Three days a week we walk from the house we are staying in and go into a poor neighbourhood that is referred to as the slums. As we walk down the street the children come running and give us hugs and want to be picked up. They get acceptance and love from us and we spend the time pouring it on them. It is easy to recognize that these children do not have the easiest life ahead of them. We are told that many of them have parents that work in the sex trade industry and some of these children go to the bars each night to sell trinkets to tourists.
Almost every visit to the slums ends in tears when one of the Mother’s comes and takes her children home. There is crying and we see her hit her children when they resist. It is hard not to judge and say she is a bad mother. I can see that she is sad and worn out and has had a hard life. I know that this may be all she knows herself as cycles of abuse repeat. She may have so many struggles each day just to put food on the table for her children that after all the work is done she has no energy left for them. I do not know anything about this woman but I do know that she is a child of God. She also needs to be told about how the Father loves her. God’s love is perfect and unconditional. There is no judgement in perfect love. We love because God first loved us. His love lives in us and is the only reason we have for being here.
I pray that today each one of you know how loved you are by God…and me!
Our sweet translator Ohn and one of the girls we play with
Sarah and Katie with a couple of the girls
