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Aidi & KrishnaKrishna

Top left- Aidi & Krishna ,Top right- one of the boys Krishna looked out for, Bottom- Krishna Playing a game with us.
 
I am in Nepal trying to take in all the sites.
It was only my second month away. Crazy drivers, power lines so thick
and old piled everywhere, the occasional monkey going from rooftop to rooftop, streets slathered with street vendors, trash and mud. You could not go from one place to the next without being berated to purchase something from them including drugs. Or be approached by beggars old and young alike. What a site to see. Our first stop Thamel, Nepal. This is where most tourist come to do all their trekking and/or other adventures. Mount Everest and such. 
We were there with our whole Squad for debriefing.

After a few days we kept moving to our ministry site in Kathmandu, Nepal.
All fifty of us living in one house together.
Our mission – The Agape Ministries International. Their focus? The women and children at risk. We also would walk the streets praying for people and visiting various temples to pray for the people there and the city of Kathmandu, Nepal.

One of the projects we were able to be a part of was soccer with the street boys. Why only the boys?

So sad to say that most of the girls don’t make it on the streets. They are taken, abused or made to go into prostitution. 
Another one of the projects we did was working with these girls.
So, at least with soccer we could reach out to the boys. We would play, teach a bible story, pray and feed them.
 If necessary assist in getting them medical attention. 
Picture this…
Okay, here we are walking about a mile or two carrying the soccer goals, food buckets, soccer balls, etc… We arrived at 8:00 am every Wednesday morning. The boys would already be there so excited to see us! Doing things to show off to us and compete for our attention. Things like parkour and acrobatics or surprise attacks of jumping on our backs. They absolutely loved piggy back rides! 

Covered in mud, dirt and who knows what else their little bodies clothed with what ever they managed to find. For some their pants were too big for them. They would have to run while holding their pants up with at least one hand.
Or their zippers and seams busted or half way working. Undies were not usually an option. Half broken shoes under and/or over sized. 

Our field was an open space. Basically a sewage drain area and garbage dump. 
But it was something. A big open area we could play in. As the older boys played soccer I played an informal game with the younger boys along with other members of my squad. 

This is where I met the boy who stole my heart, Krishna. 

I’ll never forget him. 
I have a little guy on my back and we are running trying to get the ball. When out of no where smack! I get beaned with this soggy gross ball right in the face. That was Krishna’s first gift to me. 
He just stared waiting for my reaction. I will admit it took everything in me to contain my disgust. Typically my initial reaction would have been to correct his impolite behavior. 
In this instance however I immediately kicked the ball back to him and tried to get it back. He giggled and
decided to play with us. 

You see he was “too cool” to hang with us. He was testing us and trying to disrupt what we were doing. This was his territory. How dare we come tell him what to do. 
I thought at the time he may be a trouble maker. Turns out he just needed to be seen and loved. 

As I observed them I noticed how he had a following. There was a group that did what ever he said and went where ever he went. I asked one of the local leaders about this. Krishna was their gang leader.

Mind you he was all of about 12 years old.
In order to survive these boys have to belong to a gang. In this gang there is a leader who plays the father figure. 
He gives protection, direction and makes sure they have what they need. 
He will assign them to beg, steal, sell drugs etc. All the proceeds go to the community pot that he would control.
He would make sure they all had a safe place to sleep and so on. It wasn’t that they were all orphans it was that for some the streets were actually safer than their homes. 

I realized that he had to be tough. He didn’t have any other choice. He was a little boy with the responsibilities of a man. 
When I looked into his eyes I could see the little boy. I could see the potential and how much he loved his little buddies.

It was just inside of a rough, dirty and spit fiery exterior. 

The thing that broke my heart to his reality the most was this;
Most of these street boys including Krishna are addicted to glue. 
They sniff glue to forget about how hungry they are. Or to hide all the emotional dysfunction, abuse and to get from day to day. It is illegal for anyone to sell glue to children, but they still manage to get it for the right price(double the retail).

Money is money to the shoe makers who sell it. 

So, the boys knew the rules. No getting high where we were. Of course they would find a loop hole. 
They would take turns going off to the bushes to get a fix. Then come back. Krishna would organize his group of boys. I watched him give them signals. I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing. It crushed my heart. It’s one thing to know about what happens, but a whole other thing to see it happen before my very eyes. 

I tried to keep Krishna distracted he seemed to have been taking a liking to me. “Perhaps I could keep him from getting high?”. ” If at least for this one afternoon” I thought. I tried everything I could think of. He caught on to what I was doing. Then he tried to walk off. I grabbed him and asked him not to go. And this little boy held my hand looked me in the eyes and like a man said ” it’s okay. It will be fine. I’ll be back” in broken English then let go of my hand. He walked away to some area I could no longer see him. My heart sank! 
Wait, what? Did he just comfort me? I couldn’t believe what was happening. This is his horrible reality. I was so overwhelmed. And he could see it. It was normal to him. 
No child should ever ever have to live in these conditions. 

When he came back he made sure to come to me and he sat with me for a while during the meal then we played more. That was the day our bond was made. 

The following week was the same. Only he and a couple of the other boys had oozing ear infections. So, when we were done we asked for permission to have them come home with us so we could give them medicine. We were told yes, but only the ones infected. And to be very watchful because while they were boys they were also thieves and desperate drug addicts.

A terrible truth to have to realize. 

As we started to walk home all of Krishna’s gang followed. The guys in our group kept trying to tell them to go and that their friends would meet up with them later. It wasn’t working they kept following us. The guys were just trying to follow the rules. Finally it hit me; Krishna was their leader. They didn’t dare go any where with out him. What if something happened to him? They would be lost with out him. They were scared to leave with out Krishna. 
So I got permission to bring them with us. They were a handful, but so happy they could stay together. 

We kept them outside and played cards with them as they took turns getting medicine. Again I found myself looking into the eyes of this little boy wrapped in a tough abrasive exterior. Here he was sitting next to me with his head on my lap while I rubbed and scratched his back. A little boy needing the love and comfort of a mother. My heart melted for him. 
This precious moment would only last a few more minutes that I tried to stretched out as long as possible. 
This little boy had to go right back out to confront his harsh reality.
I felt so helpless. I gave him the biggest tightest hug. I didn’t want to let him go! That was the last time I was going to see him unless God willing our paths cross again. 

What could I do? So overwhelming! 
What I had to take away was that at least from this moment on he would have me praying for him. Someone whose love hopefully impacted him enough to make it. I told him that he was loved and that God could help him do what ever he put his mind to. 
I prayed with him then and I will continue to pray for Krishna for the rest of my life. 

I ask that you pray for Krishna and his little friends too. 
That they find people who will help them and guide them through life. So, one day they will be safe and successful in what ever they do. 

I am grateful to have had a chance to love Krishna. Though it was and still hurts it was worth it. Because I know on some level I’ve made an imprint of some sort on Krishna.