In April of 2006, I joined a group of college students from Los Angeles on a journey to Mexico. This annual trip has become something of a tradition for me — a time to join old friends and meet new ones on a unique experience. At the end of last year’s trip, we became aware of a couple of young girls who were in danger. They were both handicapped and their mother had decided to either kill them or abandon them. I just returned from another trip to Mexico. Perhaps the most powerful time for me on the 2007 trip was meeting these two handicapped girls who were very much alive.
The mother is a poor migrant worker from the southern state of Oaxaca, Mexico. She, and her four children, had migrated north to Ensenada where she worked in the flower fields. These migrant workers speak a different language, so conversation is difficult. It appears, though, that the eldest daughter, Margarita, who is 13 or 14 (no one knows for sure) has been handicapped since birth. The second eldest daughter, Alejandra is nine. She is the primary care giver to her siblings during the day when her mother is working. She is also the only one in the family who speaks Spanish fluently. Maria is six or seven and her handicap seems to be recently acquired. The youngest is Lucas, a four-year-old boy with a perpetual grin.

Maria and her sister Margarita were sent to Oaxaca a couple of years ago. It is unclear why those two were chosen to be sent down to their homeland by themselves. At some point during the trip, Maria contracted encephalitis from a mosquito. This disease has resulted in what appears to be a severe case of Parkinson’s disease. Maria shakes constantly and cannot walk. She cannot eat solid food nor can she have too much liquid. Everything she eats must be the consistency of baby food. She is very shy and covers her eyes with her right arm when new people are around. The two were returned to their mother not long after.

Margarita stole my heart, though. She is tall and muscular. She can now walk (last year, she could not). She does not speak and she moves very slowly. Her reaction time is very long; her mind clearly working slower than normal. She loves to eat. She eats constantly, if allowed. I discovered that her smiles are rare, but beautiful. She loves to be scratched on the back. Her favorite pastime is to put her baby doll in a stroller and push it around in circles in her dirt back yard.

I thought back to last year, when we were gathered around the campfire and were made aware of the situation with the mother. I remember thinking that she was a horrible mother and all four children should be removed from her care. Early the next morning, we left to go back to the US and heard via email that the children had been rescued. They were hospitalized and treated for their injuries. I was aware of ongoing communication between the girls and my friends in LA, but I had basically forgotten about these little girls. When we arrived in Mexico this year, we learned that we would be spending considerable time with these girls who were now living with their mother again. I was shocked that these girls were under the care of their would-be murderer mother.

Matthew 18:21-22 — Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.”

It is clear from Scripture that God is the God of second chances. And third. And so on. I have personally witnessed God’s forgiveness and grace in my life. I consistently betray God. Yet that does not affect His love for me. Why is so easy for me to judge and hate other humans? Certainly a mother who at one point considered killing her own children should not be allowed to retain custody of her children. Yet I was impacted this past weekend by the love that I saw within this unique family.

Maria and Margarita need help. Their family needs prayer and they need Jesus. They now live in a small house with very basic things. There is now a consistent system of checking up on the family and ensuring the girls are getting their medicine. But they need so much more. What they do NOT need is people judging them, but people loving them. They do not need the stigma of their poverty and their past mistakes lorded over them; they need forgiveness and grace.

I am excited to see the family again and look forward to the next time that I can. I am thankful to God for helping me see where I lack: specifically in forgiving others. God, help me to actively forgive others and not judge others. Help me to not think that I am better than anyone else.

-z

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This entry was posted by zac on Thursday, April 26th, 2007 at 10:05 am and is filed under Weekly Jib Jab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.