I had to get this story from a British
publication website, The Daily Mail. My daughter, Laura, told me about this
heart-warming account of two teenaged boys doing the right thing.
On Thursday, July 18, five-year-old Jocelyn
Rojas was playing in the front yard of her grandmother’s home in Lancaster
Township, Pennsylvania. A man between the ages of 50-70 apparently snatched the
girl from the yard and tossed her into a van he was driving. The child went
missing for about two hours.
Temar Boggs, 15 years old, and his pal were
riding their bikes when they saw the little girl in the van. Neither of the
boys knew Jocelyn or her family. Their desire was to help the police and do the
right thing. Thinking fast, the two boys gave chase, keeping an eye on the van
as it was weaving in and out of traffic. After 15 minutes of tailing the van,
the driver decided he didn’t like being followed by these boys, so he stopped
the van long enough to push the little girl out before speeding off. Jocelyn
immediately ran into Temar’s arms, telling him, “I need to see my mommy.” Temar
had the good sense to take Jocelyn to the police station where she was quickly
reunited with her family.
You may have already guessed that Temar is
black, and that Chris is Hispanic. What were these boys doing when they heard
the police report about a little girl having been abducted? They were helping
an elderly lady move a couch! Wasn’t it potentially dangerous for them to
follow this van? Might the driver have had a gun, or used the van to run into
the boys? Yes on all counts.
Later on, Temar was being interviewed by the
local news. This is what he said about the incident. "They [referring to Jocelyn’s family] were
just saying that I was a hero, that I was a guardian angel, and that it was
amazing that I was there and was able to find the girl," said Temar.
"I'm just a normal person who did a
thing that anybody else would do."
Well, Temar, whether or not anybody else
would have done what you and Chris did, we’ll never know. The point is: you did
the right thing at the right time. This little girl’s life was in serious
danger. She was most likely facing a certain death after whatever abusive
horrors might have been forced upon her; or she may have become a captive in
this man’s home; or she may have been sold to the world-wide sex-slave
industry.
The boys, Temar and Chris,
saw the police and volunteers combing the neighborhood, knocking on doors,
trying to locate little Jocelyn. Temar decided he had to do something. "We got all of our friends to go look
for her. We made our own little search party," Boggs told reporters.
Today, less than a week
after this abduction was foiled by these high school boys, Jocelyn is safely
back with her family because two young men placed the value of one 5-year-old
little girl above themselves.
The Bible says to consider
others more important than yourself. That’s what Temar and Chris did. They even
demonstrated the scriptural teaching of Jesus when he said, "Greater
love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his
friends." That's what Temar and Chris were willing to do. On top
of that, Temar said it was a blessing to be involved in rescuing Jocelyn. “I wasn’t scared, I was just [thinking],
‘Save the little girl; make sure she was okay.’”
Because
of their decisive action which lead to the rescue of little Jocelyn, a fund has
been set up where contributions may be made to assist these young men in
obtaining a college degree. If you would like to help, please go to https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/reward-the-heroes-scholarship-fund-temar-boggs-and-chris-garcia/contributions/new.
Wouldn’t
you like to see this story and others like it on the front page above the fold
of your local newspaper? So would I.
No comments:
Post a Comment