“The kids this week come from the rough part of Tirana. It’s basically like America’s Bronx,” George, our ministry contact, told us Monday morning.
The children we were working with this past week are some of the poorest and roughest kids to come to this camp. They are growing up on the streets and doing what it takes to survive and returning home to parents who don’t have the time or ability to love the children as much as they crave. The way the children interacted with one another made the toughness of their home life very obvious. But overall, they were just children who were thirsting for affirmation and love—and the transformation we witnessed when they received love was phenomenal.
On Friday evening, Kim, Brady and I were on security outside the male Racers’ room during the last part of the end of the week celebration. We were just talking about life, sharing stories back and forth, when Greg came over and told Brady that a few of our boys wanted to say goodbye before they went to bed because they did not know if they’d see him in the morning.
About two minutes later, Brady came back with Shaqir, telling Kim and me that he wanted to hug us before he went to bed. We each hugged him and as they walked away, I began to cry. All I could think about was how much this week had meant to me and how each of our children worked their way into my heart. I thought about how much I had watched Shaqir change over the last week, and how much more I could pour into him if only I had more time. But instead, he was returning to the life he knew.
A few more minutes passed, and Brady came back with Shaqir, but this time another boy, Landi, came too. Landi and I really hit it off, and, although he spoke no English, we would walk from activity to activity singing, “Landi and Lindsey. Lindsey and Landi.” He would put on my sunglasses, jacket, and backpack and point to himself saying, “Lindsey” and point me to and say, “Landi.” I didn’t want to cry in front of the children, so I wiped my tears away before they saw me. As I go to hug Landi, Brady said that when he walked away the first time, the Shaqir was wiping tears from his face. When Brady said that, I looked at Landi and saw his cheeks were stained with tears.
My heart broke and my plan of not crying in front of the children was foiled. As I hugged Landi tightly, he began to shake. “Linnnddssseeyyy,” he cried out sadly, not wanting to let go. “Laannddii,” I said between sobs. I look back and Kim is crying too. We followed Brady, Landi, and Shaqim back to the party to hug the rest of the children.
Out of the 15 children, who have been written off by society for being emotionless trouble makers, every single one of them was crying as they hugged our team goodbye. Even the oldest boy who constantly acted like he was too cool for anything we did was in tears and he hugged us goodbye.
It’s amazing what can happen in five days. Something as simple as loving a child and showing them we were proud of them in everything they did made such an impact in their lives. Keep in mind even the shortest amount of time can leave a lasting impression. Make sure you are taking every opportunity to love one another.
