I joined the team going to the Philippines in 1991 with the clear task to put up a ministry for drug addicts. I had been to the Philippines already in the years before for short term outreaches and my heart was beating for street children. I grew up as a single child in a broken home, but with all the material blessings and possibilities that Germany has to offer. When I was confronted for the first time with kids who had literally nothing, my world got turned upside down. All the self pity that bothered me till then, because of my so called difficult childhood, disappeared in an instant. How could I dare to pity myself if there are people who had to suffer in ways I could not even imagine.
one of my first street kids outreaches in 1991
Our team was invited by a dear Filipino friend, who had a burden for the addicts in the country. There are rarely any Christian Drug Rehabilitation Centers in the Philippines that are affordable and yet drug abuse is one of the major problems of society. I knew that we were doing the right thing in putting up the drug rehab. However, our Filipino friend knew that my heart was beating for children. One day he shared about a little girl in his neighborhood that lived in the streets. He was wondering if I would like to meet her. That was no question for me and before I knew it, she lived with us. I was too young then to “mother” her, but she became my roommate like a little sister. Her name was Lourdes and she was eleven years old. She loved to climb the trees in our garden or to play with the other German kids in our team. She helped me a lot to learn Tagalog (national language in the Philippines). Of course we were bothered by the question where she was from and if nobody would miss her. We were to new in the country and had no contacts yet to other missionaries or agencies that could have helped us. Lourdes just stated that her mother was dead and that she couldn’t remember where she was from.
“uuhhhh…what is this?” I exclaimed when I saw thousands of little insects in her long and filthy hair. I have never seen so many lice on one little head before or after meeting Lourdes (and I have seen many lice in my life). I remember washing her hair in our bathroom with a medicine to kill the beasts and looking at my hands that were covered with little black animals. In that time I learned to remove the nits one by one for hours and days. We had to cut her hair and Lourdes was not happy about it. However, there was no way to get her lice free with this mane on her head.
Eventually I accomplished a lice free zone on her head!
One morning she came to me with a frightened startle in her face: “Ate (big sister) I am very sick. There is blood all over.” I got it right away and had to sit down to explain, where the babies come from to a little girl whose language I couldn’t speak yet and whose idea about romantic love was totally confused. I can’t remember how, but I got the message across and Lourdes was in peace. She was the happiest child on earth, but we knew that we had to find out about her background. I couldn’t “just keep her” like a stray dog.
We shared the gospel to Lourdes and she was very open to receive Jesus into her heart. Along with that I made the point that we can’t live in lies and follow Jesus at the same time. Slowly it sank in and she admitted to know where she was from. We didn’t wait to find her relatives. Apparently her mother had really died and she was left with her aunt. In her grief she ran away and connected with other street children to survive. That’s when our friend got to know her and asked us to help. The aunt was very happy that we returned Lourdes and we felt that we had done what we could.
I kept in touch with Lourdes for the following years. She stayed with different relatives, sometimes here and sometimes there. I managed to visit her a few times. The last time I saw her; she was already a grown lady, worked at a market place and had kids of her own.
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