Jesus at work on the streets.

Yesterday I saw Jesus at work on the streets. This was in the form of Fabiano specially, but also in Peter. Fabiano and Dayanne are the couple who work alongside Pete and Selma here at the farm.

We drove through what Pete said were very dangerous areas, but then he said it is really all like that. When we arrived at the square (blessedly in the shade) it was to find two, a boy and a girl, lying on a tattered foam mattress. Another young guy pointed out the mattress to me and I asked him if he ever slept in such comfort. He replied that if he slept on that mattress he would be killed. It belonged to the boss who turned out to be the young girl asleep on it just then. She never did wake up in the two hours we were there.

What struck me most about these two was their absolute filth. I have been on the streets here before but never seen anything as bad as this. D*, the lad, was roused. Fabiano immediately sat on the ground next to this prostrate figure, donned gloves and proceeded to clean this boy's feet, which had some nasty sores on them. D* let him do it. He washed them, applied iodine and goodness knows what and plastered and bandaged what he could. He then cut his fingernails and cleaned them finishing up with cleaning his ears.

I sat and watched just amazed and very moved. Peter had said that these on the square are the ones who have no hope and are the lowest of the low. Pete knows they can do little for them in terms of ever bringing them out here to the farm, but they can show that they care and that they love them.I had been reading about Jesus washing the feet of his disciples the previous day, a passage which always moves me. I had not expected to see it put into action literally. As Fabiano was doing this several others joined us including many of the curious mostly older public who stood or sat around watching or talking with some of us.Fabiano continued his work, bathing sores, bandaging, cutting nails, including those of the girls who joined us.

In the meanwhile Michiel (from Holland) shared the Lord with a group of older men. Pete hugged and talked, impervious to the dirt and squalor. The look of delight when these guys saw Pete was stunning. Their eyes just lit up and they rushed forward with huge hugs. As Pete's Mum I received my own share too! But there was another wonderful aspect to this morning and to the whole day. We took some of "our" boys along with us… When I was here two years ago it would have been impossible for such a thing to happen, but such is their growth that they are now part of the team.

Both at the square and in the late afternoon at the beach, they greeted friends with whom they had lived themselves on the streets. They talked with them, laughed with them. I asked them how they felt about going to the streets like this. Were they glad not to be there? Their answers were that they were very glad not to be there and just feel so sad for those who are. Jesus has transformed these lives. Please pray that as they grow older, two are now 19, that they will really know the presence of the Lord in their lives. If we think of how weak and watery our own lives can be in Christian terms, how important it is for them that they have deep knowledge of him. Pete allows them to make their own decisions in many things these days, they do not always make the right ones. We do not want to see them lost.

Can you take more? Not much! We went on later to the beach. Here the tourists walk in their lovely clothes to their lovely hotels and apartments directly opposite the beach... The two co-exist. Except that the police do not want them there and beat them so badly that they are left to die. Not one coke bottle was in evidence. They now all smoke crack and lots of it. Much more expensive and much more dangerous… Fingers are burned where they heat up their crack. Their bodies are emaciated in some cases. One tremblingly eats a small lump of cheese. Some of them do not stir on the floor. The girls stand around, 13, 14 15 years of age, in their very tight very short shorts and their very brief tops. A real contrast to the girls we saw in the morning all of whom were so dirty. These are all prostitutes, but not for these boys. These are for the men who hang around all the time, many of them European. Their faces are so pretty. It is heart breaking. One girl in the morning had asked with tears, if they were going to open a girls' home. This has been a desire…but it cannot happen without life committed staff.

(Written by Mary Thomas, visiting from England).