A Live Report from “Children Under the Bridge”
I am sitting in the Kentucky Fried Chicken shop here in Jakarta, Indonesia, trying to figure out how to communicate what I have seen and felt when I visited the Children Under the Bridge project. It’s not easy.
There is the shock of actually being in the place where they live out their days. Between the railroad tracks and the stinking, polluted river, there is a concrete buffer. This is their playground. Across a narrow footbridge is the collection of homes, tightly packed into dark alleyways, sewer smells and open doors for prostitution. The children lead me into the maze, pointing out which door is for a prostitute, which is for their own “house,” usually a single room which they must vacate when work is being done. They spend a lot of time on the streets. They go to school if there is money, but most of them are taught to beg and sent to the train station or the market to earn their share. One five year old I met had cigarette burns on his arm because a gang member tried to take the little money he received from begging, and when he would not give it, he was burned. Life is very, very difficult here.
But I never saw so many smiles, so many faces full of energy and excitement. Even swimming in what is really an open sewer was turned into a celebration. And when I provided ice cream drinks for all, no one pushed to the front. They sat together and shared what little they had with each other.
“Jane” has as many as 84 children now. They don’t all come at once. They have school or begging first. But when they come, they are fed and taught simple educational skills. You instantly love these children, and at the same time, the grief of their existence is nearly overwhelming. You are caught between staggering injustice and childhood optimism.
If you haven’t felt the need to be involved with this project, perhaps you will change your mind. In this place, I met a prostitute who is paid $5 to perform. Her face and eye are damaged. I did not ask how it happened. No one will hire her for a real job. She says, “There is no money for my family. What can I do?” The payment she receives demonstrates that her life is almost worthless. Her children’s lives are worth less than that to anyone except their mother. I insisted she take some ice cream. I don’t think she had eaten in quite awhile. She was shy and embarrassed. One woman has seven children. She keeps “working” because there is no other way for her.
I am about to show you these faces, and the places they live.
Look at these lives. Don’t they deserve something more than our scraps of mercy? If you want to help, write me. If you are already helping, God bless you, over and over!
Children are not the only victims. I spoke with this lady, a grandmother. The second photo is her home. She must bribe the local officials so that they do not make her move again.
“Jane” needs a tent so the children can meet when it rains. That is the first order of business. One step at a time on a very long road.
Want to help? CLICK HERE. Don’t put it off any longer.
I see Skip. The fact is, you don’t have to go far to find a need such as this. In my teens I worked in orphanages less than a mile from the US Mexico border where the murmur of a child’s sobbing would alert you to another ‘drop off’ in the form of a child(s) who could not longer be sustained by the parents who left him/her at the gate. In 50 years the only thing that has changed within site of the city I live in is that these children are no longer warehoused in less than perfect facilities. Today most of those types of facilities provide a daily substantial meal for any child that can make it to their doors which allows them to be kept by parents who can barely feed themselves.
There is provisions for clothing the children through donations and most offer some form of education as well as the Sunday Service to all comers including parents. It is actually the better system of doing this in that instead of fracturing a family as in the old days, there is now a chance for community building amongst the extended needy in the surrounding area. That Sunday Service brings associations between the attendees where they once competed for the trash that floated down the gully in Otay Mesa on that boarder. Instead of a waterway in this instance that is filled with sewage (and it is), it is a caustic bath of the chemicals used to make our electronic devices that are assembled in the local maquiladora that lines the border fence on that side.
But the children here don’t swim in it.
All of this is 10 minutes away from the city center of San Diego, California. But a world away in Mexico.
Richard, give us a way to help!
One of the organizations nearby that is in the trenches of this service is Rioalmar run by a brother named Dan Williams. I have known Dan for many years and can assure you he is a 100% dedicator of all monies received towards the Otay Mesa area of Mexico service. You can type in Rioalmar Dan Williams into any search engine and discover the validity of his service or info@rioalmar.org.
But…I would urge you to take the request by our brother Skip to heart first. I do so because I request that all of us move on a personal level of involvement in answering God’s call when WE become aware of it. Personal undertakings such as Skip has done (in many cases) is the image we should project. My wife and I are very involved personally with those we have become aware of in need, In many different countries and prisons in California. That is the most rewarding blessing we have ever experienced … dirty hands from digging in the trenches. Maybe we should send Skip some soap.
Yes, soap and medicine to treat lice – every child in those photos has them. You are right. We must all move when and where we are touched. Thanks for your help.
Thank you, Richard for sharing. There are lots of unfortunate, homeless everywhere, even in the “first world” countries.
Scriptures reminding us to care for such needy, reveals YHWH’s merciful and loving heart, directing our paths to be responsible folks. Shalom!
Thank you, Skip, for sharing this precious opportunity with us to share in the riches of YHVH’s grace for the least of these. We are honored indeed! My daily bread, and the benefits of it, have been more sufficient for me lately because of this opportunity to share it with such precious people. Thank you!
Fills me with such grief to see these angelic faces in such dire circumstances.
ABBA, protect and lead them to Your ways, may Your love and comfort fill them.
YOU, only You can improve their circumstances, to give them a better, secure future.
YOUR blessings upon them, Skip, and all who are in this funding, which will not be in vain, but
will bear abundant fruit to You, todah rabah, ABBA. Amein!
Hi Skip, you are the answer to prayer. Most unexpected. Nothing like this has happened before. Because of one rescue & trauma case, an entirely new door has opened up in Indonesia. I am learning that the glory of God, the rock of Israel is also the Champion of “Jane” who is very close to your heart. Indeed, she came to us 4 years ago, herself the victim of traffickers, and plucked “as a brand out of the fire…”
Thus began her Emmaus journey. We’ve seen so many women and girls come out of prostitution but admittedly so few have wanted to enter fully into the life of Yeshua. One night, while at our shelter, Jesus came to her in a dream and called her to Himself. She responded and her eyes were opened.
When it came time to repatriate her back to Indonesia, we faced a wall. Besides the persecution faced from her family and community, there were debts to pay including fresh challenges as she entered into first year bible school. Thank you Skip for stepping into the gap.
I am so grateful also that you have been able to connect with the bible school professors who are overseeing “Jane’s” theological education in Jakarta. She will go far and these children, now under her wings, as a hen with her chicks, will grow in wisdom and stature because of the favour shown them from God and from people like you.
Gerard & Lianne
Gerard and Lianne and many others in this Body, I am sure, we are likewise thankful that you are standing in your place and have been faithful to make these precious lives count for the kingdom and the glory. Thank you!
It is my honor and great pleasure to be of some respite to these little lives. It is my agony to not be able to do more than offer temporary rescue. It is the sublime terror of this world to see God’s creation so disfigured and to know that I contributed to that travesty in some way. It is of some consolation to be an instrument of repair.
Skip, is there a possibility of us hosting your skipmoen.com online community in Singapore for a grand pooh-ba with a possible side trip to visit “Jane” and those wonderful children? Or, we could fly her in to Singapore for a meet-up? Let us know if you need to use our Geylang facility as a form up place including the church sanctuary and guest rooms as that would help cut down on accommodation costs? The newly created, “Chaplaincy for Hebraic Studies”, would surely get a boost in hosting such an international gathering and Changi could be a convenient hub for your readers to experience the sights and sounds of Asia for themselves? September is a great month for us!
Great idea. I will see what can be done. My ticket to Singapore is on the books.