A Day in My Life

how can i explain what life looks like here? this post will share a bit of the reality of life here. if you're not interested in reality, please stop reading...you can scroll down to the photos in the next post. i wrote this last week.

"yesterday i drove the kids and staff to church and 10 little street kids showed up there, aged 6 to 15. teresa and i ran into them at the mall early last week and invited them. i really doubted if they would remember our invitation.

but right after we went in, they showed up at the door. hovering outside. waiting for someone to see them and usher them in. i sat with them in the back. they were so dirty. and skinny. and full of skin disease. they really smelled like street kids. but they were there. one of them fell asleep in his plastic chair immediately. the others looked nervously around, wondering if it was ok that they were there. half of them left after worship. it's too hard to be inside for so long.

the little guy sitting next to me was tiny, and i found out later that he was 13. he was reading my Bible while i held it and then when i passed it to him to hold, he looked up, shocked. after 20 minutes he passed it back and said thank you. he fell asleep at the end. the little guy smelled so bad...made me wonder if he had a digestion issue...it really was like a poop smell, different from the other kids. i asked him if he was coming back next week. he said he would. i'll be looking for him. one of our kids asked him why he was so skinny...and if it was because he sniffed glue. the boy said no. it's cause there's no food.

i wanted to bring him home. he was so small. he wouldn't take up that much room.

tonton, who has all ready ran away twice from the shelter house was there. skinny. full of scabies. probably has worms again. he's so hard headed. and not ready to really break away from street life and make a change. i just hope that he decides to change before he dies.

another boy, wilbert, was there. our social worker sat with him, asking him about his life. asking if he's ready to change. he said yes. we're wanting to bring him into the shelter. but it's not the right time yet. we hope soon.

when i drove the kids back to the shelter, the police were driving into our barangay. we watched them drive over to the river. they were retrieving a body. a 18 to 20 year old male. with his hands tied behind his back. he was found floating down the river. street kid. he was a "salvage". that means the authorities caught him, tied him up and killed him. then floated him down the river as a warning to all the other kids. don't mess with us. we will kill you. that's the best way to deal with street kids. round them up and kill them. solves the problem. cleans the streets.

then last nite, in a huge contrast to what happened all day, we had nina and banban, her baby, over for girls nite. the boys and the male staff all stayed at the shelter to play boy games. the girls all stayed at the staff house for pedicures and movies. nina laughed so much, and so freely. banban slept peacefully on the foam. the boys had a glorious time being boys.

3 months ago they were street kids. smelly. wormy. hungry. desperate. today they are finally detoxed to the point that they can begin to heal.

right now there are 4 kids, plus a baby. that's not so many. but it is a beginning. they are the first batch. there are so many more to come. God is faithful.

my heart is starting to bleed."

and now today...

one of the street girls we know is a prostitute. she's 13 years old. she was in the shelter in the beginning, but chose to run back to the streets. her older sister nina is still with us. the girl dropped by the shelter today for 10 minutes to talk with her sister for a while.

her face was painted, and covered in white powder. she and the girl she was with had a job they were on the way to. at the barracks.

please pray for the children in the streets tonite. please pray for their families. please pray for God to move in to rescue and to save.