meet Jorge

We hopped the bus to Aurora and stepped out on the corner near the school. We walked down the street and stopped to ask a Tico woman if they knew where Jorje lived. She pointed us to a cream colored wood and tin shack with a terra cotta colored gate.
"Hola?" We called inside and Jorge appeared with his kind eyes and huge welcoming smile. "Come in, Come in! I'm sorry," He apologized, "I don't have a home. We live here in my mother-in-law's house. We have two rooms." The house was small and pieced together out of old wooden crates, partical board, and multi-colored peices of scrap wood. The floor was crumbling painted cement. The bedroom was a bare mattress where his 4 kids slept and watched super hero cartoons in spanish.
We were welcomed in and warmly greeted while little Jonathan stood prattleing like two-year-olds will behind his father's leg. Jorge speaks Engilsh fairly well so we began talking about Aurora, living with Mothers-in-law and how business was going. Jayson attempted to explain the insurance business and Jorge told us that because he doesn't make a salery for being the associate pastor of the church with the feeding center, his business is selling things.
He has a white bucket that he fills with various things to sell. Sometimes it's little plastic baggies filled with soda, sometimes the baggies are filled with ice cream, and sometimes his bucket is filled with empenadas. Jorge's empenadas are legiondary to those who've been on trips to Costa Rica. He takes his bucket to the streets, (The day before we'd seen him in the rain without an umbrella cheerfully toting his bucket along.) When the bucket is empty he returns home. His profit is about $1.50 a day.
We were talking about gardens and cooking and those ledgondary empenadas when Jorge asked me if I'd like to learn how to make them.
For the next hour or so I kneeded and pressed and fried up yummy empenadas at Jorge's Universidad de Empenadas. We laughed and joked and tried to clarify what eachother said in our own languages. It was a wonderful afternoon.
When we left his home, Jayson gave Jorge a bit of money. He had taken off work to be with us, which meant he didn't make any money that day. He looked grateful and humble as he took the equivilant of about $20 from Jayson. He thanked us earnestly and told us he would use the money for the needy in the church. He said his Heavenly Father took care of him and he had all he needed.

He walked us back to the bus, and we waved our goodbyes. As I rode back to Alajualita I thought about this man who doesn't have a home, yet like the lilies of the field feels all the richness and fullness of God's incredable provision and i was reminded of another homeless man God mightily used two thousand years ago. I hope I can be a little more like Jorge in my world.