Archive for July, 2010

I must apologise to the many thousands of readers in well over 95 countries that regularly read and enjoy this website. Thanks to the incredible  skills  of my very special website designer Tracey (Sevenzest) back in New Zealand this website is just about to get more exciting. There will be photos and videos and lots more ” to tell….” as well as many other changes in the months to come…… I hope you enjoy reading.

Some of you have asked what is the purpose of all this travel?
With one of you 6 score years ( nice way of explaining Dalaines age) and you the younger man next week only 2 years her younger….why do you put your body under so much stress and strain ???? Like visiting 14 countries and over 60 plus cities in 6 months…
Well this is where I fit in my apology…for not writing sooner.
But for the last 10 days , we have been packing in 13 hour plus days visiting some amazing projects in Bogata, Colombia in order to see first hand, report first hand and then through entrepreneurial skills raise money from around the world to further help and develop these projects. By showing caring compassionate readers that there are truly exceptional people doing an incredible job that few people know ( or sadly care about).

For us the common denominator is children. I don’t know what it is , whether I have grey hair, or the fact that I am almost 2 metres tall, or whether I tell stories and make them laugh….but there is something that attracts kids to me  like a magnet….. frankly I just love kids  and is someone who truly sees children  as such beautiful innocent creatures who are so often  abused and mentally and physically scared for life.
While this story is out of date order in our nine days of visiting the  Bogata that very few see, and in fact no tourists will ever get to see, I am absolutely busting to tell you about this experience that absolutely changed both Dalaine and I forever.
It happened on Tuesday ( three days ago) in the afternoon, and our host Luis ( more about this amazing man later) took us to a project where we entered through a very poor and some would call ” a  highly undesirable to be there” area of Bogata.The  street was dirty, buildings looked in great need of repair and paint.
A  metal door went up and space was made for our truck ( a Toyota Land-cruiser ) to be ‘ off the street”. We were told that many eyes were watching from behind the curtains …this area is a festering sore point in drug dealing and using and everyone is treated with suspicion.
We sat down and over a very basic lunch of Rice and skinny meat we heard a life story that at the very least should demand the attention of Hollywood producers.
There on the other side of the table sat a lady …an American I guess in her early 40′s, she reminded me of the matronly type blue eyes, wide smile and a real love and passion to do something for kids.
Jeanene came from Texas,USA over 20 years ago to Bogata ( initially for three months….she really wanted to go as a missionary to India) but instead here she was in Bogata  where she worked in a church developing programmes particularly for young people. From her modesty I knew she was very good at it and I know the children would love what she did.
She would often see children  in the open areas ( they are called parks) but I call them concrete spaces devoid of character and often the gathering places for the cities low life to congregate.
Jeanene’s awareness was growing of the incredible needs of these street children, dirty, smelling and dishevelled small representations of humanity….not deserving the results of the deprivation of their parents and the consequences of being born into families that cared nothing from them.
One day she did what she knew she had to do and that was to bring them into the church to learn for the first time that apart from her there was someone else who loved them unconditionally …his name was Jesus and he died on the cross for the sins of all mankind.
You would have thought that this would have led to a really happy ending …it did not. The minister and the leadership of the church took exception to these untidy little urchins contaminating their clean somewhat sterile church that they presided over, and gave Jeanene an ultimatum…they go ( the street kids ) or you go.

At risk was her employment, her calling, friendships and the many older ( clean) children she had nurtured and developed over the years. She was at a dilemma what was she to do? Concentrate on the safer option  or live with her conscience for the rest of her life.

The decision was largely taken out of her hands when she was woken from a sound sleep  by the small voice of God telling her to do something that was not only in the incredibly hard basket but breathtakingly dangerous.

Here was a single white woman with distinctive blond hair, alone in one of ( then ) the most dangerous cities in the world , where the Farac  guerrillas were openly killing people in Bogata for no reason whatsoever in their fight for government control.

Where she was living was a considerable distance away from the area she was told to go ( walking alone) …to find and rescue a small  child from a garbage heap ….in the dark small hours it must have been the last thing she wanted to do. As she made  her way alone , obviously frightened she passed by the  ” Night Life ” the homeless living under overpasses, the drunks, the pushers and the prostitutes,  the dangerous the depraved and the  unpredictable.

