We started our spring session in Sacramento with the inner city kiddos on Tuesday night. It was a huge blessing to have NINE of us! Usually there are only a few and so having so much support was truly amazing.
The kids were the kids - we fed them pizza and they wrote "I hate you" on the pizza box and pointed it at one of the volunteers. They called each other all sorts of vulgarities and got angry when we told them what to do.
But despite all that - they were SO different than when we first worked with them! They have come so far - they TRUST us. They asked every single volunteer if they were coming back next week - they crave that reassurance.
They want to know if we are good or bad - have we come to help them or hurt them?
I left feeling angry and upset and I couldn't figure out why at first. Then it hit me that I was upset with the thought God may have given us a corner of the world where we are filling a need no one else is....which is an honor, but where is everybody? I'm not talking churches - I mean community groups, youth programs, etc - why are these Eliza Street kids just forgotten?
One girl was stiff as a board walking down the street with me in broad daylight - I was completely unaware that she was scared to walk on her own street. Another girl told me how she never saw her mom - she worked 7am-11pm at two jobs, seven days a week and so this girl felt responsible for raising her siblings.
I look at their anger and their lack of support, and combine that with the fact Sacramento is currently second in the nation for cities with underage sex trafficking.....and seeing the girls at our studio who have been rescued from that.....I don't want our sweet Tuesday night kids to go down that road.
There is so much work to do - and right now it feels we are the only drop in the bucket. It's hard. Challenging and rewarding - but hard too.
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