Rasheem

On my mission trip to Jamaica I fell in love with this boy named Rasheem. He was this cute little skinny kid at West Haven. He ran up to me with his sock covered arms open wide asking me, in his own way, to pick him up. All this little guy wanted was to be held and loved. The only thing I could think about while holding him was, who couldn't love it amazing little guy… who would ever be able to put this precious little man in a place like this!? The first day that I met Rasheem he had his hands covered in socks which I found unusual. But, I loved him none-the-less. The second day we came back he no longer had his hands covered in the socks. It was a litter harder to pick him out of the 85 disabled children because he did not have the socks to distinguish him. But, once he realized who I was again he was back in my arms being loved. At lunch time I went to his cottage and fed some of the children that lived there. I was feeding a young girl who had cerebral palsy. This girl was dropping a lot of her rice on the ground due to the fact that she had very limited muscle control. Rasheem kept trying to come over and eat the food off the ground that this girl was dropping/spitting out. After I stopped him from doing this he went to a little corner and was sticking his fingers into his mouth. He was doing this to make himself throw-up. This really bothered me that this amazing child would hurt himself like this. So I tried to get him to stop doing this many times. I tried telling him no, I physically would pull his fingers out if his mouth, and I tried giving him candy thinking that would taste better then him eating his own vomit. All of these methods were futile. One of the ladies there told me to give up because he was going to do it regardless of what I do or say. I couldn't believe that this lady said that?! How can you just let a kid do that to himself and sit there and watch it?! I realized that the socks that he wore on his hands the first day prevented him from fitting his hands in his mouth. I asked one of the workers why he didn't have the socks on his hands today. She informed me that “We must have forgotten to do that today”. How can you forget something so important like that?! About the time we were leaving the worker who told me to give up on this child finally put the socks back on his hands. I think that she got sick of me running around with this kid trying to make him stop.

By the middle of the day my shirt was dirty from this child. But, luckily there were some amazing people on this trip. One of the guys on this trip let me borrow one of their clean shirts. It was nearing the end of our trip so at this time clean shirts were greatly valued. I was grateful to his unselfish act of benevolence.

I was touched and moved by many things that I saw on this trip. But, Rasheem made a huge impact on me. The impact he made is something that I can properly express in words. The only comfort I have for this situation is that I know there is a special place in heaven for this child. I ask that you please keep Rasheem in your prayers.

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