When a Park Bench is Your Bed

By Dani Rupp

As dusk set in over Plaza Altimira in Caracas, the neon green vest of a policeman caught my eye.
"Give me what's in your hand, " the policeman demanded to a young teenage street boy, dressed in raggedy clothes and no shoes.
"No," the fiesty boy responded, struggling to get away from the authorites. Despite his small size he held is own.
"Give it to me!" the policeman ordered again.
Again the boy refused, a wild, glazed look in his eyes.
The policeman grabbed the boy's hand tighter and the teen finally relented, giving up two small white pills. The boy, still agressive, walked angrily way, shouting threats and obsenities.
"Wow, he's usually not like that," one volunteer for Contactos de la Calle (Contacts in the Streets) sadly obsereved. "He's usually well mannered and calm, but tonight he's high."

This was my first encounter with a boy living on the streets of Caracas. Last Friday night Brett, Cassie and I had the opportunity to go out with Contactos de la Calle, an organization that pairs up with Niños de la Luz to help kids on the street. We me up with about ten Venezuelans and split into three groups to hit different parts of the city. After buying bread and pop to hand out to the kids, my group headed out. Besides the boy mentioned above, the plaza was mostly vacant of kids, as the presence of the police scared them away. We kept moving around and over the next hour or so we met up with mostly older teenage boys, talked, ate and prayed with them. It was eye opening to see where some of the boys we work with at Niños probably came from. After seeing kids on the street first hand I have a better idea of how to pray for the boys still living on the street and for the boys living at the farm.

Prayer Requests
* Niños de la Luz- for the boys living there and the staff, especially since they are short on help
* Contactos de la Calle- continued strength in their ministry and for males to volunteer to make going out at night safer
* Kids still on the street
* Our team as we leave Niños, prepare to renew our Visas in Brazil and then head to Amazonas

Praises
* Health and safety
* Connecting with kids and staff at Niños
* All the memories made the past 6 weeks at the farm