May 18, 2009

Looking Beyond What We Can See

Walk with me through the streets of Bucharest and allow me to show you what I see.  I can promise that you and I will see very different things. You see the contrast of crumbling old buildings next to newly built structures covered in huge LCD screens advertising shopping centres, travel and upcoming concerts. I see that the old lady standing by the door is trying to stay warm as she stretches out her hand to those passing by. You ask me about the number of street dogs that you see in the streets streets; who feeds them and do they ever bite? I show you the manhole cover that could bring you into the secret world of street children that live where you cannot see.

We then walk through the neighbourhood where we work with gypsy children. You see a woman standing in her doorway. You ask me if she is a mother. Yes, she is a young mother with two children. But you will always see her in this doorway, because she is also a prostitute. Her children are always with her, there beside her. Do you see them too? They look up and smile at us as we pass by, the 4 year old calls my name and the mother says hello. Yes, I know them, and now I am asking you to know them too.

We continue our walk around the corner. You notice the smell and the garbage, the abandoned car parked on the sidewalk. I notice the group of men surrounded by children playing with a broken chair, lost in their own make-belief world. The men look in our direction and move away. Addicts from all over the city come here to this place to buy from these men, from these fathers. As the men move away, the children look up. They run to us. Yes, they are dirty – their skin, their clothes, their hair… but look into their eyes. They are shinning and bright.

In Romania these children are judged because of their parents, because of where they live. They are seen as the children of thieves and liars, of prostitutes and dealers. When I look at them I see children of our Heavenly Father. I see children who need acceptance and love, who need someone who will believe in them and offer them a chance at a future