The simple gift of helping others

I'm in Jamaica doing mission work. Daily we celebrated mass and then did what ever we were asked to do. My job was to cut stencils and with them, paint the name on the outside of a pastoral center. I don't know how they thought anyone could do this without supplies, This job kept me busy every afternoon and evening. I made the stencils out of folders and used a box knife to cut out the letters. None of these things would have been my choice for the project, but the job got done. The mornings I spent tutoring a 16 year old boy. He would be taking a placement test that would decide if he could continue his education or leave school to learn a trade. These children want to learn, they want to go on. Unfortunately they barely can read or do math. My boy, struggled with reading. He seemed to never be taught how to divide words into syllables and sound words out. We spent the whole week reading, very slowly what I feel were words on maybe a second grade level. All I can do is pray that what we worked on sticks in his head.