Leo is a college graduate. I write the sentence and then pause. Quiet, deep, joy. Thank you God for allowing Becky and me to have played a small part in the story and to have seen it unfold chapter by chapter.

Leo is a college graduate.  Yes, this is very good.

We have known Leonardo for nineteen years. He was fourteen years old, was spending more time on the streets of the favela than was good for him, and, like most of the kids on the streets of the favela, had no idea that life might take him to someplace good.

Now Leo is a college graduate, he is married to Jennifer, an amazing young woman, he has a good job, and he still lives in the favela.  The favela is a better place because Leo and Jennifer live there.  You’d never know it from the outside, but their tiny house is an outpost of hope and of peace in the still hard world of what we might call an urban slum (but we’d be wrong; a favela is something different).

At the very center of Leo’s story is his commitment to Jesus Christ and his love for Christ’s church. Fifteen years ago this month, Leo was baptized into Christ.  What a joy to be allowed to pour the waters of baptism over Leo’s head, “Em nome do Pai e do Filho e do Espirito Santo.”

Seven years ago, I officiated at Jennifer and Leo’s wedding at Igreja Presbiteriana no Jardim America.

On a late September evening in 2000 on a street outside a soup kitchen in Favela da Ventosa and for purposes of his own, God began to knit Leo’s life and mine, and then Becky’s and Jennifer’s, together.  Becky and I are among those God has used to plant in Leo’s heart a dream of something altogether different than what most fourteen year olds on the favela streets might dare to dream (Ouse Sonhar, a few of us recall).

Leo sometimes calls me pai, dad, and I sometimes call him filho, son. This is serious, for the names reflect some of the nature of our relationship, and I think we will always use those names for each other. But over the years our friendship has deepened. Leo is no longer a street kid, but an increasingly wise and discerning young man. He is an important person in my life, and he and Jennifer in Becky’s and my life.

Nineteen years ago, speaking not a word of Portuguese, I was encouraged by my Brazilian pastor friend Robson to go out into the street and meet some of the people milling around in front of the soup kitchen. I had no idea what would come of that.

This past Wednesday evening, Leo graduated from college. Yesterday Leo sent us some photos and video from the graduation ceremony along with a short message.  As Becky and I read the message, looked at the photos, and watched the videos, our eyes filled with tears, those best tears that come when you realize that God has done something really good.

Parabéns, filho. Te amamos.