Can you hear me???????

 

You know they say that God uses everything that happens to us for good. Up until this point I still had wondered, questioned and doubted this one particular issue that I had dealt with, going through years of sexual abuse by a woman, my day care worker who did things to me that I know now should only take place between a husband and wife.

One early morning when we were taking a street boy named Mikkious (who later became our son) to the bus station to go see his mom after being on the streets for several years,(only to find out she had died sometinme during the period of six years) we decided to go to one of our normal spots to wake up some street kids and take them to breakfast. It was in this gut wrenching moment that I knew the very reason God had possibly allowed the sin of another to intercede with my being as a 6-8 year old little girl.

We were at the spot where a group of about 12 street kids were huddled together under any type of material they could find to stay warm, for it was rainy season. We went and stood over them and just looked into their precious sleeping faces peering beyond the torn, stained, bug infested cloth. We anxiously awoke them gently, telling them to come and eat breakfast with us and then it happened, along with the 12 little street kids, they immersed like wallowing giants to my little girl again heart, two grown men. In this very blink of my eyes I knew exactly what had taken place, they were preying on these street kids and had abused them in the midst of their already dark, fearful worlds. This is the exact moment that I heard my Lord whisper “I will use your hurt and pain to bring justice to these very street kids, you must be patient and you must WAIT FOR ME”

Here we are a couple years later and I must admit it has been dreadful at times to sit and wait on God to put all the pieces together. Did I mention in that very moment I wanted to just kick their faces into the donkey poo that covered the ground I stood on and maybe just break their jaws while I was at it?

Just two weeks ago as I was on a date with my husband, ok so now-a-days we take them when we can even if it is riding in the car to get stuff for ministry just him and I. Romantic I know but even if you are not the romantic kind you will take what you can get. I told him these words “Babe I just don’t know how much longer I can just sit and do nothing.” See I had come to the point of ministry when I was literally drowning with the stories of our boys being raped by other men. My heart hurt and actually bled from the inside out. These were like pains of that of a mother unable to help her child from S-L-O-W-L-Y……… drowning in the middle of the ocean, so far away yet so close that she could see it all happening. I began to lose sleep over each story, each face, each tear and each name of that which He has brought to us.

The first cycle of street boys would come and they opened up about the abuse but mentioned it as a far away place, you know happening to all the other boys. The next cycle of street boys came in with more trust and began to pour out situations, names, places, people, groups of people and so forth. This group of boys comes in damaged, hurt and fearful of what may happen next. I go home each and every night and look into my eyes and thank God that they are not the forgotten (NO MORE) street kids that are enduring physical sexual abuse of a grown mans penis’s going into their anus. Boys that are my Gavins age, YOUR KIDS AGE, YOUR GRAND-CHILDRENS AGE, this is happening to and I refuse to sit back and let it happen!

God knows our time bombs, you know those minutes when you are about to explode and just react because you can’t freaking wait any longer on the sidelines. You are ready willing and anxious to jump in that game and get a VICTORY for the sake of THESE. Its game time baby and God knew it before I even said the words to my husband.

This week HE reacted so I didn’t have to. A huge bust took place that only God could have ordained in the manor that it did. We at Make Your Mark Ethiopia lead police to the predator’s home. They went in at the wee hours of the morning to the predators house and found around 70 street kids in his home, took him to jail and are holding him currently.

I try so hard to imagine what this scene was like and even with my experience of drugs (before Christ) and darkness I just can’t get even picture the smallest glimpse of the reality of the terror that was embarked by a shimmer of light. I imagine a drug addict, because that is what these kids are in their captivity of huffing glue lingering like crack addicts at the mercy of this man to just get one more huff so that they do not feel the pain any longer of this life they were given, willing to do whatever it takes to get one more hit, huff, high so that they may escape their reality which wants to keep them in bondage forever destroying their very purpose here on earth. For I know, I have been there.

My emotions are a freaking disaster; I can become unplugged from conversations in a split second because my mind is always wandering back. My desire is to see these kids begin the healing process, you know that relief that comes when you realize you are no longer a prisoner to yourself or someone else’s control. The fear begins to creep in whispering “you know you are in a country filled with corruption and I will do everything possible to set him free so that he can finish what he has begun in destroying these kids lives.” Then another whisper interrupts reminding me that “Where the Spirit of the Lord is there should be no fear; only hope and redemption., for it is who I AM.”

I am literally in a war zone between reality of what is taking place and finding a peace in realizing who God is and what He can do THE BROKEN, THE HURT, THE LITTLE BOYS BEING RAPED BY MEN just as HE did me, a little girl being robbed of my innocence from a woman that I am sure, that was only doing to me what was done to her. DAMN IT we must brake these chains and rebuild these kids, rebuild this system that was put in place to protect them and those who are silently sitting in places of despair because they know a dirt little secret and are doing nothing, or they themselves are being victimized.

