John Loyd

During our July mission trip Alex was paired with John Loyd.....  Here is what he had to share about this fun-loving little fellow.

John-Loyd is an eight year old boy who lives at the Wesley Home for Youth, and he is very interesting.  Loyd is well known to be very athletic and he has quite an interest in animals.

My very first morning at the orphanage, I was walking to the shower in the boy's room when I saw a young boy walking out. I hadn't met any of the children yet, so I got quite excited and sparked up a conversation. He seemed a bit shy at first, but managed to tell me that his name is John-Loyd. I had heard stories about the hyper rapscallion, but I didn't see the wild boy that everyone described.

We immediately became close friends having imaginary gun fights and catching Bob, their pet turkey, so that he could be the final straw on a weak bamboo bench.  The first time I actually saw some of the playful John-Loyd personality was later that first day when I was taking a picture of the orphanage and as I took the picture, John-Loyd jumped right into the shot flailing his arms. I have never met a human being that so much enjoys being photographed as he does. Half of the pictures in my camera are of John-Loyd.

When we took the kids to Boljoon, I quickly noticed that he was a very talented swimmer and he has a skill for catching sea creatures. He caught some things that I had never heard of or seen.  Dustin Gent told me that it was just so interesting to walk down the beach with John Loyd because of all the things you can learn from him.

When we were out in the ocean, I constantly heard, "Y-Alex!" and I knew that meant that Loyd wanted to climb my shoulders again. He climbed onto my shoulders repeatedly so he could jump off into the water, and when he wasn't jumping off of me, he was diving off of the steps that lead into the water. We all loved his word when he came out of the water after a successful dive, "YES!"

He is a little behind on his learning, so we did some renovating on the study room while we were there. This included a new white-board for teaching Loyd, and multiple books for the college students. Summer worked her fingers to the bone making him some flash cards out of index cards and everyone stayed busy with their odd-jobs around the house.

I am going to miss John-Loyd and I look forward to being able to hug on him and the rest of the kids again very soon. 

~Alex