Friday 29 May 2009

Closed door

We tried to get into one of the city's rubbish dump this week. We went with someone from our church as we had heard that homeless people live there!!! We were very disappointed to not be allowed in the dump. They didn't want to take responsibility for what might happen there. There used to be around 50 people living and working in the dump, now only around 10 because they have been thrown out of there.

So our adventure continues in looking for different places where we might find more homeless. Each day we still go to our normal spots of the train stations and central market.

Wednesday 20 May 2009

How deep is the bottom of the pit?

It can be hard sometimes on the streets. There are people who are really suffering. We are meeting more people who are disabled in some way. Mainly they are men with some or all of their legs missing.

One man Vova or Volodia, who we meet daily now and are building friendship with him used to be a manager of a helicopter factory. He had everything; good job, wife, children (at least a daughter). It all changed one day in a fire and now in his own words "I am no good for anyone, no one needs me". He is a grandfather and has a daughter, but lives in a pile on the floor at a bus stop and can't move from there. He has no legs and they stole his small poles that he used to drag himself around with.

He is respectful to us, making sure that no one offends us. He is a man capable of loving or caring. Yet he lives right at the bottom of the social ladder. He fell from above and landed at the bottom. I wonder to myself "Can life be any harder than his?" " Is there a bottom to the pit or has he already reached it"?

What I do know is that every time we visit him, I see a man who is intellegent, worthy of respect, someone who is becoming dear to me, and someone who is very precious to our God.

Tuesday 5 May 2009

Full Redemption!!!!!


We had the most wonderful news today. Nina, a lady who used to live in a garage near our base, is getting married! How great God is! When we first met her she was constantly under the influence of alcohol and living a life that was full of pain and suffering. She is a widow who had been kicked out of her late husbands brother's house. We sent her to a rehab centre in another city where she accepted Christ as her Lord, and began to live for Him. The change was amazing in her. Today she came to the city for the second time and announced her marriage to another worker at the rehab where she now serves. She is 59. She said how good God is that he gave her such a wonderful present as a husband.