Tortilla-made relationships

It all started when I found a sweet boy, Carlos, rolling out hand-made tortillas. I asked him to show me how thin he rolls it and what ingredients he used. Then I made a comment to the leader that I really want to learn how to make tortillas to which he volunteered another sweet boy, Franco, to be my teacher. Franco is the best tortilla maker of them all. Plans were made and I left excited for our upcoming "date."

Yesterday afternoon came and Franco began to teach. He has a quiet spirit but is quick to smile and laugh. He is a very intelligent 17 year old who is studying administration and computer technology at a local preparatory high school. He came to the boy's home three years ago due to poor behavioral choices but has since let Jesus into his heart and has become a wonderful young man. He is now a leader among the boys, respected and adored by all. The younger boys will spontaneously hug him and he allows them to follow him around.

He pulled out the bowl, the flour, salt, and oil and began telling me how tortillas are made. When my spanish understanding failed me, he patiently repeated himself or found another way to communicate his instructions. And even though he was done with his dough long before I was done, he waited, asked if I needed help, and offered helpful advise, like how to properly knead the dough. Though we never counted how many tortillas we actually made, I would guess it was somewhere around 80...enough to feed all the boys and a few added staff members. It was a three hour long process where I got to practice my spanish with him and thereby get to know Franco a bit more.

It wasn't until a couple hours later, after the evening's english class was over, that I found out that Franco sacrificed his homework time to teach me how to make tortillas. Once english class was over, he pulled out his school homework and began working on it...4 pages of homework due today and that was only in one subject.

I was, and still am, so humbled and touched by his heart and time.