The Things I've Learned From Paulio

There's a man in town who comes to our door every day.  He appears to live on the street and generally begs for whatever he gets.  His name is Paulio (pow-LEE-o).  At first Paulio was a little frightening to me and that turned into amusing which turned into somewhat annoying which led to my current sentiment... creation of God and one who deserves love as much as anyone else.
The initial frightening part of Paulio was his continual rattling of words whether anyone was listening or not.  He was different; and sometimes different is just plain scary... especially if you don't know the language.
Our family finds regular amusement from having Paulio visit us.  There are so many stories to tell, but there is one that is our family favorite.  One day we were leaving a nearby town to come back to our home and there was Paulio on the road walking on the road to Dzan (about a 3 mile walk), so we decided to see if he wanted a ride.  There is a small sacrifice to having Paulio in the same enclosed vehicle with you which is mostly represented in a certain smell.  As we drove to Dzan, I practiced my Spanish with him.  Derecho = Straight.  Derecha = Right. Izquerda = Left.  He was very patient with me.  As we were dropping him off where he had requested, he saw a 7-Up bottle on the floor and asked if we wanted him to "throw it" for us.  We responded that we would appreciate that and thanked him.  He grabbed the bottle and turned from the van and threw it into someone's yard.  We had  a moment of shock before we all busted out laughing.  We discovered that Paulio is a literalist!
Over the last month we've come to know Paulio as a creation of God.  Paulio's story goes something like this: Good father and husband and hard working man in the community.  Construction accident where Paulio falls off a ladder and onto an electric power line.  He hits his head and has an electrical shock.  Loses his mental capacities and becomes very vulnerable.  His wife leaves him and he has nowhere to go.  At this point he probably has a number of mental health diagnosis. 
Christ died for Paulio.  His story could just as easily be mine.
So what have I learned from Paulio?  Persistence is important if you want to meet your goals!  If you say the same thing long enough, people will join you, even if they have no clue what it means!  Work hard!  Clean up after yourself! (He keeps a box of his belongings by our front door and always has it neatly packed.)  Ask for what you want, you might just get it!
We talked to Paulio a few weeks ago and asked about his birthday.  He said it was coming up soon.  (We asked him several times on different days to verify the same date each time!)  Our family, along with the Fletcher's, bought him a cake and sang Happy Birthday to him.  I don't think he really knew what to do.  We are blessed to have him in our life as a reminder of God's grace to us.  But for the grace of God in our lives...