God seldom if ever gives GPS co-odinates to find things , but Jeanene  knew exactly where she hjad to go…….a heap of rubbish..she called out…..I cant remember her exact words but I remember what she said….it has trumatised me ever since…….  here is what she said..

Out of the pile of rubbish there was a raised hand…a tiny hand…..parts of  the fingers gnawed off by rats….the child skin removed… burnt and scared by the heat generated by breaking down of the rubbish.

Her almost lifeless body racked in pain and suffering …but with just enough strength to respond to the voice outside of the almost tomb like conditions that was where she had been for how long only her and God knows.

Jeanene took the child home and cared and nursed this little girl back to life. When news got out to the church it was even more pointed…..you leave but you leave with nothing , you will not be allowed anything to take with you………and in that instance Jeanene knew of her calling and the seeds of  what is now Childrens Vision International.

Her courtship and eventual marriage to  Richard was almost as exceptional….she was praying for a Christian Man with a passion for working with children….and he many many miles away in England praying that one day he would have a family.

Well God doesn’t do things in halves ……and together they were married . The story and their walk with God is truly amazing and inspirational.

From small beginnings 12 years ago came the first house named Genesis House for the very small children   (0 to 8 ) followed by  2 years later with  Exodus House for the Boys ( 8 to 17)  and Numbers house for the girls ( also 8 to 17).All the houses involved much prayer and Gods wonderful provision plus a huge amount of work cleaning out the rats and the rubbish over 4 stories of buildings in each case.

There are a total of 100 children who live in the home are children without a hope and without a home . Often they live under bridges in sewers , in door ways similar to the dealers and the prostitutes. And like the story before even in the garbage.

You will see in one of the photos a picture of a beautiful little girl being held in the hands of one of the 60 full time staff. She is the result of a miracle…She was born and left in a box.

The photograph showing the girls in ” Numbers ” house all were taken in off the street from a very early age. All are taken in before the age of three…..because if older can bring a lot of unresolved issues and can destabilise the other children.

There are two other stories that I want to share ( both have effected our thought patterns since after we were told ).

The first was a little boy I guess aged 7. We met him and he was to both of us  a very quiet respectful little fellow….maybe a little smaller than other boys that age but heck this is Colombia and most people are a lot smaller than Western children. The boy suffers from a very rare degenerative brain disease Silver Russell which may explain his size but it has a very sinister and dangerous symptom…the brain is being eaten away. And because of this, this little guy is prone to forget things. He also has a number of side effects such as Epilepsy and a very uncertain tenure as far as life goes.

Richard and Jeanene took all the kids in two buses they have and drove for 56 hours  to the  beach stopping to give medications to this little boy every several hours . They made him the King of the bus . This maybe his last year he is alive. Everyone said it couldn’t be done….but not these two exceptional people Jeanene  and Richard. The joy the kids had at the beach would of had to be seen to be believed. This little boy with the poor memory may forget what he has been taught but he will never forget his time at the beach or the other memories of kindness of people that truly love and care for children. A sad reflection was that he wanted to go home to tell his mum for the weekend, who then badly beat him up, called him names and called him stupid. Little wonder in the supervised visits he will go no where near to his mother.

The other story involves a little girl who walks 2 hours each way to the school that Jeanene and Richard built in 2005. It took just under 4 years to build and was finished in 2009. I will write a blog next on this amazing story. But this little girl walks up the hill on the way home from school you will see on the photo….two hours to school and 2 hours home. Every day. Diesel and Petrol fumes CO2 omissions dust the lot. One day she came to school  slightly sobbing and it happened the next day and the next. It turned out this little girl had walked to school in bare feet and the reason why this was so was that all members of the family took turns to wear the shoes.There was only one pair of shoes in that family. Needless to say this little girl now has her own pair of shoes brought by the generosity of Jeanene .

I hope you have been inspired by what I have written…..we certainly were. And there are a lot more to come from this the capital city of Colombia ….Bogata.

I will write soon.

Lindsay Walker

30 July 2010