We have known a homeless man named Guillermo for a long time. He is 70 years old and blind. He plays the guitar and sings to make money. A while back we were down town performing on the streets of Bogotá for the Christmas festivals. We were setting up our sound equipment and a large crowd was gathering when my dad looked over and saw Guillermo sitting off to the side slowly strumming his guitar. We instantly paused what we were doing and brought Guillermo into our crowd so he could sing and make money from our crowd. What is most important in the eyes of the Father? So this began a long and beautiful relationship with the man we call, “The Gentlemen of Bogotá”.
When we performed Guillermo always sang one or two songs in our crowd. In his mind he is not homeless but a great singer like Andrea Brochelli. We incorporate the parable of the Good Samaritan into one of our dances and exhort the crowd to help the poor and care about others. Over the years we helped fix up Guillermo’s terrible little room, take him to the clinic and spend much time with him.
One day we celebrated his birthday by making a huge cake and sharing it with him and with our crowd (he loves anything sweet and ate a whole box of chocolates in about 4 minutes).
Just the other day we received an email from a lady who helps take care of Guillermo and told us that Guillermo had a piece of paper which he asked her to read to him. It was a letter my mom had written to Guillermo on his birthday so he could ask someone to read it now and then and have our words with him.
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