Feb. 27, 2007

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

 

Everyday the women in town step outside their homes to water the dirt road. The water covers the road like a blanket and tames the unruly dust within. This ritualistic process keeps their homes clean and orderly – dust free, but leaves a syrupy mud mixture outside.

 

Pirulo chooses mud over order. His bare feet, caked with dirt are tougher than the rocks and pebbles he walks on. Pirulo’s clothes are dirty and torn, attached to him like a tattered flag to a pole blowing in the wind. His outer appearance is honest and true, an appearance that reflects what his life is, a life that is not clean and orderly.

 

Pirulo is mentally handicap, most likely a result of a mother who abused alcohol during her pregnancy. He lives with his grandmother, brother and sister in a small cinderblock home that is painted red. He is cared for by his whole family which includes his two aunts who make their livings as prostitutes. While the other kids go to school, Pirulo spends his day walking back and forth through the community. He is different. The other kids in town know he is different, and often laugh at his awkwardness. Cleanliness and order are not words used to describe Pirulo’s life.

 

But to end his story here would be wrong. We would be left with a dirty child who has nothing to offer, an outcast. Beneath the mud, the rags, and the handicaps you will find cleanliness – holiness. If you watch Pirulo, you will see him guiding a blind man down the road. You will see him skipping through the streets with arms heavenward celebrating life’s joys. Pirulo is the one who spends the time to speak with the young Haitian man waiting for English class. And if you ask Pirulo why he goes to church he will tell you, softly, “we go to church to see God.”

 

Watering the road keeps the dust and filth outside and away from our lives, or at least at bay. Pirulo lives differently; he lives in the mud, bringing cleanliness and holiness to it.

 

 

God’s Peace,

Bentley