Photo: Yaya (on hammock) and Freddy, who works with the youth at our church.It was a Wednesday morning, November 30th, when a boy of about 13 years of age came to our gate to ask for work. He said he was from Cote d’Ivoire, his parents were dead, he’d been sleeping at the truck stop for a week, and had infectious injuries on both shins. Over the next three days, we tried to find out the truth of his stories, which became more and more clearly false. As he’d talk to our houseworkers or pastor Youssouf, we’d compare notes and find that things didn’t add up. Pastor said he was an expert at “embroidery” with his stories; they wove in and out as the situation demanded.
We invested as little money as possible, not wanting to get scammed by a young thief, yet wanting to help this obviously needy young man get a good meal each day and find some support. He worked for two days at the camp doing yardwork, and we paid him fair wages, but when he wanted to go buy pants with his earnings, instead of food or medical help, we were left scratching our heads.
Pastor offered to find a room for him to rent, and we decided to take it a month at a time to see if he was serious or a thief. After Pastor took him to pay for the first month’s rent, a woman across the street flagged them down, saying she knew the boy and his family. It turned out that he was the grandson of a neighborhood chief in Kadiolo, his parents had died, but his uncles and grandmother had been caring for him since he was little. He had a nice home and certain advantages and village honor. Pastor invited his uncle to come with them to our house to sort it all out.
The boy, named Yaya, his uncle, Pastor Youssouf, and Freddy, who helps us in the study room and is the youth group leader at church, along with Marikot our yardman, sat together and heard the whole story. It turns out that Yaya, who was top of his 6th grade class, had stolen a chicken and sold it for pocket change one day and been prosecuted by the owner. He’d spent two days in the local jail and his family had been forced to pay a large amount for the chicken and the fine. It may not have been the first time he’d stolen a chicken, but this time everyone knew. He’d been having trouble applying himself at school for awhile, but now he started skipping school because he was embarrassed that everyone knew about his jail visit. The school director talked to his family, but they didn’t know where to find him. They were glad when Pastor showed up with him a week later after having met us.
At our house on Saturday, we all talked about making life choices, and how he’d seen the bad road he was on with friends who encouraged him to smoke and pursue potentially dangerous desires. We encouraged him to pursue God’s road and become a man of God, honorable and just in the community. He already had many earthly advantages, but hadn’t seen them or taken advantage of them. He needed to see the rewards God gives for following Him. We asked him to come to church the next day and to youth group that afternoon. His uncle was in agreement on that, seeing that we Christians had taken care of him and that maybe we had a better way. We all prayed together and Tom offered to give him a Bible on Sunday if he showed up at church.
Which he did! And to youth group that afternoon. We prayed that as he re-entered school on Monday, his classmates would not be too hard on him, and that God would give him the grace to be repentant and have a clear message of warning to his friends about what he’d seen and experienced on the street. We were away most of the week at meetings, but when we returned, Saturday morning Yaya was waiting to greet us and ask some questions. Marikot was at the house working, and was able to very clearly answer his questions in his language. Yaya said he wanted to follow Jesus and together we lead him in a prayer of acceptance of Jesus as his Saviour. Praise the Lord!
The next day, he was at church again with his new Bible, marked clearly with his name. He asked to borrow a songbook so he could begin to learn the church choruses and join in the music. We pray that Yaya will continue to grow in faith and make good choices based on God’s Word, and that his changed life will be a witness to his uncle and grandmother, and others who may be watching how things work out for those who follow Jesus.
