|
A Refuge from the Darkness
We live in a city of over 5 million people, most of whom are trying desperately to recover from three generations of Communism. The newest generation is the one we are reaching out to. There are thousands of inner-city children and teenagers who, for one reason or another, are caught in the terrible lifestyle of living on the streets during the day and sleeping in filthy rundown attics or basements of buildings at night. Some of the children, like Sergi, age 13, are on the streets because he ran away from home due to the physical and sexual abuse from one of his parents. Others, like Alek, who grew up in an orphanage because both of his parents were severe alcoholics, escaped from it and went to the streets because of the horrible treatment of the children by those running the orphanage and the teachers. Whatever their case is, these children are now living on the streets and it is a very difficult and dark place to end up. They quickly get caught up into a lifestyle of pain, both physical and emotional. Many times they get beat up by older street kids, like Shasha who came in to our center the other day with a smashed eye and cuts all around his face. The emotional pain of not having loving parents and no family affection is shortly numbed by the empty pleasures of drug and sex abuse. Their life on the streets is really rough and it showed up in how they treated us the first few times they saw us at the center. For example, when we were giving out the chicken soup to them it was not uncommon for them to yell at us “let’s go, hurry up,” or “SOUP!” At first it’s a little shocking because here we are giving these children all this good food and providing them with a center to eat and relax and they’re yelling at us. Well, anybody who is living in the conditions these children do is naturally going to be rough with strangers because it is strangers who abuse and mistreat them. After some time, they warmed up to us and were more friendly. A few of our members have been here working with the children continuously since we began this mission back in the summer of 2002. The children, as rough as they are, are very respectful and even helpful to them. It shows that over time they gain confidence and trust in you and that’s when you can get to know them and start to help them. One of the governmental social workers that comes often to our center recently said that the children in our center behave well and are much easier to talk to, compared to other centers and orphanages where they tend to be rowdy and distant. Our center is truly a refuge for these children. It’s a place where they know they can go and not have to worry about looking over their shoulder for a couple of hours. A place where they can sit down and relax, play ping-pong, or simply be the children they should be for a little while. Some of these children are going regularly out to our farm where we have the Boys’ Town Project and hopefully will agree to stay with us full-time. Please pray for our continued success. We can assist many more of these innocent victims with your help. Thank you for all of your support and prayers. May God bless you. |
