I want to start off by telling you about Mika who is a little girl who lives on the streets….i wrote this my last few days in the philippines.
I don't know where to begin. I can no longer explain or know what I am feeling. The past few days have been full of emotion, emotion that I didn't even know I could produce.
I have found a part of my heart that I didn't think I had. A love for another person that I have never had before… My baby girl mika. It all started when she started calling me mama and explained that her parents had died in a car crash.
She is so full of joy you would never know she has nothing or no one. A smile that lights up every room she walks in and a personality to die for is what drew me to her in the first place. Under that beautiful smile and cute little dimple is a twelve year old girl that is suffering, hurting, Abandoned, Forsaken and left to fend for herself on the streets. It's not fair. She did nothing to deserve this. She has no choice but to be strong and tough. Even as she is covered in boils, coated in dirt from head to toe and has a head full of hundreds of lice…. she still carries the most beautiful smile. My heart breaks for her as I see her sniff the rugby to become numb to her harsh surroundings. She sniffs to forget, sniffs to fill the hunger, sniffs to avoid feeling cold at night and sniffs to feel a little bit free. She knows nothing better.
You must understand that she is a twelve year old girl who should be playing with baby dolls and would be entertained for hours by a cartoon but instead she is being forced to consider prostitution just to eat and spends her days jumping from jeep to jeep looking for a few pesos. This is the reality for mika. Where is the next meal? Where do I take a bath? I can hardly crawl out from under the bridge I live under because my legs are full of oozing infected boils… You can see in her eyes she is worried about herself….
And she calls me mama. Everyday I visited her and provided food, clean cloths and a warm bath I was also able to take her to the dr for her skin infection. Needless to say mika stole my heart. I would do anything for her but my time in the Philippines was coming to a close and I couldn't imagine leaving her out on the streets. One of my last nights on the street with mika I told her I would have to be going to Africa in a few days and the look on her face was one I will never forget. This girl that never does anything but smile and always wiped my tears as I leave her side every night for the past month…began to weep. At that moment i knew i couldnt leave her there. there was no way i could go to Africa and be at peace with her condition.Especialy when i found out she is being recruited by local prostitutes… so with three nights left i took her away from the place she called home. she was confused and scared but i had to take her from all of that to save her future and her life. I am so thaknful that i got her into a orphanage in Manila.
i continue to pray for her every day and can rest at the fact that she is safe. Becauses I rescued one little girl from the streets and have been in fervent prayer for the rest of the 20 kids there i have gotten an email saying that the rest have been taken into a home as well and that they are safe! PRAISE THE LORD!
one life being saved was enough for me to breath a little easier…but now knowing that all of them are in a safe and secure enviorment is nothing short of a miracle! ALSO there is an orphanage under construction specificaly for the kids we were working with. can you say GOD IS GOOD with me please?!
so now i am in africa and conditions are rough…i will post a blog about Malawi next friday!
please continue to pray for mika and the rest of my kids also for my team and i as we adjust to life in malawi
