Why File #1

Leila is the reason I came back to inner city ministry, hands down.  Okay, it was more complex than that, but it really was Leila that my mind couldn't let go of, and it was her story that has kept me here all these years.

I did my one year ministry that so many of us do, when the allure is great, the future is far away, and the adventure is calling.  It was great!  It also left me broke, with a boyfriend calling me back to "reality" and my "real career" waiting.  So I said adios, moved back home and tried to settle back into "real life."  Only I couldn't get Leila out of my head.

I first noticed Leila in the midst of forty other rowdy kids during "talk time" - our Bible devotional that we *try* to get all the kids to sit through half-way through drop-in.  At this season of ministry, it was... chaotic.  Someone would don our "backstreet boys headset" (yes, I'm dating myself, I know!), turn up the volume as loud as it went and HOPE that someone might catch a few words above the din.  In an effort to encourage listening, we'd have "secret police" who would be on the lookout for kids who were listening, and buy them a pop (soda for you Americans!) after talk time for their approved behaviour.  It really was a zoo.

Leila stood out because she was the ONLY kid (as I remember it) to stay seated the entire 10 minute talk time.  The ONLY kid to keep her mouth - mostly - shut.  But what really stood out is that her eyes literally shone with wonder as the story was told.

So after talk time, I sidled up to her and bought her a pop, commending her on her excellent listening.

"Oh, I love stories," she told me enthusiastically. "I can't read, so I love listening to people tell stories."

She was probably eight or nine - old enough to read, so I pressed into this a bit.

"Do you go to school?" I asked, knowing this was not a given.

Leila proudly told me she was in grade four, but she went to "WW" school.  I was new to the area, so this school didn't ring any bells for me.  Was it a special school of some sort?

I pressed the issue more, but all I could get out of Leila was that it seemed completely normal for her to not be able to read because of the school she went to, her teacher was not helping her, and she didn't have anyone helping her learn to read at all.  

So I went out on a limb and invited Leila to come to our centre after school the next day and we would read together.

For the next few months, once or twice a week, Leila would show up, we'd head over to the library, and practice reading together.  Leila was smart.  Turns out WW is the local public school, and it is normal for kids to graduate from grade 8 with little literacy skills - not because WW is a bad school, but because they are so overwhelmed with dealing with the very fundamentals of kids' lives - like feeding them, letting them sleep, and teaching them basic hygeine - that kids were falling through every crack possible, and they just couldn't keep up.

Three months later, and Leila's reading level had gone from pre-kindergarten to grade 2 and she was loving our story times!  

Over the next few months, I lost touch with Leila, moved away and tried to start my "real" life.  BUt I couldn't get Leila out of my head.  I never noticed it, but looking back on the assignments I wrote for that year of university, the topics were "Residential Schools in Canada," "Inner City Issues," "Why Canada is Still A Third World Country" and "Illiteracy in Canada."  Hmmm... something on the mind?

It just seemed too easy: really?  One hour a week and I could give a kid a future?  That's all it took?

I wasn't naive, and I'm still not: I've run into Leila since, and she's no poster child for success.  But she can read.  Because of me.

There's not many things in this life I can say that definitively of; most of what we do in inner city ministry is nebulous and based on an unseen hope.  Leila's story is one I go back to time and time again.  It's better to do SOMETHING than NOTHING and even I can - and have - made a difference.

So, at the end of my year of university I had to confess I needed to go back: God was calling me, the inner city was calling me, Leila was calling me.  And I've been here ever since.