In my previous post I asked for prayer for one of the “boys” (he’s actually turning 39 this year). He’s currently doing better, but we still have to regularly monitor his temperature because he still has a hard time keeping it up to where it should be.
Since before my time here at the Mission he has been called The Professor. He has the ability to teach the toughest of men humility. There have been multitudes of men who’s lives have been permanently transformed. There was even one young man who loves him so much that he had his face tattooed on his leg. Girls even find him irrestible, calling him their “One and only”. The Professor doesn’t speak, but everyone knows his opinion on many things. In a split second he can go from raging mad to an intense belly laugh.
Very little is known of his history before coming to the Mission in the early 90’s. What is known is that he had been left at a Red Cross facility. They didn’t have sufficient room, so they had set up a bed for him in the janitors closet.
He has cerebral palsy leaving only his right side functional and severe mental retardation. It used to be when he was mad or overly stimulated that he would punch himself or bite his hand (but never lashed out at anyone else). Now that he has gotten older he has mellowed in the last few years considerably.
What he is most famous for is his love of Twinkies. Even though he can’t speak he does understand certain words that we say… and Twinkie is his favorite. At one time he was actually of some financial worth. When the Hostess company ceased making Twinkies those that remained were being sold for $300 a piece. He had a sizeable supply because every year at Christmas people send him a mountain of boxes of them that last him most of the year.
The other thing that he loves are “J.” jokes. To him words don’t have much meaning, but if you get right in his ear and just make random sounds like “raspberries”, “zurbers”, fffff, or sssshhhhh, he loves it. His absolute favorites are the kissing sound and wolf whistle.
Currently there aren’t very many men on staff, so please pray that our Father would put it on people’s hearts to come and assist in their care. Pray for his health and that he would still have many more comfortable years to change people’s lives for eternity.