The Sunnyside Boys Are Almost All Home

 In 2004, Joel Beery, a long time friend a partner in Capernaum in Fresno and I set out to begin a second Capernaum club in Fresno. As we prayed about where to go, we knew it needed to be at a high school where Young Life already had a typical club. Mark Statema, the Fresno area director at the time asked me to join him at lunch time at Sunnyside high school. We walked around as he greeted kids he was getting to know or that were attending the Young Life club. My eyes were immediately drawn to a small crows of kids gathering at the north tower in the quad area. Hard to miss these guys when your eyes pick out wheels in a crows like mine, all of these guys were in power wheelchairs and I noticed right away the shape of the face and deterioration of the neck muscles that is a sure mark of a disease I hate; Duchene’s Muscular Dystrophy.  When I saw those guys, all Latinos at the time, discussing video games and music I’d never have chosen, I heard a clear nudge from the Holy Spirit; “Here. They don’t have long. They don’t know me. They’ll soon face me. Can you show them who I am?”

I’m so thankful that when God calls us to a task He equips us… and Randy Hill, Joel Beery, and Nick Torstensen are some of the most versatile and relatable people I know. So, we began to introduce ourselves. They could care less who we were at first or what we might be inviting them to.  However, the idea of life sized projected play station 3 on the wall at my house with pizza got their attention. Moms were relieved to have a break and to hear that we were capable and willing to care for them. The guys began to hang out, to connect, to know one another outside of school and to have something to look forward to. They came to club and slowly we watched the walls they’d carefully constructed fall with them and their families. While Joel and Randy were with the guys, I got to spend some time with some incredible moms, moms who left their own countries in search of better medical care to keep their kids alive, moms who didn’t know their rights, the language, or the systems they needed to navigate.  These brave mother, all but one being Mexican became my friends and remain so to this day.

Nick and Reynaldo just hanging out

I could write about each of these guys, all but one of them who’ve finished their lives on this earth and gone on to experience the LIFE eternal they found in Jesus, but topday I want to tell you about my friend Reynaldo whose body we laid to rest this morning.  Reynaldo is the youngest of 7 brothers and sisters, a traditional, close knit Mexican family who immigrated to Fresno. Everyone worked and everyone helped, and though Reynaldo could not participate in this, he longed to, he belonged as much as anyone. When his brothers were struggling to stay out of gangs, somehow Reynaldo’s need, dependence and weakness seemed to call them back to the family. Carmen, Reynaldo’s mother is one of the most dedicated and gentle caregivers I’ve seen over the years. For 24 years she cared for her son who needed more each day with dignity, tenderness, courage and still held him before her God with an open hand.

In the van, cracking a joke!

Reynaldo’s quiet sense of humor only shined through when he really got to know you and felt comfortable enough to crack his jokes and pull out some sarcasm. Usually in the van on the way home from club when we’d sung, laughed, played, maybe cried, Reynaldo would come alive. He liked to sit behind the driver and to be the last one dropped off so his mom could rest a little longer. The stories we heard in those long routes of drop offs, the jokes, the dreams… they were those of any young man. He liked a girl he met at camp that he’d escorted to dinner and wanted her phone number. He was excited about the 49ers.  He wished more than anything he could play soccer and run again. He was worried about another friend with MD. He was scared of the progression of his disease, of what would follow, worried for his mom.

Reynaldo and his dinner date

On the way down from the ropes course and "flying"

I’ll never forget the night at camp when I came in to hand out medications once the guy leaders had gotten all the boys in bed. I sat down next to his bed getting his heart medicine ready and he whispered, “Christen, can I ask you a question and can you promise to be honest.” “Of course,” I answered, I’m know for being pretty straightforward! His question caught me off guard as we’d just been talking about the ropes course, club, the people he’d met, “Christen, am I going to die from this?” I tried various routes “We’ll all die someday Rey, we never know when or how,” his look told me this was not the honesty he was looking for “MD is being researched all the time, Rey, who knows what they’ll find…” What followed, I realized, was a soul level question, “No one will give me a straight answer and I see it, I see my friends with MD dying and no one wants to talk about it, am I going to die like that?” I broke… I shared with him what I know of MD, of life expectancy, of research, of the ways the prolong life and an honest assessment of how he still had a lot of life ahead of him, and then with the gospel. Reynaldo decided that night that though his life on this earth could soon end he wanted to be sure of eternal life and he entered into a relationship with His Heavenly Father. He received the promises and the future of a son of God and felt the relief sweep over him as he confessed that he was a sinner and thanked Jesus for taking his place on the cross. It was powerful.

Reynaldo with 2 of his closest friends and leaders, JC and Nick

Fast forward several years, several health setbacks, a high school graduation, adult transition program, a lot of hospital stays, a ventilator, feeding tube, and lots of visits with some of his favorite Young Life leaders visiting him is his bed at home and in the hospital. About a month ago, Christian and I were on our way home from church and I asked if we could just stop by and see him. I’m here recovering and haven’t been able to do much visiting, but he was on my heart. Christian and I sat in his room, now without his constant companion of a video game system or TV that he’d been glued to for years… replaced by machines to breathe for him, suction him, feed him. My friends body was tiny, weak, speech was labored. I sat by his bed and we talked again. This time, he told me he was going to die soon, that he was tired and weak and wanted to be done. We talked about this being a good thing, just what he’d prepared to do was now coming and he could prepare his heart to see Jesus. We talked about old times, looked at pictures, planned a Young Life leader reunion where he could see his friends one more time. The last thing I said to him as I left was, “hey, you’re going to see Jesus soon, it doesn’t get any better than that!” The reunion never happened, he was in and out of the hospital and too weak for visitors and then last Monday, Reynaldo slipped into eternity, into the arms of Jesus. He’s home. He’s free. He’s with several of our other friends who’ve made it home. I’m broken for his precious mom whom I watched weep anguish as his coffin was lowered into the ground yesterday and yet joyful for my friend.  I’m honored to have been part of a small team called to seek out these boys and show them the way home. It was a treat to run into several of those kids at the funeral yesterday, may with non-degenerative diseases who are left to make sense of that pain and move on, and the parents of those who will soon face the end too. No real words, just a rich, deep, joyful, painful place to have been.  Thinking about heaven, our real home! Iamginging my friends wholly alive in Jesus' presence!