The story of Anthony

You could tell just by looking at him he had had a hard life. He was weathered and worn and dirty. He was street smart and rough. And he certainly wasn't sure what was going on at his house when we, the adults and youth of Westminster Presbyterian Church showed up that day. He knew though, that he didn't need any help. He knew that and told us that for sure, several times.
As we began work, we watched him kick the dog and curse it out. That was the beginning of our introduction to Anthony and his use of language. As we got to know him, we also realized that he had quite the vocabulary. He would let all sorts of words fly. He was no stranger to shit, or damn, ass, or hell. He had no embarrassment about using these words around us. It was as if those were things every person said on a daily basis.
"Do you get to cuss?" he asked one of the kids from our youth group... "my grandma let's me cuss." And yeah, we were no strangers to those words, but never coming out of a four year old mouth. Yes my friends, Anthony is four years old.

You see, God chose our little group of youth to work on several houses in Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico. We went to the Garcia house where we painted and helped repair windows and doors. We met twin boys there named Jesse and James and their cousin named Jasmine. We got to know these kids and love them, but our attachment to Anthony was quite different.

Anthony lived with his Grandma and Grandpa and his 10 year old aunt and his little sister. We think his mom lived there too although I don't think any of us saw her. Dad was in jail and according to people who knew, he was a bad bad man and would be there for a long time. Anthony was in need of serious male role models in his little four year old life, so it was no surprise that he attached himself instantly to 14 year old Aaron.
Anthony became Aaron's shadow, working hard to convince Aaron to quit doing that work on the house, "leave it to the girls to do," and come play with him. He wanted Aaron to ride bikes with him and skateboard with him and talk about boy stuff with him.
He was Aaron's buddy. And Aaron was so good with Anthony. So sweet, so kind, so giving, so understanding. And they worked together pretty well. When Aaron got breaks from work, he could be seen adjusting Anthony's bike seat, or talking to him about not hitting the dog, or other people.
Before we left that Wednesday, Anthony had invited Aaron to spend the night with him. When Aaron kindly declined saying that he was going to have to go out to dinner with the group, Anthony invited the whole group over to dinner and to spend the night saying, "I got crackers. You guys can eat dinner here."
The next day, we were ready for work once more and there was Anthony ready for us to be there.
He was still in yesterday's outfit and as dirty as ever. He followed Patrick and Aaron around like they were movie stars.
He was there to hold nails and move things that were in their way. He liked Patrick, but Aaron had really become his best pal.
That Thursday, Cathy, the minister from First Presbyterian Church Ruidoso came to check on us. Anthony was sitting on a roll of wire inspecting our work and she sat on the hard, hot dirt to talk to him. She asked him if he knew why we were there. He didn't. She said that these kids and grown ups had been sent to his house to help him and his family. "We don't need no help," was his answer.
She said that these people came all the way from Texas to make his house better because they had been told to come by God. God, she explained, had brought us there. She then told him that whenever he needed help, no matter when, all he had to do was find a steeple. She drew one in the sand, and told him that he needed to look for a cross on the top. Whenever he needed help, was hungry, or didn't feel safe, he needed to find a place with a cross and a steeple and he just needed to walk in the door and say, "My name is Anthony and I know you will help me". She told him her church was the one right across from McDonalds but he didn't have to go there... He could go to any church and say that.
"My name is Anthony and I know you will help me."

At the end of our day, the last day of work there, we tried to prepare Anthony. We wanted him to understand that we, (most importantly, Aaron,) weren't coming back. As much as we tried, it was impossible to reason with that four year old mind. It was impossible for him not to feel like one more person was leaving him and his life. As Aaron said goodbye, Anthony kicked him, punched him, and angrily said, "Go then. Go away." But as we were packing up and walking back to the van, he ran up to Aaron and quietly said, "Could I hide in the back of the van and go with you?"


That evening, we were blessed by a concert at the church from California Baptist University. At one point in the evening, they looked at our youth kids, sitting in the front row and said, "so, we hear you are from Texas... what are you doing in New Mexico?"
Cathy then stood up and told the congregation about the community action project and how we had come on our mission trip to fix homes that would have been condemned. She praised our kids for their hard work and then said, "but tonight, we need to lift some big prayers up for Anthony. Anthony adopted this group and they adopted him this week and he needs some big prayers."
She handed the microphone back to the college choir expecting them to begin a prayer but they didn't pray. Instead, the leader of the group said, "we could pray for Anthony, but we don't know him very well. We think you guys should do the prayer," and handed the microphone without hesitation directly to Aaron.

Sweet sweet Aaron stood up and started in his teenager voice, the best prayer I have ever heard. It was a true conversation with God about Anthony and how much he needs His help in the world. At that very moment, I was so proud to know Aaron and so honored to have met brave, courageous Anthony and to have been a part of letting him know that he is a precious child of God.