We all hear about poverty. We hear stories about homeless people living out of shopping carts. I remember when I was little, living in Vegas, I would see people on the streets begging for money downtown. We watch the news and see people’s home destroyed by hurricanes and tornadoes but do we really know what living through that is like?
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| Tornado that hit Union University in 2008 (less than 1 mile from our house) |
I’ve been very blessed growing up. I’ve always had food in the fridge. I've never had to worry about not having a place to live because of tornados or hurricanes. I’ve always had new clothes and whatever else I needed. I also had what I didn’t need. 1,000 channels on the T.V., cellphones, ipods, trips to the beach, Disneyland, Hawaii, Philadelphia to see Liberty Bell, etc. Some may say, “Cell phones are necessary and so is the T.V.” But realistically, these things aren’t. If a person can have these things, it is truly a blessing.
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| Park Discovery Cedar City, UT |
One of the neighbor kids asked me if he could play with Nelly today. I took Nelly and we went outside and played fetch with her. He lives with his grandma. I asked him if she ever took him to the park. He told me that sometimes she did. He continued to talk to me for a while. He told me which parks were his favorite and told me which parks not to go to because at night, there are shootings. (We already know not to go outside to parks at night.) Being around kids in Cedar, you would never hear this. This is not a normal conversation. When I was in High School, we would go to the park Discovery in Cedar often and play night games all night long. My favorite was playing cops and robbers from Park to Discovery all the way down to Burger Ally. Getting shot never crossed my mind. I knew it was safe.
I accidentally called his aunt his mom and he told me how he lives with his grandma because his mom passed away in a fire. She was cooking and fell asleep. His 3 year old brother and dog died in the fire also.
Later, he asked me if living in Las Vegas was fun. He asked me if we got tornados there. I told him that we didn’t even get snow there! He asked a little about Utah and I told him about the weather. I told him about the beaches in California and a few other things. His eyes lit up when I talked about Disneyland, he said he wants to go there someday. He told me about the weather here. He said that the thunder we get scares him and he doesn’t like the storms. I agreed! The thunder here is terrifying! It sounds like a monster is coming out of the sky! He then preceded to tell me about the tornados we get. This is something I am NOT use to hearing about. I asked him if we would definitely get tornadoes next year and he just looked at me and shook his head yes. It was a heartbreaking look. He said that one time, his dad fell asleep and his mom tried waking him up to hide but his dad wouldn’t wake up. They had to leave him to take shelter. After that tornado, the whole roof on their house was gone but his dad was okay.
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| Tornado that hit Union University in 2008 (less than 1 mile from our house) |
I’m not saying Jackson is a bad place to live. I absolutely love it. There are really nice areas of town where people people well off live, but, there are a lot of kids here who aren’t privileged. A lot more than I saw in Cedar. It’s not easy earning those kids’ trust. They come from rough backgrounds. But, when you get them to talk to you, it’s an amazing experience. It’s an experience worth the time and the effort. Today I learned so much and what I learned, was from an 11 year old.
The Lord has us here in Jackson for a reason. It could be any reason. My friend Jen has taught me to learn all that I can while I am here. This little kid is just the beginning. I have been so blessed growing up and have been very privileged. I hope that one day this kid will graduate from high school and maybe even go to college. It made me realize the little things I take for granted and made me so much more grateful for all that I have been blessed with.
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| Tornado that hit Union University in 2008 (less than 1 mile from our house) |
This is just one of many stories to come. I hope that I can learn so much while I am here. I hope that I can make a difference in these people’s lives whether it’s just being a friend or being able to share the gospel. If I could challenge everyone one, I would challenge everyone to get to know one kid that comes from a rough background. Listen to their stories, be there friend and I promise, they will touch your heart in the most amazing way.
*Seeing a tornado was on my bucket list of things to do before I die. Now that I live where there are tornados, I changed my mind.
