Lessons in giving from beggars

So, I went to the street restaurant today, where we feed the beggar kids, armed with supplies, colored pencils and a stack of white paper. I only had to park my motorbike at the front of the market when the first lady approached me. She was dirty and her hair was a mess, she was carrying a toddler in a sling around her. She made the universal sign for hunger, of hand to mouth then an outstretched hand for a donation. I motioned in sign language, let's go eat over there! (She speaks Burmese and I speak Thai, so sign language is used a lot here). We went down the alley way to the restaurant where rice is only 10 Baht a a plate (30 cents). Along the way we picked up the usual suspects, all our street kids. Sometimes there are only 3 or 4 that we find in the market, but today 13 showed up! (I guess word gets out fast!) We all sat down for a meal at the table with green peeling paint. I held the adorable chubby toddler while the mom ate. The sad, hopeless look she had while begging had been replaced by a beautiful smile. I was blown away by her beauty.

Another mother showed up, the mom with red stained teeth and a gaggle of kids that all beg for a living. She has a newborn, who recently had a high fever, and should NOT be out on the streets already picking up diseases at this tiny age. I asked to hold the baby, and she wrapped his bottom in a dirty blanket in case he felt the urge to pee on me or worse (this has happened to my friend Sia before, we have it on video!). While I held the red faced, weakly crying baby, I prayed aloud for him. Now I don't usually just bust out praying for people, but the urge came over me, and it just seemed natural. So I prayed that God would bless this little baby's life, keep him safe and healthy, and that he would grow up and have a good life and hopefully escape the cycle of poverty. I spoke to him gently and said "I'm sorry this is the life you were born into, you couldn't choose where you were born. But now that you are loved. Jesus loves you SO much, and we do too."

He kept crying hungrily, so the mother, who was still busy eating, picked him up and handed him to the other mother, who, without giving it a second thought, pulled up her shirt and started nursing him. My jaw dropped open, I had never seen that before! I've heard of wet nurses, but never seen someone just pick up and nurse someone else's baby! But somehow, (even though it was weird to my western mind) these ladies just knew, this child is hungry, let's feed him. I wonder if they even knew each other... but they saw a need and they met it. What did they possess? Nothing, but still managed to give and meet needs of hungry children.

The children and I had fun coloring, writing abc's and I learned how to say Dog in Burmese (Kweh) from a 12 year old boy named Noh-deh. For a few minutes, they were just children again... we really want to get a drop in shelter started for these kids, so they can just have a safe place to come by and hang out, get food, relax and play.