Your debt is paid

Yesterday was a memorable day. One of my favourites. As I had mentioned in a previous post, we are trying to really get to know the boys and their huge needs. We are slowly gathering information about them and praying about how we can assist them. There are a few that have really been put on our hearts to take action sooner than later. And one of them is Eric. 

Eric is an amazing young man. A silent, humble leader. We have just appointed him the new captain of our team because of his great leadership skills and dedication to the team. If the coach is late for practice, he will start the practice and organize the boys without him. If one of the boys makes a foul play in the game, he will take responsibility and go talk to the ref. On top of all that, he is a really good soccer player. With proper training and support, he has the potential to make it big. However, his wish is to finish school first.

Eric is in his early 20's and struggling to finish high school. His family just cannot afford to put him into school even though his dad has a day job and a night job. He will go for a few weeks and then will be sent home because his fees haven't been paid. Then he will try go back and they will send him home again. So when Kelvin sat down with him, he explained the whole situation and told us which school he went to. Yesterday morning we went to that school ourselves to understand the situation better. I had a giggle because the school's claim to fame is that it is "a school for the bright poor." I guess that sums up Eric. After talking with his teachers, we were blessed. His teachers could not stop telling us what a wonderful student he is. He is bright, disciplined and a pleasure to have in class. His teacher was sad that he was not around anymore. 

We learned of his debt and figured that it was affordable (and praying that someone would help us to continue to sponsor this boy) so we headed to town to deposit the money. 

At practice last night Kelvin and I teased Eric about what a terrible kid he was and the awful things the teacher said about him. He kept saying, 'no those are all lies!'. We just started laughing as he knew we were kidding. As we were laughing I handed him the receipt. He looked at it and went silent. He was stunned, shocked, amazed, humbled. I watched his face for a good few minutes as he examined the paper that meant 'YOUR DEBT IS PAID'. Then I told him, 'Make sure you get up early to go to school tomorrow. Your teacher is waiting for you.'

The boy was glowing. He was so grateful. 

The whole story reminded me about my debt that has been paid. The debt that Jesus paid for me. The wages of my sin is death. That is what I am debted to. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus. Jesus paid my debt. I am debt free.