Lord I know I am supposed to pray for this piece of crap here on earth that he may come to know you but I just can’t right now, not in this moment. I hear your truth, I promise. Please allow me time to process and actually see the healing and power of your blood in each of these boys lives and then I will submit and pray for him that will be captured and unable to hurt YOUR little street kids that you have prepared for greatness. Rise those precious little ones sweet Jesus just as you yourself rose from death to life for the Gospel to be REAL.

I give my life to you JESUS for this purpose no matter where in the world you take me, to be a voice. ……………Can you hear me???????

~carmen post~

founder & executive director

http://www.mymministries.org/#!ourteam/cyg

Quick Fixer or Long Termer

Its super easy for us to see a shoe with parts of it missing and holes in it and respond, “How can I get this kid a pair of shoes?” That’s a quick fix. We can be in and out with no commitment and pat ourselves on the back and think that we have done something great for the world. That’s great and all and we are glad that you have that instant gratitude in helping an immediate need. However we at Make Your Mark have a different solution to this hole in the shoe.

We at Make Your Mark are not about quick fixes. For when you simply put a band aid on the problem its only a matter of time before it oozes with goo again waiting for another band aid that may or may not be available. When we throw quick solutions like buying another pair of shoes for the kid.. See it will not be long before that street kids shoe gets another hole in it. He steps on some metal that cuts his foot, which begins that gooey, bloody process all over again.

That new pair of shoes was great and looked good for a few days at most with a street kid, however that instant I feel good about myself because I have new shoes with no holes vanishes in the blink of an eye. It takes so much more work to really help a street kid. It takes time, energy, prayer, commitment and money. That’s what we at Make Your Mark do with each kid HE brings to us. We do not do this to feel good and more than feel good moments, we have shedding tears moments at the fight the enemy has going for this very kids soul, not sole.

So as we are grateful for your interest in fixing this problem with a kid who wonders around the street at night with a piece of his shoe missing, but we would much rather have you along for the journey, the long emotional, going to cost you a little more journey. We would love to have you cry with us, laugh with us and pray with us for each and every kid we serve. We challenge you to sacrifice with us and go deep instead of wide.

Please consider going deep with us by sacrificing a monthly donation. Some of you may feel the hurt financially and say I have no idea how I could even spare another penny. Guess what if you choose to give to build these kids DADDY will take care of you in crazy All-OUT ways. Because most of us can give up a few bucks a month so that a street kid can be fed twice a day and so much more, and so a family can keep their kid in their home with them where they belong instead of having no choice but to send them to the streets because they are too much of a burden to provide for. Then there are those of us who wouldn’t miss the dollars given monthly, we wouldn’t even notice I say. So how can we not give? How can we not?

Please consider partnering with Make Your Mark Ethiopia for the sake of the street kids and the families that want to keep their kids with them but may be on the edge of losing them due to their poverty status. Its not because they are not working, I promise, every single one of our Keeping Kids Home families work and do all that they can to earn what you and I would surely die from if in this position. TOGETHER we can do more than we can ever do alone.

http://www.mymministries.org/#!cvcvvg/mainPage

Boy Eats With Dogs

Nothing could have prepared my heart for what I witnessed last night during our Night Light Ministry. This is where we go in the spiritually dark streets to build relationships with street kids, trusting that God will lead us to His chosen ones for us to build up through Make Your Mark Ethiopia. You would think by now with all that I have seen and experienced I would have seen it all but last night proved that to be incorrect.

As we began our journey we met with the officers to let them know that we, MYM were here. Hoping that they would be less violent to the kids when we are around. Our goal is to partner with them and actually shine a glimpse of hope in their eyes for the street kids so that they can see that they too can be used to love, encourage and help Their street kids, instead of the other routes that they choose.

As we get to one of our regular meeting spots I immediately am surrounded by many street kids, greeting me with hand shakes, hugs, smiles, and some is dazes from huffing the glue. Others giggled as they practiced their English and I practiced my Amharic. I couldn’t help but keep looking to my left. It was dark so I really couldn’t see if what I thought I was seeing really was.

Imagine this with me please. There are about 4 dogs gathered around, I could easily see that the dogs were biting this 2 foot skeletal back bone of some sort of animal possibly a goat or cow. There was very little meat left on this fresh bone. In the middle of these dogs squatted a little boy with a dark hooded jacket covering his head so all you could see was his silhouette. My curiosity wondered what this kid was doing. Then I saw it, with all of his weakened strength he had some type of sharp object in his right hand, probably a rock, while holding the bone with his left sawing away at the bone scavenging for a sliver of meat; a child eating with the dogs, on a bone of another animal in the dark, dirty streets.

