finding fish

A book by Antwone Quentin Fisher. It's a memoir of growing up as a ward of the state of Ohio in foster care. It's a heartbreaking story of the power of words, both to build up and tear down. Antwone was torn down by them for years and ended up writing to escape that abuse.

But not just mental abuse. He was beaten often and once spent over 24 hours tied to a pole in the basement with his foster brother Dwight. The authors words about his foster brother Dwight: "If ever a person needed one thing from this world it was Dwight, and his need was love. There were many things I longed for that Dwight could have done without. Not Love. He was like a huge, intricate human mechanism with its one missing gear that kept it from working. With love, Dwight could have been someone to impact on the whole society. He was that special and that smart, like any one of those enlightened individuals who come from the most meager of conditions (emphasis mine). But without love, Dwight didn't work, and I believe everyone lost out."

The emphasis is because this makes me think of the kids I have met in Ecuador and Peru who are sponsored through Compassion International. If one of them does not grow up and do what God planned for them, the whole world loses out.

A nugget of wisdom from the author about homelessness: He writes it because he chose to leave the YMCA shelter and live on the street at the age of 17 because a couple of guys tried to force sex on him. "I passed Homelessness 101 and learned the first lesson about why you become homeless. Not necessarily because of hunger or lack of shelter, but because sometimes outside is less terrifying than inside.......homelessness has made me feel unworthy even to dream."

And that reminded me of something my friend and missionary in Ecuador, Shirley Brinkley, said about the poor children she serves in La Comuna: "My dream is for them to dream."

Me too Shirley. Me too.

May the over 1,000,000 kids in this world that do not have a bed to sleep in tonight find a way to dream.