Job

I’d like you to meet someone.

His name is Job and he’s from Banbasa, India. He’s 23 and is currently studying political science at Ewing Christian College in Allahabad. His dream job would be to serve in the Indian Army, but he’s not quite tall enough for that. Instead, he’s hoping to be a lawyer or perhaps a judge one day. He’ll earn his BA in political science this spring.

I met Job back in 2010 at the Good Shepherd Agricultural Mission, a large orphanage in North India on the Nepal border. He was only 12 then, but we connected and have been friends ever since. That's us up above, jumping in our first picture together.

Job had a tough start in life. When he was just one month old, he was left at the orphanage gates. As he grew up, he was smaller than the other boys, but he developed an oversized personality to compensate. Hot tempered with a sharp tongue, Job can be intense. He went through a dictator phase, admiring all the strong men across the globe from Putin to Kim Jong Un to Donald Trump. I once saw four bigger boys try to throw him into a pool and he fought back with such savage fury his attackers didn’t stand a chance.

This is not a young man who will go quietly. That's him in the red shirt below.

He also has a big heart. He is always the first person to call me on my birthday and the first person to wish me Merry Christmas, often a full day early. When I walked a marathon last year, he stayed awake over in India while I finished, encouraging me until 5 AM (his time) with voice messages like, “You can do it!" and "The walk will perish!" and "You will come as a victorious giant crawling out of the Earth!”

I smiled at each one of these progressively-more-absurd proclamations, and they did make my eight-and-a-half-hour walk a little bit easier.

This year, along with a typically early “Happy New Year” message, Job had an idea. “I want to raise some money for Teach her,” he said. “I want to help you if I can.”

And so he’s doing it!

His goal is to raise $1000 US to help educate one of his orphanage sisters. This sum must seem like a million to him. It’s certainly more money than he’s ever possessed at one time. Still, he wants to try.

How can you help but love a boy like this?

If you know Job, I encourage you to help him reach his goal. If you don’t know him, think of the courage and faith required to undertake this challenge from where he is.

I can say, when he succeeds (and he will), he will be the first "non-female" to complete the Teach Her Challenge, and the first non-American as well.

Thanks, Job. You can do it.

And when you do, you will come as a victorious giant crawling out of the earth!