The Legacy Of Vince
He came running across the street, barefoot and wearing only a long dirty shirt, jumped up in my lap and sat there for an hour, just wanting to be hugged. It was my first trip to Bogo, a small city in Northern Cebu that had been hit by Typhoon Haiyan, and as this little guy fell asleep in my lap, I asked the other abandoned street kids who he was. They all laughed and called him Binz. I couldn't help but notice how dirty he was and how his hair was filled with lice, but that didn't matter because he just wanted to be loved and hugged ... all the time, and I wasn't going to let a lack of hygiene hinder some much needed compassion. After talking with the children, I learned that he began living alone on the street when he was 3 years old and had been hit by a motorcycle, which damaged his brain. Now he was only 4 years old and ran around the city begging for money so that he could eat. Wherever he ran, the people of the city called him Wako Wako ... because the accident left him mentally disabled. A police officer came along and told me to be careful because he was a bad boy. By this time, I was upset with the lack of public love and compassion, and boldly told the officer that the parents and the local government both had a responsibility to care for this poor little boy, but neither did. I asked him if he had been abandoned on the streets of Bogo at the age of 3, wouldn't he also have learned to beg and do whatever was needed to survive. He just turned and walked away, while another little street girl named Linda picked up "Binz" and carried him away. I came to learn that the only ones who seemed to care about these precious children were the other street kids
A week later, I had to leave Bogo for another assignment, and a large entourage of these kids accompanied me to the bus station. Binz slept on my lap until I had to get on the bus, and 7 year old Linda held onto my arm, begging me to please stay and take care of them. Even though I had no possible way to do it at the time, I made a promise to return and prepare a big house for them all to live in, and said that we would feed them, love them, and enroll them in school. The sadness in their eyes haunted me all the way to Nashville, where I shared this story with my incredible wife, Diane. Two months later, Diane flew to the Philippines and traveled to Bogo, and fell in love with the children, who followed her everywhere all day long. By day 3, she still had not found Binz, but the next morning, the little guy came running up to her, jumped onto her lap and fell asleep for a few hours. She called me to tell me how special he was and that his name was actually "Vince" ... the kids just couldn't pronounce it correctly.
As destiny would have it, we created a nonprofit organization - "Humanility", and after renting a home for the street children of Bogo, little Vince would run away for a few days each month, and every time we found him, he would be sleeping with one or two other street children who were still abandoned on the streets. It's as if he knew that his mission in life was to fill up our Humanility Home with all of the street children of Bogo. I'll never forget the night that we went looking for Vince and found two beloved brothers sleeping in the plaza with him, Robert and Bernard. Every time we'd bring another one of Vince's new found friends into our home, he'd remain for a few weeks, and then take off over the wall again on a new adventure. Our hearts were filled with fear that something bad would happen to him, but there was nothing we could do to keep him "home".
This past summer, our precious little Vince took off for one last mission ... no one could find him for days, then Diane suggested that we look in the marketplace. As I approached the bus station by the market, I saw two naked boys sitting on the ground, and sure enough, one of them was our in-Vince-able little boy. He ran straight to Diane and jumped up dirty and naked right into her arms. She immediately took him into a store and out he came in 5 minutes fully clothed. Meanwhile, I knelt down by the other naked boy, and was stunned to see his condition. Nilo was only 7 years old and a very bad person had tried to cut off his head, and in the struggle, his face was horribly sliced and a large portion of his bicep was cut out. There were also cut marks on his back and he had been sitting there in a state of PTSD with Vince for several days. Our little hero Vince wouldn't move until we came and found them both.
During the next two months, the doctors worked to clean out all of the serious infection in Nilo's wounds, and then a very talented plastic surgeon in the City of Cebu finally did surgery to repair the damage. Everyone wondered how the internal damage to his soul from such traumatic abuse could ever be healed ... and while thousands of people in our community of humanity prayed for courageous Nilo, he came home to our Humanility Bogo Lighthouse, and was accepted by the other children as a member of the family. Little by little, their love, and the love of Mommy Collyn Laurio, our director, and her dedicated staff began to replace Nilo's fear with trust, and gradually his sadness was replaced by smiles - a true miracle of love! In our next blog, I'll share the entire Nilo story.
Once Nilo was well into recovery, our beloved Vince took off for another adventure, and no one could find him. Little did we realize that this would be his ultimate adventure as he would be going to his eternal home. He had just been given a coin by a passerby, and it rolled out of his hand and into the street. Our sweet little boy ran after the coin, right into the path of a car. When we received the call, we wept for the longest time. A dear pastor in Bogo led the funeral, and during the service, our Humanility Bogo Lighthouse kids sang him a goodbye song. In the photo to the right, all four boys on the front row had been found by Vince, and the boy in the black shirt is Nilo, the last mission of "Binz".
One night as I was sitting on the back porch crying for the loss of Vince, it came to me ... everywhere he ran in the city, people made fun of him and on earth he would always be severely mentally disabled ... and so His heavenly father decided that Vince's work in this world was finished and it was time for him to come home for good. As the sun set, I had a mental picture of Vince sitting on the lap of his father, engulfed in eternal love ... and my sadness was replaced by a smile. I stood up, went to my desk and made this tribute to our little guy who wanted to bring everyone into our home, and then go home.
When a friend of ours, Patricia Timbrook, a great artist, heard this story, she decided to paint a series of pictures called,
"Flowers For Vince" to help raise funds for the building of our Humanility Lighthouse Community - homes for the street children of Bogo. For those who would like to donate to make this dream of the children a reality, Pat is making her paintings available as a big thank you! These are limited editions, and will always be a reminder of our littlest hero. You can learn more about Flowers For Vince by clicking the link below:
