International Week of Prayer for Children At Risk 1st week of June

We spent June 7th at Beautiful News Fellowship in Butuan City. Teresa shared about children at risk world wide. We all watched the video AIM LOWER then the whole church received crayons and paper and we drew and wrote our prayers for children and made a PRAYER QUILT. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much fun!!!!!!!!

The New SHELTER
The Shelter will be home for 20 street boys and 10 street girls

HOME

Where to turn? Smothered in an overcrowded squatter area with addicted, beyond-poor parents or to the streets with air to breathe and even more abuse and addiction waiting? Lawrence, only 12 years old, chose the streets and living with the nuns through elementary school had provided him with no preparation for this choice. Sniffing glue, gangs and violence quickly became his new life . . .

Shortly after Lawrence came to the drop-in center, he declared that he wanted to go to school and was tired of life on the streets. He demanded more from us. Why couldn’t we send him to school and give him a home?

A short-term missionary, knowing nothing about Lawrence, began to share that he felt God had a plan for this boy to go to school. With tears running down my face, I immediately made the arrangements for Lawrence to enroll in school. He amazed us all by finishing his first year of high school above average - this after not attending school for 4 years.
At this time, his family suddenly transferred to a city five hours away, and taking him with them, they told him it was just for summer vacation. But, at the end of the summer, he realized he was not going back to school, not back to church, not back to the drop-in center.

Hearing of his plight, we contacted the family and the parents agreed to sign over legal temporary guardianship of Lawrence to us. And so, Lawrence came home last night to live with us. He will live with us in the staff compound for now until our shelter is up and running. He can't stop smiling...and is so thankful. God is good!!!

Please continue to pray for Lawrence and the many many more Lawrence's who desperately want and need a safe place to call home.

Journey with "N..."

"N..." came to Project Destiny Kids, tough sassy and with a tantalizing smile. Her new best friends were the 13-16 year old prostituted girls of Butuan City. We soon learned that "N..." had run away from home due to the abusive treatment of her mother and stepfather. She shared with us how they would tie her in a rice sack, hang her from the ceiling and hit her with a stick while hung in the sack. Her parents even shaved her head bald in an attempt to curve her wild ways. She made the decision that she would have no more of that and off to the big city she went. When she arrived in the city "N..." was quite innocent of city life and the life of a street girl. Soon, sniffing rugby (glue), stealing, and a life of prostitution became her new found life.

"N..." quickly shared that she was not satisfied with her new life any more than her home life. She talked of going to school and having a home. She faithfully came to the center day after day. We shared the love of Jesus with her, feed her, clothed her, and offered advice. We enjoyed friendship with "N..." for several weeks, then suddenly she was gone. This is an all too familiar story for us as we work with street kids.

However, "N..."'s story does end there. Almost 9 months later, one of our staff members to a trip to visit the province, as the staff stepped down from the bus she heard a familiar voice calling her name. It was "N..."! The two ran and embraced. "N..." had decided to follow the advice given her. She returned home and talked to her parents and agreed with them that she would go to school and stop running around wild, in return her parents agreed to not tie her in a sack and hit her anymore. Her parents gladly took her back. Today "N..." is attending high school and living at home. She is so happy and so thankful for friends who encouraged her and walked a bit of life's journey with her.