speed she would start. Not tonight, we ended up sitting in the middle of the road trying to flag someone down who had some water we could put in the radiator to make it the next ten miles back to Casa. Finally God sent us some angels in the back of a truck who just so happened to have a lot of water...so after about 20 minutes she started back up and we were on our way. We got home finally around 2AM.
There will be more on this story, but its 3AM so Im going to bed.
- sam
3 comments:
Wow Sam. Little Luby brought a tear to my eye. He sounds like an amazing little boy. I hope everything works out, and I will definately be praying.
Love you!
Maria
amazing stuff, sam. i'm glad you're apart of all of this, and i wish i was able to join you! always praying for you my dear!
love and miss you!
We wish you all the best with Luby. We know how difficult it can be to try to help an older child who grew up different than any of us were raised or would have raised our own.
We hope he does see how good he could have it if he chooses and that his life will be changed for the better.
It takes a LOT of patience and prayers and even then he will still probably have bad days. One day at a time is all you can do.
Post a Comment