Spirit of Adoption

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”- Romans 8: 15

Igor invited us to his room in the shelter. He wanted to show us something. When we walked into his room, the first thing we noticed was the array of photos on a once-barren wall. They were photos that we took for them and our picture with Igor was in the center of it. This wasn’t the thing that he wanted to show us. It was something completely different but our minds were occupied by the photos on the wall.

Seeing our picture in such an auspicious place touched me deeply, but it is also a melancholic reminder of the reality of these children’s lives. Igor is 22 and he has lived his childhood and adolescence without any parental figure. His father died in prison and he has no recollection of him. His mother was brutally murdered when he was eight. Our relationship with him grew by leaps and bounds in the past year. It is a short period of time and, yet, our photo was given a privileged place.

Igor recently told us that he hardly interacts with the social worker in the project where he lives. He thought that she is just doing her job and she does not believe that he will amount to anything. When asked to elaborate, he told us that all his life he has only heard negative things about himself. Now he has come to believe these things as well. However, he desires to be surrounded by people who truly believe in his potential to be a good person. He wants to believe this for himself.

Most of the children and teens living in the streets don’t really want us to come up with solutions to their problems. There was never a moment when they asked anything from us. They never asked us to buy them clothes or even food. They don’t even expect us to take them to shelters. In fact, among all the social agencies, we offer almost nothing in the material sense to the children and teens. Yet, they sense the difference in us. They know that we believe in them. We believe that they have the full potential to be who God has created them to be. Most importantly, they are grateful that we believe that God has a plan for their lives. It helps them overcome their greatest fear that they are nature’s mistake. I would say that this is the greatest mental obstacle that the children and teens face. They believe that they are just mistakes and everyone wants them to just disappear. Each day, our presence with them is testament to the Truth of their worth to God. We believe that everyone reading this can also be part of being God’s witnesses of His love for these little ones.

Many have written to us wondering if they could do more than just support this ministry financially and prayerfully. Some have asked if they could sponsor a child and some thought about sending gifts to the children and teens. Our children are homeless; anything given to them is mostly likely to be stolen or lost almost immediately. Besides this, Brazil has high tax and complicated laws on receiving any merchandise even when labeled as gifts. However, for now, the thing that matters most to the children and teens is knowing their existence is important to someone. The number of deaths is rising in the streets and already we have had another five since January. This has impacted the hearts and minds of these little ones. It has brought up some existential questions. They want to know if their lives matter at all to anyone. They desire to belong to someone; to become part of something greater and bigger that would give their existence a meaning. The Truth is that they do belong to something greater and bigger than we can ever imagine. They belong to God and we belong to God. Therefore, it is our joy and duty to let these little ones know that they are God’s precious children. We are here to do this as your representatives. We sense in our spirit that we need to move from just knowing the stories of these children and teens and discover ways to strengthen the connection between the children and the ones whom we represent.

I would like to challenge churches to adopt at least one of our children and teens. Obviously, I am not suggesting adoption in the traditional sense nor am I talking about a child-sponsorship program. The latter involves sending money and gifts. This is not what we are talking about. We would like to see churches develop a relationship with the children through this ministry. For starters, you can pray for them as you would pray for your own child. Prayer is the beginning of all spiritual action. It opens us up to listen to the Holy Spirit. I would suggest that their names be included in the weekly Sunday prayer and a special note made to remind the church that the child is the adopted child of the church. It would be wonderful for a church to send a card with simple and personal notes reminding the children and teens that they are remembered and loved by a church. They need to know that there are people who believe that they are God’s special gift to this world and that they are not nature’s mistakes. The children and teens are open to religious concepts. By this, I mean to say that they understand that God can move people thousands of miles away to love someone whom they never met. Most importantly, they will know that there are people who believe in them like fathers and mothers. They don’t know what it means to have someone always hoping and praying the best for them. God can use you to be that person in the lives of these little ones.

Introducing Some Children and teens….

