Whenever people ask me the question, “What is one thing that makes you come alive?” The first reaction in my heart is “Seeing kids be kids.” I love watching kids use their imaginations and just play. I love watching teenagers let down their walls and just play. I’ve been given the role time and time again on this trip to be the one who comes up with games when the need arises. And you know what? I love it. Because I love watching kids play and just be the children God created them to be.
My last four years of college I was a Young Life leader. If you know anything about Young Life, you know we do some ridiculous stuff to make kids laugh and to break down walls. I led at a Middle School in Gainesville, FL and have some of the most incredible girls. Some of those that I am closest with were with me from their sixth grade year until now (9th for some and 10th grade for others). When I see them, we play games together, we talk about Jesus, we talk about the boys in their lives, and we share our hurts and dreams. Although I don’t get to see them that often now, I love my girls. I love these girls and most of all I love seeing them laugh.
Me and some awesome YL girls at camp this past summer.
Here are some of their stories…
I blogged in Cambodia about a safe house we visited that housed beautiful teenage girls who had been rescued out of forced prostitution. Some as young as 12 who looked no older than 9, forced to sell their bodies. They were beaten, raped, and brutalized. Now that they are rescued and safe, they laugh and play. I see in their laughter my girls from back home. They have similar dreams of becoming teachers, doctors, and missionaries. They are the same. They are just children.
In Cambodia we came across multiple incidences of abuse, rape, and incest. Children abused children who in turn abused other children. It was portrayed to us as ‘normal’ occurrences in the area we worked for elementary school-aged children to sexually molest younger children. I cringe at this because there is nothing ‘normal’ about this. All are victims and out of their hurt they are hurting others. But when we played games, they played. And when we sang songs, they sang. They joked and laughed with innocence. They are still children.
Playing Red Light Green Light with my class in Cambodia
Here in Thailand I am working with an organization called Garden of Hope. We work in the drop-in center that serves around 30 kids every afternoon in the red-light district who are at risk for prostitution, child labor, and other forms of exploitation. Most of these children have been physically and sexually abused. I know some of their stories and the rape and the abuse they have endured. Yet I still see in them laughter. They play and they laugh because they are just children.
At night, myself and others from my team have befriended a little 10 year old girl named Kam. Kam walks in and out of bars every night until 3am trying to sell roses to drunken patrons and bargirls. She doesn’t speak much English and I speak less Thai, but we have spent multiple nights walking the streets, eating rotee (a delicious street treat), playing games, and supporting her dozing head as we sit on a street curb. One night after Kam fell asleep on my shoulder, she darted up with panic in her eyes saying she needed to sell flowers or her mom would beat her. I watched from a distance as she walked up to drunken men who teased her while she tried to sell them a rose for a mere $0.30. “She shouldn’t be here in this environment!” my insides screamed. But even more frightening was the thought of the unknowns that could happen to her. I prayed against those thoughts. I prayed blessings, a safe and bright future, that her laughter would continue, and a love and knowledge of Jesus over her life. I still pray those prayers for Kam. After all, she is just a 10-year-old child who the Lord delights in.
Kam and I walking down bar street.
Erika, Sumalee, and Kanya laughing at our game night. (photos courtesy of Cameron 🙂
And I’m afraid the body of Christ is not doing enough for these children, myself included. As I sit here writing this tears are flowing because I want God to reveal to me how I can be his hands and feet to the hurting children of this world. God loves these children infinitely more than I do, but he has given us the resources to DO SOMETHING. We as the Church are supposed to be his hands and his feet. It’s time we stop talking about it and step up and do something. I’ve been asking God what this looks like in my life now in Thailand and in the future. I pray you will do the same.
I’ve been reading a book called Fields of the Fatherless by Tom Davis, and in it he writes:
“The definition of compassion is involvement. To be compassionate means to get out of the boat of our current circumstances and get into the boat of those who are suffering.”
But most importantly there’s the life and example of Jesus. He let the little children come to him, he met the physical hunger needs of the 5000, he touched the lepers and the bleeding woman, he talked to the unpopular and the outcast, he was the complete definition of compassionate involvement. And as Christians, as followers of Christ who put him at the center of our lives, aren’t we supposed to be following his example? I know that is my prayer in my own life as I pray for these little ones.
Then he said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all-he is the greatest.”
-Luke 9:48
**My team is talking with various organizations that will transition Sumalee and Kanya (along with their 2 sisters) out of the bars and into a safe home and provide them with education. We are looking for sponsors for these girls so they can live in a safe place, go to school, and still help their families, without having to sell their bodies. Please pray about sponsoring a girl. Please e-mail me if you have any questions and can help these beautiful children live the life God has planned for them.
