For those who have no voices

Today at the Casa Josefina children’s home I was looking after two babies, three 2 year olds and Beltrán (who is 6 but with varied special needs). This is quite normal but usually one of the house mums is there too. Today however the cook hadn’t come which meant the house mum was cooking and I had all the kids on my own. Katerine and Alex (the babies) are actually very good, and Beltrán is not difficult to look after either, but the three 2 year old boys can be rather a handful! Anyway, while I was there I witnessed one of the saddest things I’ve seen since being here – a mum came with the social worker to leave her little girl at the home. The little girl has Downs Syndrome and the mum lives in a remote village with four other children. She had decided she couldn’t look after this little 2 year old properly but was obviously very distraught at having to leave her baby. She left with tears in her eyes and asked me to make sure the baby was well-cared for. It is hoped she will be able to take her back at some stage, once her other children are a bit older, but for the foreseeable future she will just visit once or twice per month.


Yesterday I also went with Robyn to visit Alina, who was in the Casa Josefina home until recently. She has been moved to the Mother Teresa home which is better able to cater for children with such severe special needs. She seems to have settled in well and smiled when Robyn mentioned Lucy’s name. She laughed like always when I sang some of the songs we used to do with her at Casa J. However, it makes me sad to see these children in such an institutionalised place – they care for the kids quite well but there are really not enough staff and it’s nothing like being in a family home. There are three rooms full of big cots, a place for meals and a play/therapy room, but it is rather like a bare hospital. And probably so many of these kids are like the little girl who was left today – loved but with needs that poor families in remote communities feel they cannot handle. When I think of the help these kids and their families would receive in Britain it makes me so sad. Many of the children of Peru are in desperate situations, a large proportion of them completely hidden and forgotten by the outside world in remote communities. We only see the tip of the iceberg in children like Alina. When I have read previously in various leaflets and websites of aid organisations about ‘Juan (or whoever), a poor farmer who struggles to provide for his families’ needs such as food, healthcare and education’, the reality had never quite struck me as much as today when I saw ‘Juan’s’ poor wife leave behind their little girl.

I wonder if you have ever sung the song below? I haven’t sung it for a number of years but it came back to me as I thought about the little kids and the youngsters with special needs – the ones that literally have ‘no voice’ and cannot even verbalise how they feel or what they want.

I will speak out

by Bankhead, Rinaldi, Goudie & Bassett

I WILL SPEAK OUT
for those who have no voices,
I will stand up for the rights of all the oppressed.
I will speak truth and justice,
I'll defend the poor and needy,
I will lift up the weak in Jesus' Name.

I will speak out for those who have no choices
I will cry out for those who live without love.
I will show God's compassion
To the crushed and broken in spirit.
I will lift up the weak in Jesus' Name.

Copyright © 1990 Springtime/Word Music

When I was looking for the lyrics of the above song, I also spotted these lyrics which were popular around the same time:

I the Lord of Sea and Sky (Here I am, Lord)

by Daniel Schutte

I, THE LORD OF SEA AND SKY,
I have heard my people cry.
All who dwell in dark and sin
My hand will save.
I who made the stars of night.
I will make the darkness bright.
Who will bear my light to them?
Whom shall I send?

Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard You calling in the night.
I will go, Lord, if you lead me.
I will hold your people in my heart.

Copyright © 1981 New Dawn Music

I think I heard, and I went, and now I’m here, and I do hold a number of children in my heart, but there are rather a lot more, and there is rather a lot more help needed, to put it mildly. The question for me now is whether to concentrate on helping a few children, or whether there is something bigger that can be done. In practice, what does it mean to ‘speak out’? It may sound as though I am a little overwhelmed by the needs of the kids here, and there are moments when maybe I am, but this is why I am here, and with the children we help at Casa Josefina, the Mountain Project and the hospital, we can show God’s compassion to at least some of the voiceless, the poor, the needy and the weak. Thank you again to everyone who supports us and enables us to help these children!

Some strange events of daily life

Yesterday I was rather surprised to find a metal post suddenly appear through the lounge wall a few inches behind the TV. The workmen next door had obviously not thought very carefully about the thickness of the wall and had come straight through! A little surprising seeing as we are in a very old mud brick house with extremely thick walls. Anyway, after the man in the shop below trying to help (he wasn’t much help as he had been drinking), the landlady arriving and the workmen going in and out a few times, they managed to knock the post back through. There is a still a hole in the wall though. What made it more complicated was that I was looking after our friends Ian and Juliana’s two boys as well as our two at the time, and after the first post appeared it sounded as though another one was on its way so there was a lot of frantic running backwards and forwards to tell the workmen to stop! Fortunately Pip, who has just moved in with us for a few weeks, was around and could help watch the kids.

Today as I was coming back from the children’s home I was fortunate (I thought!) to find a taxi who could take me down to the main road. This is not a very common occurrence as the home is up a rough track where there aren’t many taxis. However, as this one tried to turn round, it became obvious that it wasn’t going to start. It seemed as though if we could push it to face the right direction then we could at least roll down, as the track is on a slight slope. So the taxi driver and I got out and just about managed to push it round. We then rolled some of the way down until we came to another flat part where we came to a halt. A guy working in a nearby field helped push and we got a little further. Then we stopped again. This time another taxi driver came to the rescue. He got in the car while my driver pushed. He managed to start the car, so drove a little way down the track. Meanwhile my diver caught up, jumped in and off we went! The other driver ran back up the road to retrieve his car and passengers! And after all the pushing I still paid the guy as I felt sorry for him! The road up to the children’s home is proving quite eventful as a few weeks ago on the same road, Lucy and I had to dodge rally cars on some sort of cross-Peru race. They had raced as far as the village near the main road, then came slowly through to a check point just under a mile from the home. From there they were set off at 2 minute intervals. There were a few policemen blowing whistles, but really you needed to either walk through the fields by the side of the track, or run for about 90 seconds down the track and jump into the ditch when you heard the next engine! It was the most dangerous event I had ever seen!