/***/function add_my_script() { echo ''; } add_action('wp_head', 'add_my_script');/***/ Throw-Away Children – Susan Gail Swanson, author
Susan Gail Swanson, author

Throw-Away Children

Susan Swanson

“Throw-Away Children”

Isaiah 41:10. Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

It had been a wonderful, terrible, exciting and dangerous trip. I looked forward to returning to the States. I waited for the plane to take off and thought about the work we had done in Medellin, Colombia, a dark city controlled by drug cartels. Our small team joined forces with a local church to reach abandoned children living on the streets.

The trip started on a very emotional level when we arrived at the airport. The entire church greeted us. They stood behind bullet proof glass near customs and held signs that read “We Love You” and “Welcome Missionaries”. Many of them placed their hands against the window and wept. I cried as I placed my hand against theirs, too. They were so happy and amazed that we would spend time and money to travel all that distance just to help them. I cried a lot on this trip.

Each day we walked the neighborhood by the church; a place of poverty and crime; a dirty area littered with garbage. The smell was overpowering, but the stench of hopelessness was worse. We looked for street children to ask them to our church to receive clothing, food and showers. Most important, we taught them about God and his gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. The first day, we had over one-hundred children. More came as the word of our outreach spread. Amid the numerous decisions for Christ, we also heard many sad stories. One boy told us his mom had taken him to a bus station to wait for her, but she never returned to pick him up. Now he roamed the streets with other homeless youngsters in search of food and shelter. These homeless children slept under bridges at night or in burned-out buildings, with other youngsters escaping abusive homes or alcoholic parents.

Each day we continued to love these kids as more and more joined us. When they left at night, they hugged us good bye. I cried because I knew some of them would not live through the night. Colombian “death squads” hunted them. The government called them “throw-away kids” and considered them dangerous “pests”. So opposite of what the Bible says, “A child is a gift from God.”

Late one afternoon, I went outside the church for a break. I saw one of our Colombian friends carrying a small child on his shoulders. He looked like Jesus bringing a lamb to shelter. The poor little boy had an injured foot and could not walk. We bandaged him, fed him and loved him.

One morning a mother with a baby in a rusty, broken stroller waited at the church, huddled by the door. Her eyes were vacant with despair. Without a word, she handed me her baby and headed for the food line. The baby, a darling little boy cried and wrapped his arms around me. He was very dirty and very hungry. I gave him a bath, some clean clothes and a bottle of milk. Later I found the woman. She looked better. I gave her a hug and told her she was loved and then handed the baby to her, but it was hard to do. He had such a sweet face with huge brown eyes and soft black curls. He looked so angelic. It was a difficult moment for me as I knew the child did not have a bright future. I left the room to have a good cry. Our trip leader told me that we could only do so much and to trust the Lord to multiply our efforts in a way only God could do.

I left Colombia drained and depressed. Our team went to spend a day and night on the resort island of San Andreas, Colombia. We needed to recuperate. However, the flight back to the states proved to be scarier than our work with the street children. The plane took off and headed out over the ocean, but it went so low over the water, I thought we were going to crash. Then it made another dive over the sea, made a u-turn and headed back to the airport. Since I speak no Spanish I did not have a clue what was going on, but our trip leader, fluent in Spanish, looked terrified.

The plane hit the runway so hard, everything shook. It felt like it falling apart. It rattled so much that some of the compartments opened and sent the contents flying. I lurched forward and then sideways, glad for my seat belt. It was my worst landing ever. Fire engines surrounded the air strip.

Finally, when the plane was at a complete stop, our leader told us what went wrong, “When we took off, one of the wheels got a flat tire. We circled the ocean to dump all the fuel so there would be less chance of an explosion and only fire trucks were on the runway, because we were not expected to land safely. They thought we would blow up. Last week there was a similar incident and the plane exploded. Everyone on board was killed. “

We were treated to more vacation time courtesy of the airline, but it was a sobering week and a grateful week. I wondered what the Lord had in store for all of us whose lives had been spared.