Have you ever tucked a child into bed?

Written 10/07/09

Have you ever tucked a child into bed? If you’re a parent or you’ve baby sat or perhaps you have a younger sister or brother, you know what I’m talking about. You pull the warm blankets tightly across your little one and tuck the edges around the bed, making sure they are nice and cozy. Perhaps you read a story or sing a song to lull them gently to sleep. You kiss their forehead and bid them goodnight as you lightly close the door behind you.
Today I watched as Marianne, one of my team mates here in MC Brazil, tucked a sweat little girl away to sleep. However, her bed was not warm and cozy one at all. No, it was the hard, cold, wet pavement of a third world country. Marianne did the best she could to lay the sleeping child’s head against the cold metal sheet wall of the store we all had gathered under in attempts to avoid the rain. Ah yes, the rain, not the mention the thunder and lightning. My God, I have never been in the rain like that before. The wind gathers the pelting drops and mercilessly slaps them against your face and body. The thunder shakes you to the core. Marianne held the child inside her sweater as we sang “Mighty to save” together for her. She was fascinated to hear the song in English and asked us to sing it over and over again. I tell you my friends, this was not your average lullaby moment. When it was time to go, the little girl had fallen asleep in Marianne’ s arms. I swallowed hard to hold back the tears as Marianne laid the sleeping girl on the ground alongside a little boy, also fast asleep. I couldn’t believe what I had just seen.

Guys, this is the world we live in! If no one will stand up and do something about things such as these, then how can we expect there to be a brighter day?

First night in the Streets of Brazil

First day on the streets
I’ve been to Brazil before so I’ve seen street kids and I’ve heard about the conditions they live in. But for the first time in my life, I got up close. Thursday night (sept 10th 2009) Our Masters Commission team set out that night to one of the hot spots where the kids like to stay. What I saw and experienced there was indescribable but I’ll do the best I can to put it into words.
Most of the kids there ranged from the ages of 7 to 17. A few older men were present and were obviously in charge of bringing and distributing or selling the paint thinner and other “soft drugs.” Most of the children I sat and talked with were extremely disoriented from smelling paint thinner. I immediately noticed that many held tight wads of cloths in their hands. These they would soak in paint thinner (usually kept in small plastic soda bottles) and continuously hold up to their noses and mouths in order to inhale the dangerous fumes. At first I couldn’t figure out why their hands felt so strange when I first shook them while introducing myself, now I clearly understood.
Our team arrived with one goal in mind; treat these children like Jesus would. Matthew 19:14 Jesus says, let the little children come to me. He clearly values and esteems them and we were there to do the same. These children are considered the outcasts and even the miscreant of society. Many people live in fear and disgust of them due to their condition and also the possibility of assault (some of these children have even committed murder), thus they are largely despised and treated with little value. However, with all this in mind, I felt honored that I was given the same opportunity to treat these kids the way Jesus had treated the outcasts of his time (for example the prostitutes and tax collectors).
I found my little friend that Pastor Sidney had introduced me to the first day I arrived in the city. Her name is Caroline. She’s around 10 or 11 years of age and the cutest little thing you ever saw. Her tan golden skin contrasts beautifully with her deep brown eyes. It broke my heart as I sat with her and watched her bring the tightly wound strip of cloth continuously to her face. She was so innocent… so unaware of what she was doing. When I asked why she was using paint thinner she looked at me so puzzled. “eu nao sei.” (I don’t know) she replied. She shivered in the cool evening air so I sat her on my lap and we began to sing. Jefferson (another one of the members of our team) invited us to play Uno. Just FYI… it’s hard to teach drugged children how to play simple card games. I tried not to laugh when Carolina stuffed all her cards into the deck and asked excitedly if she had won. A little boy younger then Carolina joined us. He was probably around 7or 8. Jefferson quickly discretely informed me he had watched this boy smoke a huge blunt earlier. Marcus (the boy) informed us he didn’t like soft drugs but preferred marijuana and cocaine… I couldn’t believe my ears, this was coming from the mouth of a child younger than 10.
These were only a few of the shocking events of that night. However I saw that we made a difference as we turned to go that night. I knew many had been impacted by the love and value we had shown them during that time. I was able to tell Carolina a little bit of my testimony and to tell her that there was hope. We told the children there was a program they could come to if they wanted to get out of the streets, many of them wanted to come. (FYI for the most part these children don’t want to leave their freedom and drugs and if they did, it would be dangerous because drug lords and deranged abusive parents would come after them.) But I knew that that night we had planted a seed of hope in these children’s’ hearts and I had faith that no many how long it took, God would water and make these seeds grow. Pastor Sidney, Gustavo, Anderson, and Paul Victory were all living testimonies of that… but that’s another story.