Parents, Pressures, Parties and Presents - A Teenage Boy's First Birthday

Our team of about 20+ high school students were staying in Candelaria Cuscatlán El Salvador in a house that is substantially smaller than mine. A family of four lived there, with three foster boys who they had taken in as well. One of those boys was 16-year old Mauricio.

We somehow found out one morning that that day was Mauricio’s 17th birthday. We had celebrated two gringo birthdays with cake and ice cream, and we didn’t want to leave Mauricio out! However, it was too late to run to Cojutepeque for ice cream. So we decided that during dinner, we’d sing to him, and the guys would toss him up in the air. That seems to be a common occurrence for birthdays in El Salvador!

No one said anything to Mauricio about his birthday. So when we’d all sat down for dinner, we called him in. As soon as he walked through the door, we all started singing and Michael and Dustin lifted him into the air. Other guys helped keep him going up and down in the air while we were singing – both the happy birthday song, and the sapo verde song!

The look on Mauricio’s face was priceless. He was totally shocked that we would care about his birthday, and he enjoyed the attention. Soon, we went to out to the church for the culto, only then remembering that we wanted to present him with a team t-shirt as a small birthday present.

After the service, the church members started to leave, but our team stayed. We gave wished him happy birthday again, and gave him a t-shirt. He thanked us with tears in his eyes, and said that this was his first birthday present!

When most of the team went inside, Mauricio started crying. Morgan, Emily, and I were out there with him still. He proceeded to tell us why he was so touched (I honestly don’t remember translating this, but I know that Morgan and Emily know the whole story too, so I’m not sure how that worked…).

Mauricio had lived in San Salvador all his life. His parents didn’t care about him – by the time he was about 12, they wanted him to stay the nights on the street so they wouldn’t have to feed him or care for him. He got involved in a gang at an early age. And made some bad choices.

One day, shortly after he turned 16, he came home from school to an empty house. His parents had moved out while he was at school. Somehow, Mauricio got in contact with his grandpa in Candelaria. He moved there to live with his caring, Christian grandpa in October 2000. Grandpa made him go to church, although Mauricio didn’t want to. He wanted to rebel against his grandpa, but didn’t want his grandpa to leave him. So he went to church reluctantly for about 3 months.

In February of 2001, the massive earthquake hit Cuscatlán. Mauricio’s grandpa – the only family member who had ever cared about him – was killed when the roof of their home fell in.
Pastor Jorge and Nessie took him into their home. Mauricio was so grateful to have a home where adults cared about him. He also learned of a Father who loved him all the time, even when everyone else was frustrated with him. He accepted the Lord shortly after the earthquake. He’s been living with Jorge, Nessie and family since February, 4 months before we came.
Mauricio told us that not only was this his best birthday yet, it was the ONLY birthday that anyone had ever celebrated! I trust that it wasn’t the last!




Originally written by Jessica – 6 August 2005