Jul. 1, 2007

July prayer letter

Dear friends and family,

R. is the youngest child who comes to the center. He is only seven years old. He lives right next to Casa Vale, the community center where we spent many of our days, and so we see him often, even outside of the time in which he comes to the center. He is such a cute boy, almost always smiling and walking quickly wherever he goes. For recess time, he always wants to play badminton with me and gets frustrated when I don't hit the ball right to him. Of course, he can be demanding, and a lot of times, tests the limits with the staff. But he is a child, seeking love, acceptance, tenderness. Recently, R. taught a great truth to Robin and I, something we will not forget for awhile.

One day as Robin and I were playing with the kids at recess time, trying to keep everyone in line, yet having fun just being with the children, one of the children called us over to the main gate where you enter the center. Outside of the door were two tiny kittens, still wet from birth, eyes still closed, whimpering. No one knows how they got there. We suspect someone just dropped them off.

R. was one of the first children to see the kittens. We saw right away that he felt sorry for them and wanted to help them. He reached down to touch them, but not wanting him to get dirty we told him to leave them alone. We didn't have time or the desire to care for them; they were just two more pitiful kittens to join the hundreds of street dogs and cats that roam the city, inconveniently placed on our doorstep. R. didn't listen to us the first time, so telling him again, we called him back into the center and continued playing with the children.

I soon left to go to the local grocer store to pick up something to drink. When I was walking back I saw R. coming towards me holding the two kittens out in front of him, almost looking like he was getting ready to cry. I asked him what he thought he was doing and where he was going with them. He told me he was getting them off the hot sidewalk and putting them in a nearby patch of grass in the shade. I went with him and saw him gently lay them down in the grass, the kittens still crying. I told R. to go home and wash his hands really well.

On the way home, Robin expressed her sadness that R., at a young age with such a tender heart, had to watch the kittens die, neglected. The next day I asked him if he knew what happened with the kittens. R., with a smile, looked at me and told me he took them home and started to feed them milk. Then I asked him if they were drinking it. He said of course. Recently I asked him again how the kittens were doing, and he held up his hands in front of him and showed me how big they have gotten. I sat there, feeling ashamed by our hardness, by our lack of gentleness, compassion; yet we were humbled and joyful by what R. showed us.

Of course they were just cats. Kittens are born every second and die as easily as they are brought into the world. But it was our lack of feeling that shocked us, our lack of wanting the kittens to live, our lack of respect for life and death that we put out on display for the children to see, especially R.

Like all of the children we work with, R. comes from a poor family. But as anyone might know who has lived among the poor, the poor are welcoming, hospitable and often making room for another person. There is always enough food in the homes of the poor to share with others. In this case, there was enough room in R.'s home for two kittens, enough milk to share, enough time to give, enough courage to open himself up for hurt. This expression of his young, tender heart reminded us to be more like R. in his gentleness, kindness and respect for life, in his willingness to be hurt by his willingness to love the kittens.

Robin and I have only been here for four months, but we are already seeing our hearts and minds becoming numb to the places of suffering and death, to the complacency, to the sexual, verbal, and psychological abuse. It is difficult to hear about so much hurt and trauma in the lives of our kids and process it all in a healthy way. Though our community is learning to process what we are seeing and hearing, we still find a lack of words and thoughts to describe everything. R. in a small, gentle way revealed to us what we thought might be happening. It was almost like a tender whisper of our Father beginning to unharden our hearts again, to teach us to see where there is life and to celebrate it, and to see where there is death and grieve and mourn for it to come to life again.

R. does not know what he has showed us nor do I believe he would understand everything if we told him, but what we do know is that through these children, God is teaching us about ourselves, about each other, about Himself. We are learning that God is bringing healing in all of us through each other, by the small whispers of the Spirit, by small lessons from the children, by two small abandoned kittens.

Thank you for reading.

We appreciate all of you and your faithful encouragement, financial giving, and prayers. We feel very supported. We look forward to seeing many of you soon!

With great hope and love,
Joshua and Robin

Here are some ways you can pray for us:

* We are traveling home for the Word Made Flesh retreat (occurs every 3 years) where all of the American staff come together for a 10 day retreat of seminars, discussions and a time of relaxing and conversation. Pray for good rest, good discussions and renewed vision for the calling God has lead us in to.

*We are heading home earlier than planned (Robin-June 17 and Josh-June 26) to be with Robin's grandparents and family as both of her grandma's battle terminal cancer. Please pray for Grandma Muriel and Grandma Thada—for peace and hope in this time.

*Please pray for our time at home, that it is a time of long, good conversations, of support and encouragement for us. Please pray for us as we travel.

*Please pray for the Community here as all of the Americans are gone to the states and as the Romanian staff go on vacation. Please pray for continual unity and support and encouragement for one another. As we are apart, may we learn how to pray for one another. Please pray for the children as they are on summer vacation. Please pray that the summer program here for them will go smoothly and be a fun time with each other.

*Continue to pray for what is happening here—for salvation and resurrection and hope and love in the broken hearts and wounded souls of the children here and for the guys who live on the streets. Pray that we may love well, to speak what needs to be spoken and to do what needs to be done for this healing to take place. May Jesus Christ be praised.

We love all of you and thank God for you.
peace, peace, peace