April 5,
2013 (Friday) The night was full of rolling thunder and heavy rains but the
early morning opened with the song birds singing a new song. The mountain range before us is clear and the
rising sun soon removes the pellets of rain left on the green grass.
It was early and I made a quick trip to town to buy the
necessary items to make sandwiches for the street people today. On my way out
of the store I noticed that many street children had gathered off to the
side. Knowing that my schedule was tight I tried to continue on without being
noticed. I motioned to the first motorbike I saw and two or three of the
younger ones spotted me. I thought that
I could bless each of them with a slice of bread without the other twenty five
or so seeing what was going on. I was
wrong and was soon surrounded by street people of all ages and some of the
older mamas were getting very demanding.
I put bread in the hands of as many little ones as possible while
telling my driver to “go.” When the
crowd starts to take over you know it’s time to leave.
As I waited at the corner for Pastor David a couple of the
street boys came running up to me. Their
eyes immediately peered into the big bag of sandwiches and I knew they were
hungry. I stalled hoping that the pastor
would come soon. I knew that if I pulled
one sandwich out of the bag others would see from a far and come running. The sandwiches needed to be saved for the
meeting we had planned. We walked to the cart with banana's for sale
so that they would have something to eat. Within seconds other street boys started running our way. There are so many little hungry
faces.
Pastor David led us to the dust bin/garbage dump. There are
many dumps around the area but this one is considered the headquarters for the
street people. Pastor David has worked with them for a few years and is known
by them for his kind heart. It didn't
take long for them to gather around us.
The first thing that hit me was the rank smells coming from the piles of
garbage they eat from. There were women
sleeping on the ground with their little tiny babies and the flies were swarming
around them. I was being careful where I
stepped when I noticed all the bare feet and the broken glass they are walking
in. Their feet were swollen, cracked, cut and
bleeding. A little toddler's hand was cut and no one seems to care.
We walked into some conflict. We heard loud voices and
crying. A teenage boy was ready for
revenge and had a big rock in his hand.
The voices increased in volume as Pastor David pulled the boy out of the crowd and
tried to calm him.
I stood in the middle of the garbage dump and started to
speak. I was completely surrounded by the street people of all ages. Some wore
the scars of a trouble life on the outside but all of them had the scars of a
troubled life on the inside. Some carried
the smell of alcohol while others held a glue bottle in their hand. Their eyes remained
focused on me. They were very attentive and seemed to be grasping what I was
saying. In the midst of the garbage and flies thirteen
raised their hand and asked Jesus into their heart.
We had made about 100 sandwiches to give out today. We had the children go to one area and line
up and the adults to the other side. That way we would make sure that the very
young didn’t go without. The adult line
was orderly for a while but then it turned into pushing and shoving so we held
back the sandwiches until order was restored.
It took longer to make the sandwiches than it did to pass
them out! They disappeared really fast
and I think we could have given out more.
Most here are uneducated and lack the necessary social skills to mingle
with the public. So I was surprised and blessed to have three of the older guys
come to me before I left and say “thank you.”
I've been told that I don't need to worry about
walking around on the streets here. They won’t let anyone hurt me. They will defend me as I have
spent time with them on their turf and have shown them love. A home not too far from the lodge was robbed today by several guys. One of the guys was caught and an angry mob of about 100 people gathered and beat him over and over again. Many times mob justice takes over and after the beating the robber they will set him on fire.
Proverbs 14:31 Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.
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