Shalom Baptist School
Recent photos of where God is daily transforming lives.

Shalom’s Everyday Hero

I was reading recently about one of Time Magazine’s heroes of 2007, Wesley Autrey. On a cold January day, Wesley jumped onto New York City subway tracks to rescue a young man having a seizure. After pushing him to safety and lying on top of him to shield him from oncoming trains, the young man said to Autrey, “Sir, I don’t know you and you don’t know me, but please don’t move.”1

Our world needs heroes, especially here in Guatemala, where there seems to be a deficit of role models and examples for the culture to follow. Not only do we need people like Wesley Autrey, who are made famous for one heroic act, but we also need individuals who, on a daily basis, serve as heroes for others to follow. When I think of these daily, often unrewarded heroes, I can’t help but remember one of our directors at Shalom Baptist School, Mercedes Franco.

Like many in her generation, Mercedes married young…at the age of 13, to be exact. She had two children and nice life before her husband died of bone cancer. She persevered, however, as a single mother, raising her children and finishing her education.

Five years later, she fell in love and married another man, and they began to expand their family. As the years passed, it became clear that Mercedes’ husband was not at all what he seemed from the beginning. He would be gone for extended periods of time, only to return asking for more money. This was a stressful time for Mercedes as she took care of her five children, put up with her absentee husband, and worked as a professional chef.

As Mercedes was baking six cakes for a wedding with one of her daughters, Blanca, there was a gas explosion in the kitchen. This left Mercedes and Blanca with second degree burns over much of their bodies. They spent 15 days in the hospital and it took almost a year for their skin to heal and hair to grow back. Unfortunately, this experience was only preparation for the storms to come.

Almost a year to the day after the kitchen explosion, Mercedes was diagnosed with cervical cancer on a Thursday. On the following Monday, the day she was to begin her chemotherapy, her husband left her for good. Broken emotionally and physically, Mercedes began to walk a difficult road, with only God to depend upon. “My relationship with God is the most vital thing in my life,” Mercedes explained, “He has never let me down and has taught me great humility and the importance of prayer.”

As Mercedes was on the road to recovery, God led her to Shalom Baptist School, where she has been a director since its opening. “Shalom was a second opportunity for my life,” said Mercedes, “a chance to begin again.” Slowly and quietly, not only did Mercedes recover from cancer, but over the years, she has become a hero of faith and perseverance to countless students and parents.

When parents come to the school in a financial or health crisis, when single mothers are at the end of their ropes, or when children walk on campus desperate for a hug or a loving touch, Mercedes is usually there sharing her story, her faith in God and her compassion. Like the man with the seizure in New York, Shalom’s families and children asking for something to hold onto when their lives are too close to the tracks. “This is my work,” said Mercedes about her role at Shalom, helping our families to be grateful and to trust in God. Mercedes Franco will probably never be featured in Time Magazine, but she is a hero nonetheless and a special part of the Shalom family.

1 “Wesley Autrey, A hero declares, ‘We got to show each other some love,” Time 2007: The Year in Review, January 2008, p. 61.

The Hope of a Generation

You can find a tragic story of a man named Jephthah in Judges 11 in the Old Testament. From his birth, it seems like he’s been dealt a bad hand. His father is a prominent man in the community and his mother is a prostitute. Though he is the first born to his father, he is never treated this way. To the contrary, all his step brothers and sisters, born of his father’s wife, have nothing but contempt for Jephthah (We’ll call him “Jay” for short.). When the siblings are old enough to exert their power in the family, they kick him to the curb. Broke and homeless, Jay finds security and comfort in what the NIV calls a “group of adventurers.” That’s Bible talk for a gang, and Jay develops his life and fame as a bruiser and a gangster.

