The Street Kids

I have a heavy heart this morning - most of us do.  We are trying to process the reality of life on the streets for these children and what we can do about it.  We've friended many of them, fed them, preached to them, prayed for them . . . but when you are so strung out from sniffing glue pretty much 24/7 not much gets through.  They range in age from 7-25, at least the ones we have been in contact with.  They walk around with a bottle or jar under their shirts but held up to their mouths.  They blow in so the fumes come out and they inhale.  This is constant.  Constant.  We have been here for 11 days, and they have on the same clothes each day.  They are dirty and smelly.  Some are hyper and some are just completely out of it.

Our friends from GdL spent the night in Granada on Friday night.  They had to set up a large stage for a big festival that was to take place last night.  They had to sleep on and under their stage to protect it from theft and vandalism.  The street kids slept there with them.  Our friends from GdL got to know the children and more about their life.  It is a sad state of existence, for all of them, but especially for a child.  To never know the gentle touch of a mother, the smell of clean sheets, the protection of a father, the taste of chicken soup or spaghetti and meatballs.  To never know the love of a family . . . what must that be like?

With the help of an interpreter I talked to Jose Enrique last night.  I told him he was made for so much more than this.  I told him that he was wonderfully created by a God who loved him and had a plan for his life.  I told him that he is a bright boy but that the glue is destroying his mind.  I told him God wanted to save him from all of this.  He told me he wanted nothing to do with God.  He walked away sniffing - always sniffing.

Please pray for these kids, especially for little Michael (age 8) and Jose Enrique (I think he is about 12) and for another little boy that looks to be 6 or 7.  I do not know his name yet.  Pray for us - that the Lord would show us what we can do.  Pray for our students here - to process this in the way He would have us process this.