8 year old boys roaming the streets at night, trying to earn a couple of pesos by watching the motor bikes that pull up to the curb.
1 peso is roughly equivalent to 2-3 CENTS in USD.
A 5 year old girl, wearing nothing but a raggedy t-shirt, sitting on the ground crying to get attention from anyone who will be willing to throw a couple pesos in her cup.
Her mother taught her to cry on command, while she digs for items in the trash to sell the next day.
A barefoot 9 year old boy sitting on the back of an empty truck bed, squeezing a plastic bag full of RUGBY over his mouth to get high.
Rugby is a cheap glue-based mixture, used as an inhalant drug, to temporarily relieve hunger pains. It is commonly found among street kids in the Philippines and is highly addictive.
A young girl and her brother found sleeping on the ground in the middle of the town square, with no shoes and torn clothes.
They ran away from home, most likely due to abusive situations or addictions. They made the choice to live on the streets… alone.
Photo Credit- Julia Taylor
Photo Credit- Rayna Cohen
Children are taking care of children. They are often protecting each other from drunken locals and prostitutes, who may sexually abuse or harass them at night.
These are just SOME of the situations that I witnessed during our first week of partnering with Streetlight Ministry, a division of Kids International Ministries, located in Cagayan de Oro.
I’ve honestly never seen anything like it. I don’t even think I ever imagined anything like it. When I would hear the word poor, or think of people living on the streets, I would typically envision older people. And whether it’s the truth or not- I would picture alcoholics or drug addicts.
But these are children.
And yes- some of them may be addicted to rugby, because they were hungry and decided to sniff what their friends gave them at one point in time to relive hunger pains…. But at the end of the day- they are children. Robbed of their innocence at such a young age.
Working with these kids on a daily basis hasn’t been easy. And even though this is our last month on the race, it has definitely been the most emotionally difficult month that I’ve faced yet.
My heart breaks to see these innocent children living on the streets.
It breaks even more when we have to say goodbye after the nightly feeding program, only to leave them on the streets… ALONE.
And it breaks my heart even more to see such young boys sniffing rugby out of plastic bags to get high.
However, even though it may be hard- and even though I may not like processing what I see half of the time, I wouldn’t trade this month for anything in the world. I’m SO GRATEFUL to even have this opportunity to truly be the hands and feet of Jesus to these innocent little children.
There may be times that I’m uncomfortable, or think that it’s too hard emotionally, but those are the times when the Lord is most glorified!! For it is Him who gives me the strength to persevere in sharing His love with these children.
Nightly Feeding Program in Divisoria
Being that the ministry is still new- my team has also had the opportunity to help implement an afternoon school program for some of the kids. The ministry dream is to try and transition kids back into the normal school systems; to help them get off the streets. There is a core group of about 10 kids that have shown up everyday around 1 PM. As long as they don’t have any rugby on them- we let them eat lunch and take a shower. Then, they all gather around the table to learn the day’s lesson.
I love to sit and observe the children during this time. I love watching them laugh, color pictures, and try so hard to copy down all the English words from the board. And it’s during these times that I see past what I see on the streets. Rather than seeing a young boy fighting to get high on the streets, I see a young boy who stands in front of the class, sharing his dream of wanting to become a police when he grows up. Instead of seeing a young girl sitting on the street crying and begging for pesos, I see a a little girl coloring pictures and showing off her artwork to my teammates. I see that they are children- just like you and I once were at one point in time. I see potential.
I SEE HOPE.
Despite all the rough edges and heartbreak- they truly are DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH!
Photo Credit- Shannon McGowan
Photo Credit- Rayna Cohen
