I find it rewarding teaching in Tijuana's prison for teens. Here at the CMI I actually have a "captive" audience.
As my group of incarcerated teens quieted down and looked on ... I took a dollar bill from my pocket, Immediately getting their attention. Money! A U.S. dollar! I took the dollar bill; held it up and talked about the value of this fragile piece of special paper.
"What could you buy with this dollar?" I asked.
Then I surprised the kids by knifing it with a small knife I had hidden in my pocket; then I threw the bill down to the floor and stomped on it;
All eyes were following me.
I picked my dollar up and spit on it; placing the dollar bill against the wall I hit it hard; then crumpled it in my fist, after crumpling it, I tore a portion of my dollar ... each occasion I abused my dollar, I stopped and asked my young bunch of criminals ... "does this dollar still have a value?"
The answer was always "yes".
I told the boys "you see, the value of this dollar was set by the dollar maker. No matter how I abuse it ... it holds it's value."
"God made you, and you are of many times more value than this little paper dollar."
The lesson was needed.
Throughout these boy's lives they had been abused. Their parent or parents have abused them. Police abuse them. In the prison the guards abused them. Their gang have abused them. I've seen the abuse of these kids with my own eyes. Indeed, there is a lot of abuse in the world of the Tijuana poor. The name of the game is abuse. You give and you take!
This short lesson was simple. No matter how you have been treated, you still have a value with God. He made you and he set your value.
You, as a person, have a great value!
Oh, and by the way; the person you yourself injure or kill, has a value with God his maker too. And you will give an account of what you did ... to the property of Almighty God.
Don't ever forget the lesson of this little old beat up dollar bill.
