I’d like for you to meet a new friend of mine. Her name is Rizpah. I’m not sure exactly how old she is, but I’d guess around 18.Rizpah has a three-year-old son named Michael. He’s the result of rape. It’s normal for girls that live on the street to be raped many times. I met Rizpah when I went with my friend, Sandy – a fellow International Mission Board missionary living in Nairobi – to work with her street kids.
We have to go really early in the morning - before shops open up downtown and before the kids get high on glue. Sandy and her Kenyan Baptist partner, Boniface (who was once a street kid himself), teach Bible stories to the kids, which range in age from two to 20. They also give them milk and administer first-aid.
One morning, Rizpah showed up at Bible study without her son. She said he was still sleeping. She offered to take Sandy and I with her to wake him up. I had never been down this back alley way where most of the kids sleep. We waded through trash that came up about mid-calf to me. Sandy told me Michael was born in this alley way – in the midst of all this trash.
As we walked, Rizpah put her arm around me and smiled. Man, she smelled worse than terrible but it was one of the nicest walks I've had in a long time. Even though I'm not a "touchy" person, I knew she just needed a loving touch -- so I put my arm around her, too.
We stopped in front of a big pile of cardboard and plastic bags, barely distinguishable from the other trash heaps. Rizpah rustled it with her foot, when out pops this little head with sleepy eyes. When Michael saw Sandy, he broke into a HUGE grin and reached his grubby little arms up at her. Once in Sandy's arms, he gave her a big, wet, sticky, smelly kiss. Sandy didn't notice the smell or dirt -- she just loved right back on him.
Michael walked barefoot through the streets of Nairobi. I stuck some shoes Sandy bought on his feet and showed him they were Spiderman light-up shoes. He was tickled about the light. After I taught him how to make the light go, he walked around in circles - leaning over to one side so he could see the lights flash. Every once in a while, he’d stop to jump up and down to celebrate having cool shoes and then he’d notice the lights flashing again and returned to walking in circles.
2 comments:
one morning i heard michaels cry off in the distance. i kept walking around until i found him under a pile of trash in the middle of the alley. she was off looking for food. it broke my heart.
Wow -- great addition to the story! Rizpah really breaks my heart. When she comes to the meeting and isn't high, she listens so intently and looks as if she's ready to make a decision. Then, the next time we meet, she's so high from sniffing glue that she doesn't even know where her son, Michael, is. Pray for Rizpah and for Michael!
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