Rosa started working with fourteen-year-old, Laura, over the summer. Laura had failed her previous classes. When school ended last year, she was tired and frustrated.
Alan is 10. He lives in a small community outside Cancun called Tres Reyes. Like most boys he loves soccer. Tres Reyes, unfortunately, has no soccer fields.
Trauma cuts deep, dark fissures in people’s lives, but hope heals deeper and shines brighter.
Each Saturday, Back2Back Cancun staff invite the children in the Tres Reyes community to join them for Bible classes. This particular Saturday, the lesson was about the armor of God.
It’s Saturday morning in Tres Reyes. Kids trickle in through the front gate of the new community center property. You’d expect them to sprint to the soccer field, palapa, or basketball courts.
I looked out the plane window as we ducked under Cancun’s clouds and saw the ocean meeting a dense green sea of jungle, like two competing stories going head to head. It seemed fitting.
I laughed out loud at the sound my 3-year old son made as he blew out his birthday candles, spitting across his cookie cake. He had just turned three and we were celebrating at a park with friends and family.
When Alberto arrived at Salvation Army Children’s Home in Mazatlan, Mexico, he was years behind in his education. He had been home-schooled at a government-run children’s home and had limited interaction with other children his age.
When I stepped off the plane in Mexico, I was ready to tell a story. I thought I would encounter a narrative similar to those in magazines and television.
“Good morning, Ismael,” the staff individually greet the children at Rancho de los Niños. Twelve months ago, seven-year-old Ismael is sitting in his stroller, gazing off in the distance. Typically, he doesn’t reply, his eyes fixed on the space in front of him. Revealing little feeling or expression, Ismael cannot respond to his name or… Read more