Meet Azarious

I sat here for ten minutes thinking of a good opening sentence. But I don't know how to start other than to just say it. I am teaching a 17 year old boy who had never gone to school how to read. He's a white kid, born in America, living maybe 25 miles from you, and he's real.

You hear stories about people who get to 10th grade and can still barely read. You hear those stories of immigrants who have never gone to school, and now they live down the street from you. But to hear of a boy who was born in America, near my hometown, and who has never gone to school and can't read? Insane.

When I first heard about him over the phone, my jaw dropped and tears swelled up in my eyes. Because how could this happen? How could no one do anything? I knew the moment I hung up the phone that it had to be me. I knew the answer to "If not me, then who?" The answer was no one. It had been no one for seventeen years. I had never even seen the kid, but I decided in my heart that I would see this through.

It is not over. It has just barely begun. I pray that I am able to see the progress and transformation, and that I can stay committed, despite what else might come up in my life.

I received the call on a Monday, and I met the boy on Thursday of that week. At first I was first going to call him Huck Finn on my blog, to respect his privacy. The Huck Finn name is a reflection upon his lack of schooling and alone-ness in the world. I couldn't write about him like that though, because Huck Finn is not who he is going to be. Instead of referring to what he has been, I want to give a nod to what he will be. So for blogging purposes, I have renamed this teen boy Azarious. It means God Helps. At least that is what the internet told me.

I re-named him God Helps because I know that God will indeed help him learn, and has already helped him survive thus far. It is also a double meaning, because God is helping me through Azarious. Last spring I thought God meant for me to teach for free. When my plan didn't work out, God sent another way. One that I would never have dreamed up.

Let me tell you about Azarious. He is 17 years old, and skinny like an ironing board. After our first tutoring session, he spilled his story out to me. He was born in a motel room, and his mom left him after the paramedics came. He spent a year in DHS care, and then was adopted out to a family member. His dad is in prison. Azarious has never met his birth mother, though he talked to her on the phone one time a year ago. It didn't go well, mostly because he asked his mom "How could you just leave me?" And she didn't think he had any place to ask that question. He has met his dad several times, but the in and out jail sequences make it impossible to form a stable relationship.

Azarious' legal parent intended to home school him, but gave up quickly after the boy struggled to learn. This is probably because she herself had only completed a 7th grade education, and would yell at him every time he said a word wrong. The parent did not want him enrolled in public school, and so he was not. I am sure there is more to the story explaining why. I don't know why yet. There is much to his story that is missing in my knowledge. I will wait for the details to unravel, ever listening with a ready ear.

Azarious has done hard drugs and abused alcohol, all in effort to forget the life he was in. I don't blame him. I don't know how he is not a complete wreck right now, considering everything. God helps.

His life is changing now. He is no longer hidden or forgotten. He has someone that will fight for him, who sees his potential. Azarious is starting his second week of high school tomorrow, and I am meeting with him four days a week to teach him how to read. We read the Cat in the Hat last Friday.

I have already been changed so much by this experience, and I am seeing God's goodness through it all. You may think that's illogical, considering Azarious' upbringing, which was nothing good, but I can see the Lord's goodness. 

God helps.