I grabbed my daughter Amilly and with disbelief asked her to bring him to me. We talked to him and got his story. This kid that is eating with the dogs has a name, its T. He is tall, very slender with a contagious smile and beautiful lashes stretched to his eyebrows, you know the kind that every woman would love to have.

When we began to talk to T I could not believe that the same boy that was in the streets eating raw meat off a bone with the dogs was able to have such an intelligent conversation with us. The two were no match for sure. I have seen street boys bond with dogs but never quite like this, Normally the boys will let the dogs nibble the bugs out off their scalps for them or be cuddled up close to them as they sleep together at night in the dark, cold streets as if they were best friends, protecting one another but never have I seen a child eating with the dogs, on a gnawed bone.

T grew up with his mother and father and the family was good, his father was a Christian he tells us. But things took a quick turn when his father died. His mom began to worship the evil one. She practices witchcraft in the evilest of ways. She began to beat him and abuse him in many different ways. Others that would be around would abuse this kid in unthinkable ways. So he ran away to the streets a couple times actually. Each time coming to the streets begging saving his money and taking it to his mom in hopes that she would be proud of him, want him or even love him. Each time the abuse grew deeper and deeper. So deep that he would think about going to live with other people. The words he spoke next pierced our beings to a new understanding of our new friend. “If my very own mom will do the things that she has done to me then surely anyone else would too”.

T is scared of the whole human race because of what the people have done to him. Of course the kid was hungry and that is why he was trying to get just a sliver of raw meat off that bone to fill his bare tummy. But here is another observation. He was down there eating dinner with the dogs because he trusts them, they will not hurt him.

When going into the streets you cannot just feed the street kids. If you were to do this you would be met with a chaotic stampede that would leave many wounded. So secretly our son Belay took this hungry child and fed him. Upon his return I spent the next few hours watching this little one. His interaction with these dogs was so pleasant. He played chase with them up and down the streets. He gave them piggyback rides on his back; he held their legs up as if to dance the night away. It was quite disturbing in its magnificence. Please know that this kid was not high like most of the kids that you would expectedly see acting in such a manner.

As I pondered through all of this I came up with two conclusions. One is that this severely abused, mentally, physically, emotionally and sexually almost 13 year old boy found a peace in the streets among the dogs because they simply would not hurt him. He was safer with them than he had been in a very long time with any human species. Seeing how smart this kid was I also noticed the huge difference in the boy that was eating off a bone, that glanced up at me when I was tearfully watching him act as an animal, looking up at me with no shame and continued on with the dogs to be quite different than the boy we were communicating with. Is this a spiritual thing where his demon-worshipping mother cast her demons on him or was it just a mental issue? My spirit inside me tells me its demonic because the two were so drastically different. When our son Belay communicated with him about eating off the bone with the dogs it was almost as if there was no remembrance of this very event.

Even though mentally this is too much for my human mind to comprehend I am glad that God brought us to this boy in just the time to see what He had planned for us to see. We will continue to meet with T and see if there is anything we can do to love him, serve him and build him. Please pray for him with us.

~carmen~

Here is how you can help us help T and many more street kids like him. Partner with us financially at Make Your Mark Ethiopia by becoming a stability partner (monthly donor) or with a one-time gift . Read below to see some of what we do.

http://www.mymministries.org/#!ourteam/cyg

• Make Your Mark House (Drop-in Center): The big idea here is creating an environment where the children build a desire within themselves to want to change. We do this through providing two healthy meals, showers, basic needs, washing their clothes, basic education, play therapy through sports-art -games, counseling, life skill trainings and more. Currently we are serving 15 boys 5 days a week. We keep these numbers small because we believe in going a mile deep instead of mile wide. To bring a street kid to the Day Center about $100.00 a month
• Placing the Lonely in Families – PLF (family base care for street/orphaned children) : These homes are a place of continuing rehabilitation, which have an Ethiopian husband & wife ,being dad & mom to boys from the street. The boys will have first shown they’re ready by their efforts in the drop-in center. The purpose of the home is prepare the boys for family living, whether that be reintegration with their families or adopted/foster care with an Ethiopian Family or just growing up in this home. The purpose of a dad & mom is to show these boys how God has designed family and to give them an example of what their future family can be like. We currently have one home open with 4 boys and hope to open another in the next couple months. Sept.-Oct. 2014 Our goal is to open 2-3 of these a year. To sponsor a home is around $800.00 a month.
• Keeping Kids Home –KKH (orphan/street kid prevention): Most children become orphans or are in the streets because the family was so poor. We come beside families living in extremely materially poor conditions to help keep their children home. We initially provide educational needs, tutoring, and family counseling and for the most malnourished some food supplements are provided. The Make Your Mark House is also used on Saturday’s and after school for tutoring and library work. Our long-term goal for each family is to become self-sustainable materially, relationally and spiritually. We are currently serving 85 children with their families. This cost us 50.00 a month per child.