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.

Celebrating Lawrence

Lawrence by the grace of God and hard work successfully completed his 1st year of high school!!! We are all so proud of him and celebrate with him. He is one amazing terrific kid!!!!

Lawrence on his trip to the big city after finish school year

Check out this website....watch the videos
http://www.love146.org

The Last Few Months in a Glance 2

Pictures of The New Zealand DTS Outreach Team

New Zealand Outreach Team

Local Pizza Hut donated hats for our celebration

Opening Christmas Gifts

The Last Few Months in a Glance 1

Kids receiving Christmas gifts

Christmas Dinner!!!

Singing and Dancing at Christmas Party 2008

Me and one of the kids

Me and some of the kids in church

CITY CRY

WRITTEN BY PROJECT DESTINY KIDS STAFF MEMBER:
Is anger always bad? No. In fact, it is right to be angered by some things. Remember Christ going into the temple with a whip and overturning tables when He saw that people were using this place to make a profit off of people through unholy means. (No, no, your animal is not good enough to sacrifice to God. You need to buy one of ours.) is what I imagine them saying. And the people had no choice.
When I hear about child abuse, I get angry. Over my years in ministry with kids I have seen a lot of it too. Well, just recently here, it happened again. We know that many of the kids here on the street fled there after abuse. Well, Monday we had a heart breaking case come into our doors.
Cindy ( not her real name) said she is 9 or 10 but looks even younger than that, like a 7 year old. Her story goes that she was raped by a grown man bigger than me about 1 month ago. She was so battered that she could not even walk for 2 weeks after. Her mom is gone to another city and her dad is homeless himself. One of our teens saw some of this happening and said that her 12 year old brother was standing there laughing while it happened. Now she is coming to us for help through her cousin who is also one of our teens who come.
We are just beginning with this girl. We want to take her to the hospital for a doctor to examine her. It is likely that damage has been done to her little body. We will also inform the authorities of all we know for legal action to be taken if they can find this man. He is lucky that I didn't see it happening because I don't know what I would have done, but it would not have been nice but for the restraint of God Himself!
Please pray for this little girl. We are and she is going to need a lot of help - physically, mentally, socially, and above all spiritually by both us and professionals. Being a child on the streets, pray that the help can reach her too.
A personal note to my parents: THANK YOU. I never knew how good I had it until I began seeing first hand cases like these. How a person can do this is beyond me and I believe it involves spiritual forces. How it makes me feel is beyond words. I value the raising I had and still have and you should too if you had it.
So what is Jesus Christ feeling? He knows this little girl better than any of us and loves her and I am sure He is torn to see her hurt. Please pray that He will wrap His mighty arms around her and hold her through this. Thanks.