Every generation has had its motivations and reasons for adopting a second family. From a war-time band of brothers to disenfranchised urban teens choosing a life of thugs, guns and drugs, boys and men over the centuries have found refuge in family structures outside their own. For years, gangs have been a strong reality in the communities around Shalom Baptist School. Last school year, we even had students who enrolled specifically to try and sell drugs or start gang “cell groups” within our walls. This year, not only have we encountered the threat of drugs once again, but a new form of robbery and intimidation. Middle school boys, wanting to prove themselves to gangsters outside our walls, have become spies, looking out for students with a new cell phone or book bag. The outside thugs would then receive a call telling them exactly who to target at the end of the day when school let out. Our school staff has spent many days walking the streets outside of Shalom trying to ensure the safety of our students and many hours trying to counsel with these future “Jays.”

Years later, Jay’s hometown is threatened by some neighboring enemies, and the town fathers turn to Jay for help. The town needed a warrior and a leader, and they finally broker a deal, giving Jay his birthright and title as head of the family. Unfortunately, they didn’t give him what he needed most: reconciliation with his family.

This year at Shalom Baptist School, we’ve seen a rise of cases of children and families in desperate need of the reconciliation that only God can offer. Angry young boys pushing others down the stairs because they feel threatened and powerless at home. A teenage girl involved in at-risk behavior because she was separated from her mother who was abusive and an alcoholic. Young girls showing signs of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of those they were supposed to trust the most. Because no one supports him at home, a high school student comes to Shalom with frequent panic attacks. Every week these students and parents pass through our offices with different stories, explanations and problems, but always with the same need for reconciliation. So we counsel and pray. We visit their homes and pray. We pray not only for their present but for their futures, particularly that they will be able to escape the endless cycle of violence, abuse and poor decision-making that we encounter every day.

At this point in Jay’s story, we can see this cycle played out in his life in a most dramatic way. As the new head of the family, Jay begins to negotiate with their enemies to divert the coming violence. Interestingly, Jay is well versed in the history of Israel and sounds more like a lawyer or a diplomat than a street thug. There is no telling how many young men Guatemala has lost to the streets that had the same kind of potential.

Well, the negotiations break down, Jay prepares for war, and verse 29 says that God’s spirit descends upon him. Here Jay has the opportunity of a fresh start, yet he seems plagued by his past. He cannot trust the new anointing that God provided (ensuring a victory), and he begins negotiations with God, offering the first person to greet him out of his home in exchange for a certain victory. He has no idea the price he will pay for this arrangement…and it wasn’t even necessary.

One of the most difficult aspects of the culture here in Guatemala is the devaluing of education. It is hard to convince parents who never made it past fourth grade that they need to continue supporting their children until graduation. Like Jay, many Guatemalan parents are making decisions for the present that will sacrifice the future of their children. And by the way, that’s literally what Jay did.

At the end of chapter 11, we find Jay, the conquering war hero, coming home after his victory to witness his only daughter coming to greet him singing and dancing. Ironically, her song is a preamble to her funeral. We also find Jay unwilling to take responsibility for his decisions, claiming how she has caused him his misery. For modern readers, it is difficult to get past a father sacrificing his own child or to accept that God would allow this. But if you can go beyond this, there is hope to be found in this story.

The hope we find is in the response of the daughter. When she receives the news of her father’s deal with God, listen to her reply, “you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you have promised…”1 Listen to the maturity in her answer. Remember that this is the daughter of Jephthah, the warrior and the thug. She responds with more integrity and faith than her father ever exhibited. While he couldn’t escape his past, God took the time to transform his daughter and break the cycle of repeating the sins of her father. That is also exactly the hope that we trust in every day at Shalom School.

For every family problem or difficult student we encounter, there are also a host of good children and youth who are giving their best to God and Shalom everyday. They are growing in their faith and in their studies. Against cultural, economic and spiritual odds, these students are thriving and exceeding far beyond even their parents expectations. They are excelling in academics in their final months before graduation. They are discovering artistic talents in their elementary talent workshops. They are singing in our youth praise band and learning what it means to honor God with their lives. They have dreams of becoming doctors, computer programmers, pastors, lawyers and business owners. It is our prayer for this generation of Shalom students that they can rise above all obstacles to flourish as the future hope of Guatemala.

1Judges 11:36, NIV