Maternity Center

Last week and this week I went with Joy (another missionary) to the Maternity Center.  Joy goes once a week to do a Bible lesson and a craft.  There are eight women there who all have children, mostly small babies.  I was in heaven….I got to hold a baby - baby the whole time.  The women live here for six months at a time and then new women move in.  It is like an emergency shelter to help these single mothers get back on their feet.  Hopefully by the time they leave they will have a job and housing….and hopefully the Gospel. 

This week Joy and I tag teamed and took in Valentine cookies for the ladies to decorate and snack on.  They enjoyed them! My crew at home made 80 cookies to take with me and Joy to the Maternity Center & Minor Center (like a juvenille detention center for kids who are caught begging or running away, etc.)

I hope to begin going once a week on a different day than Joy to provide another devotion and possibly a craft, game or cooking lesson for these ladies. Right now the only social activity they have is when Joy comes.  This will give them something else to do during their week, but also give me an opportunity to present the Gospel and build relationships with these women.  My first day alone will be on Monday morning.  

The stories you hear of their lives are just heart breaking.  Many of the people here (adults) seem like something is wrong mentally.  I believe it is a result of all of the abandonment, neglect and abuse they have endured.  Women who are 20 years old often act like they are 12 years old.  The women in this center have been through a lot....that is probably an understatement.  All of them were orphans and the few that are not technically orphans have been neglected or left alone for most of their childhood. For example, even if they lived with their parents, the parents would leave them home alone for hours to fend for themselves.  

Even this week as I was at the maternity center talking with one of the workers she was telling me that they will go into the ladies rooms to check on them and they often find the mothers asleep on the bed and the babies on the floor crying.  Mothers leave their children in the rooms alone for hours at a time while they go out on the streets to hang out with friends.  They are just doing all that they know!  This was how they were raised and so the cycle continues! 

Devastating!!

There is one woman there who is very lonely and seems to be one of the better mothers.  She had this baby with a guy who comes from a wealthy family and his father is a politician.  He did not want his family to know about this baby so he asked her to abort the baby.  If she didn't he would leave her.  Praise the Lord, she had her baby and kept it despite the fact that this man she "loved" didn't love her or the baby enough to take care of them and stick by them.  She has a precious baby girl!  

  

Since it is a government facility we are not allowed to take pictures.  Bummer.  But, I will continue to share about our time here.  Please pray for these ladies who are single and will face many challenges trying to provide for themselves and their little ones.