No Thanksgiving would be complete without the story of Jairo Moise Hernandez Salina. At 17 years of age, he made a decision to turn his life over to the Lord Jesus. During one of our daily devotions, we had a teaching about Nicodemus and Jesus discussing how a person is born again. It touched the heart of Jairo and he asked if he could give his heart to Jesus.
What is so amazing about this story is we have considered Jairo to be our "resident" prayer leader since the first day of classes. Every day we start the class with prayer and Jairo is the first one of the boys to volunteer to lead the group in prayer.
Jairo use to go to church, but quit attending because he felt so bad about himself for getting high. His past has been marred by drugs and alcohol and he lived on the streets for 8 months. He spent 3 days in prison, the local term for jail. He wanted to make changes in his life and grasped the opportunity to attend the Remar facility in Leon.
Since we have known Jairo, his grandmother has died. He was not able to see her and it affected him very much. She was the only person who was loving toward him. When he came into class on that day, he said he wanted to run away. He was hurting so bad and did not want anyone to see him cry.
On another day, he was having a particularly bad time at coping with life. This was before we moved the school into the house. Preston said Jairo wanted to see me (Sandra) and brought him to the house. It seemed he just needed a hug; some assurance that someone cared about him. This is huge, because when you hug him it is like hugging a tree; he just leans in toward you stiff as a board.
Jairo is probably our most photographed student but we will never get a picture of him with a smile. He is missing his 2 top front teeth. Once we had ice cream bars for a snack and he took his into the back room to eat it out of sight from everyone. He is very self-conscience about having no teeth. Dental work is very inexpensive here in Nicaragua and we hope to be able to get his teeth replaced before he leaves Remar.
Jairo is a special but complicated boy. We love him and enjoy his presence in class and in our lives. God has a plan to use Jairo's gift of prayer.
SIDENOTE: Preston and Jairo just came into the office. Preston had a straight edge with him and showed me how Jairo had planed a board that is to be used as a chair leg. The board was perfectly sized, straight, smooth as glass AND he had not sanded it yet. Jairo is one very proud young man right now!
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