For more than a decade, our team has collaborated with our local church partner to demonstrate God’s love among the most vulnerable here.
COVID-19, while forcing some of our ministries to shut down, has opened new opportunities to serve. This has included increasing our outreach to one of this city’s most marginalized groups: street boys who have been coming to our community center for years.
Watch the video.
The families of these boys, ranging in age from 5 to 15, send them to our city to study the Quran. They live in abandoned buildings, or on the streets, with no family to raise them. And they spend much of their time begging for their basic needs—food, medicine, clothes, soap, and shoes—as well as a daily quota of money to give to their religious teacher.
An Established Trust
Our partner church has built such a solid reputation in this community that two of these religious teachers have begun allowing their students to attend our church once a week to receive medical care, a hot meal, new shoes, and a chance to wash their clothes, bathe, and play in a safe environment. Two years ago, these teachers started allowing us to teach Bible stories to the boys as part of our weekly program.
When COVID-19 forced all schools, churches, mosques, and community centers to close, these boys’ needs only increased. Suddenly, they found many doors closed at the homes where they had previously begged due to fears of the virus’ spread.
Not Abandoned
The church and our team have stepped up to provide breakfast and lunch for approximately 100 street boys four times a week. Our center and church are still closed, but we can serve these meals at the front door. These youngsters know that the same people who previously played with them, bandaged their cuts and scrapes, and taught them God’s Word, did not abandon them when everyone else started shutting their doors.
Even now, we are asking God to provide more so that we can increase our giving to these boys—there are 10,000 in our city—whom no one else seems to love. We are only an extension of our churches that send us. So thank you for serving these boys through sending us and lifting all these things in prayer.
by an Alliance international worker couple, serving in West Africa