Bethesda Children Ministry

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Home Visitation

11 July 2009 21:34

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Imagine a room of about 15 square metres. In the room there is one broken armchair, a small worn-out sofa, a bed with a thin mattress, a frying pan hanging on the wall and up in the ceiling there are a lot of dust and dirt. In the room there are living a mother with six children, the oldest is 14 years and the youngest is one years old. The boy who is 14, and is called Gitau, is nowadays staying with us at Bethesda. Last Thursday we were at his home to meet his family and to get an impression about how his family is. “Terrible” said Elizabeth who is house mother at Bethesda.
This home was one of the worst I’ve ever seen. So poor and miserable, but the most bad thing was that the mother had given up, she didn’t care anymore. The children were dirty and had nothing, not even food for one meal every day. One of the smallest one, Maria didn’t wear anything on the lower part of the body, she just wore a small shabby dress and a sweater which was almost too small. I took her up on my lap. First I thought she might pee on me, but what would that do? Probably nothing. She made her self comfortable in my arms, I patted her dirty cheek gently and after a short while she was sleeping. She looked very peaceful when she slept and I wished I could bring her home with me. To be serious, I had to swallow many times when we had to go, my tears were on the way coming. Maria was still sleeping and I laid her down on the sofa. “God bless you!” I whispered to her when patting her again on the cheek.
We continued to the next home. Peter and Joseph is a couple of brothers who came to us soon two months ago. Their mother had abandoned them and left them alone. It was very special to meet them the first time at Bethesda, they were so thin and skinny. They had been without food for several days and the youngest, Peter, was sick. They were scared and didn’t dare to look at us when we tried to talk with them. Even if they had got our smallest clothes the clothes were too big, so you can just imagine how thin they were.
Now both Peter and Joseph have gained some weight and they are happy and very willing to talk. They have their grandparents who would visit. We turned in at a house and suddenly a small boy came out who looked exactly the same as Peter, it was his little brother. We had got the right house. When the grandmother saw her grandchildren she burst into tears. She didn’t know where they had gone. Now when she saw them after several months of wondering about where they were, she was very touched.

It is really touching to see children being reunited with their families. When we drove back I looked in the rear-view mirror and I saw a radiant smile in the face of Peter. What a charming child he is! These boys have been in the hearts of God long before we met them and they’ll be there for ever, even the day when we’ll “leave them back” again.

/Lina