Alex

This handsome young boy comes from a neighborhood that is notorious for its drug trafficking. It is close to the center where we work and we have visited the area a couple of times. We have come to the unfortunate conclusion that sleeping in the streets is safer than living in this place. Sad to say that this is the only place his kindly grandmother can afford. She lives in a small rented room in a rundown historic building that should have been condemned years ago. His father died from drug abuse and his mother had a heart attack and died in his presence when he was 10. He described this ordeal to us vividly. His grandmother had to give him up to the state orphanage. He lived there for a few years and then returned to his grandmother’s house. She already has five other children under her care. She is exhausted and overwhelmed and does not have many resources. When Alex and his brother started going to the streets, she could not leave the rest of the children unattended to search for them. Alex told us that it was extreme boredom that led him to the streets. There might be something more to this story but this is what he feels comfortable sharing with us for the moment. He and his brother eventually, got accustomed to sleeping in the streets. Now they hardly return home.

Alex is an introvert. Initially we did not realize this about him. He would hardly speak to us. Then all of the sudden, one day he approached us and wanted to do an activity with us. He likes to paint. As he sat down and painted his picture, he started sharing his life with us. I realized that behind the quiet and sometimes moody appearance, there lives a young vulnerable child with a wonderful sense of humor and openness. He doesn’t stay with the main group of children. He tends to be a loner. We hope that we can have more moments with him and perhaps one day he might trust us enough to walk with him in his journey in this world. Alex will be fifteen on June 18th.

Please read more about our interactions with Alex :
http://spmercyministry.com/2015/05/07/an-odd-family-in-streets/

Ruan

It is hard to describe Ruan. He is not the easiest child but we have grown to like him. He is always fighting with someone. Sometimes he can be disrespectful. Ruan lived in the same street as Alex. His step-father suffered a serious accident at work and became paraplegic. A social worker told us that Ruan used to accompany his stepfather to his physical therapy and he had never seen a young boy being so helpful and patient with an disabled adult. Unfortunately, his mother divorced the stepfather and shortly after this, Ruan changed and started coming to the streets. He usually acts as if he doesn’t care or respect anyone. We believe that this is just a facade. He always wants to play checkers with me and has asked Mary to do art with him and even his nails some day. He likes to have the physical contact with an adult. Behind the hard exterior, there is a young child who wants to have a parental figure who believes in him. Ruan just turned 13 on June 8th.

Please read more about Ruan: http://spmercyministry.com/2015/04/16/my-brothers-keeper/

Guilherme ( William)

As you can see from this picture, this lad is a very sweet and open child. He is relatively new to us. We found him to be extremely intelligent and communicative. He alternates between his home and the streets. His mother travels to different cities to work. He said that she is not allowed to take her children with her even though he would very much like to be with her. From his description, we have gathered that his mother is a sex worker. It is common for sex workers to travel to different states and cities so that they could keep the nature of their work hidden from their families. When we asked about his biological father, Guilherme told us that he lived with him until the time when he was murdered. Guilherme was hiding under the bed when the murder occurred and witnessed his father being stabbed by three men and a woman. The murderers also wanted to kill the children so that there would be no witnesses. Fortunately, while they were looking for Guilherme and his brother, they found the money which was the motive for the murder and left the premises. The amazing thing about Guilherme is that he has no hatred and anger in him even though he has seen things no one should ever witness. He sat down and painted with us for more than hour and talked about his favorite things and experiences. He is lively story-teller who embellishes fact with fiction like any good story-teller does. Despite everything that has happened to this young child, he has managed to maintain his innocence. He is 12 years old.

Speaking of adoption

One of the miracles of the Christian Church is that it is a body that adopts orphans and widows and the disenfranchised. When we stepped out into the mission field, we became orphans in a sense. We did not have a steady source of income and no fixed church to provide for our needs. This was a voluntary act on our part. However, we did it because we knew in our hearts that the Holy Spirit would move the Church to adopt us. The fact that we are still here serving is because the churches and individuals have responded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit to adopt us. You have made us feel that we are part of an eternal spiritual family. It has given us greater confidence to share the message of adoption to these orphans who never experienced a safe and loving environment in their young lives.

We thank you for your faithful support and we always tell the children and teens that we are here because we represent a Church that is willing to go thousands of miles beyond its borders to share the wonderful and life-transforming Love of our eternal Father.

Many churches and individuals have given generously to this ministry. We wish that we could write to each one to thank you for your participation. It does make us feel proud and privileged to be part of a faithful family of God.

All contributions are channelled through the diocese. Please make your checks payable to DCF Missionary Outreach and send to:

Diocese of Central Florida
1017 E. Robinson St.
Orlando, FL 32801

Our e-mail address: Fr.StephenDass@gmail.com ( I appreciate e-mails and respond to them immediately)
Blog: www.spmercyministry.com