We had all been so upset. Our staff spent several weeks looking for him on the streets....but he was nowhere to be found. We searched the street children's hangouts, checked under bridges, road crossings, squatter areas.....but no sign of him anywhere.
Now almost half a year later he was rescued by a visiting international mission team who were working daily at the city garbage dump. There he was, just 10 minutes drive from us, sleeping each night out under a tree, surviving alone, dirty, skinny and ragged.....(again)....A big circular journey that took him around the region and finally bought him back home.
We pass the garbage dump almost daily - a community living and working from salvaging and sorting through the city's waste. Dirty work. Small profits.
Perhaps we have a similar job? - sifting through the rubbish to rescue and salvage young discarded lives. Dirty, messy work.....Small rewards.....
But as my husband says 'If we don't - who will?'.....
There are few who will really get their hearts and hands dirty - get in the muck, and STAY THERE....Some days I would prefer a 'cleaner, easier' job without so much heart ache, disappointment, tears, frustration....something with more obvious 'fruit from the labour'.....
Its easier and more convenient to leave the garbage sorting for someone else ....and forget what has been thrown away.
RECYCLE - is a verb....an action......Its more than just converting waste into something reusable.....its a process of change - to be made ready for something else.....looking with new eyes beyond the raw material and seeing possibilities.....I think that is what makes the difference!
