**Every afternoon at Casa Victoria, more than 40 children between 5 and 12 come for after-school activities guided by our young men and women volunteers. One afternoon, Esteban Jaramillo, one of our young men living at CV, was helping out two little 8-year-old girls with some math problems. One of them had a wrong answer and Esteban asked her to erase it to correct it.
“I can’t”, she said, “because I didn’t write it in pencil!”
“You could tear out the paper and write it again”, Esteban suggested.
“Oh no, I can’t do that because Rosa (pointing to the other little girl) will tell my Dad and he will beat me!” she replied.
Esteban went to the other girl and, in a kind voice, asked her “ Is Laurita your friend?”
“You could tear out the paper and write it again”, Esteban suggested.
“Oh no, I can’t do that because Rosa (pointing to the other little girl) will tell my Dad and he will beat me!” she replied.
Esteban went to the other girl and, in a kind voice, asked her “ Is Laurita your friend?”
“Oh yes” she answered.
He added, “Rosa, friendship is a very special gift from Jesus and He wants us to love our friends. Do you know that when you tell on your friend, Laurita, she gets a beating from her father?”
He added, “Rosa, friendship is a very special gift from Jesus and He wants us to love our friends. Do you know that when you tell on your friend, Laurita, she gets a beating from her father?”
Rosa gave an anxious look at Laurita. Slowly, two big tears rolled down Rosa’s cheeks! She got up from her little chair, went to Laurita, hugged her and said “I’m sorry, Laurita, I didn’t know that!” Both embraced and cried together as Esteban watched in awe and thanksgiving for having been allowed to witness forgiveness and reconciliation, even at the tender age of eight!
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**At two in the morning, it isn’t unusual to hear all sort of strange noises on the streets around Casa Victoria. But the loud crash followed by disturbing voices, made Oscar, our brave young intern from Colombia, rush out to the front yard. With bat in hand—just in case—he heard two well-known burglars fighting over the semaphore, the street-light that a truck had just knocked over.
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**At two in the morning, it isn’t unusual to hear all sort of strange noises on the streets around Casa Victoria. But the loud crash followed by disturbing voices, made Oscar, our brave young intern from Colombia, rush out to the front yard. With bat in hand—just in case—he heard two well-known burglars fighting over the semaphore, the street-light that a truck had just knocked over.
Oscar shouted at both of them, “Whichever of the two of you who is going to steal the stop-light, will have to face me and my bat! The stop-light is the community’s, and neither of you can take it!”
Several neighbors opened their windows and balconies to see what all the commotion was about. The two thieves, feeling too conspicuous to all the onlookers, dropped the stop-light on the sidewalk, and quickly walked away as they voiced some profanities at Oscar. He then rushed to the street corner, proceeded to carry the stop-light as he shouted up to the neighbors: “ Please note that this stop-light which belongs to you and to all, will be kept in Casa Victoria until I take it to the police tomorrow.”
The following morning, he reported the incident to the Captain at the neighborhood police station. The Captain was astonished to learn that this Colombian young man, not only was part of a volunteer group working with the community children for free, but had defended public property and was honest enough to return it to the authorities. This is particularly meaningful especially considering that a stoplight is worth a couple thousand dollars!!
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