Shoe Shine Boys

If you've ever spent any time in Latin America, you know that Latinos love to dress up and look nice. No matter how hot and muggy, they always look clean and fresh.

As part of that culture, there are myriad shoe shine boys always around who will shine up your shoes and make you look real spiffy, all for about US $0.50 cents.

In general, the boys shining shoes work all day for about $3 dollars or so. Generally, they are not in school because they are trying to help earn money for their families, who are very poor. One of the ministries we have in the coffee shop is to offer these boys a nutritious meal when they come into the coffee shop.

When the boys come in, we give them a bowl of black beans and an egg, and sometimes we also have a little cheese. While they are eating we have an opportunity to visit with them and spend time getting to know them, while also sharing the love of God with them.

Some of the boys are pretty "rough around the edges" - they've basically been living on the street and have poor (or no) manners and pretty rough language. They are not always easy to love! But Christ calls us to love them anyway - which sometimes means being tough with them and setting boundaries and following through on rules. For the most part though, one of the highlights of my day is when the boys come in for some food. I love hanging out with them and just engaging in their lives.

Last Friday, one of my guys - Martin - turned 12. His family didn't celebrate his birthday, so I made a big deal of buying him a piece of cake and putting a candle in it and singing "Feliz Cumpleanos" really loud for him. It was fun for me, but for him, it was speaking value into who he is and showing him that he is something special.

One of our regulars is Luis. He is about 22 years old and is mentally disabled. He has gran mal seizures, which have caused brain damage. He has the mental capacity of an 8-10 year old. He is very sweet and also very demanding! He loves to say "hey! hey!" all the time to get our attention and to practice his English on us. He tells me every day that his cat is hungry as he rubs his stomach. He repeats the same things over and over every day - "hellohowareyou? berryfinethankyou" "moon-dai,too-dai,three-dai,free-dai,sat-dai,soon-dai". He also loves to pat us on the arm while he giggles. Another thing he loves to do is show us how big his muscles are! The chair he carries, along with all the shoeshine supplies are about 40-50 pounds, so he has big arm muscles (and he's quite proud of them!)

One of the things he loves best to do is to recite Genesis 1:1-4 to us from memory. I don't know if he doesn't remember that he's done it 38 times previously or if he really just likes us telling him how impressed we are! I tried to help him memorize Jeremiah 29:11 (For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to give you a hope and a future. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you." However, he would rather recite Gen. 1:1-4 again. Haha!