Escape from Zone 13
After a hard day’s work at the orphanage, I’m famished. With a growling stomach, food is on my mind, not conversation. But a greeting from my Guatemalan roommate stops me cold.
“I visited my family today,” he says.
“Oh yeah, where do they live?”
“Zone 13. Do you know Zone 13?”
Soon I am engrossed in his story, no longer conscious of my stomach.
As a child Enrique often went without food. His family was very poor, without funds to send him to school. Enrique made money on the street any way he could. He lived like this in Zone 13 until the gang found him.
When Enrique was eight a well-dressed man took him to a nice house with other children from the street. There he was given a gourmet meal, dessert and much candy. Many friendly older men were present. After eating, the children were asked if they wanted to join the group, Gang 13. They were offered money, camaraderie and food. What boy could say no? Enrique and his brother joined.
The dream turned into a nightmare. After agreeing to join, Enrique was placed in the middle of a circle of men who beat him until he couldn’t stand. It was the start of his initiation. Then, he was given a gun and told to rob a local store. Enrique was to shoot the store owner if he resisted. Enrique completed his task with no trouble, never using the gun. He said he got off easy. Most boys have to murder a family member.
Noticing Enrique’s intelligence the gang paid for his education. By then Enrique realized that gang life was more brutal than street life, and he wanted out. It was at school that Enrique found an escape. One day some adults from a rescue agency spoke to the students. Anyone who needed to escape a gang or abusive family was encouraged to leave with the adults. Enrique followed them to a white van behind the school. Without asking questions, he got in.
For three years Enrique hid, never returning to Zone 13 or visiting his family, knowing if the gang found him, they would kill him. After awhile Enrique called people he trusted. He learned the gang and his family thought he was dead.
At age 19 Enrique was able to return to Zone 13 without recognition. Everyone he knew in the gang had been killed. His brother was shot by the gang. If he had stayed, Enrique would have been killed as well. Nobody in the gang lives past 18. They kill people at random, and if they notice friendships developing, they kill entire groups of people. When Enrique saw his family again his mother couldn’t believe he was still alive. He gives God the credit for sparing his life.
Now the only remnant of Enrique’s life in the gang is a small 13 on his right ankle. He is studying to be an aviation engineer. Every day he studies earnestly. After living in the gang, a life of freedom is a gift that Enrique doesn’t take lightly. He knows what it’s like to be trapped in corruption. He never wants to return.
Before hearing Enrique’s story I had watched the movie Slumdog Millionaire. In the movie a well-dressed man takes street children to a fancy house, speaks kindly to them, then uses them as beggars to make money, burning and maiming them to increase people’s pity and thus his profit. The movie also portrayed the violent life of a gang member. Enrique’s story mirrored both dramatizations. I thought Slumdog Millionaire was an exaggeration. The truth couldn’t be that bad, I thought. I was wrong. The truth is worse. The truth involves real people.
Enrique helped me see the truth about child advocacy. He gave me a glimpse into the pain children experience around the world. Children, the beloved of God’s creation, need real help because their hurt is real. Enrique’s story also affected my work at the orphanage. Behind every face is a story of pain: parents murdered in plain sight, domestic violence, poverty. The children’s minds are full of memories that haunt their dreams and affect their interactions. No child reaches an orphanage without
a reason.
I’ve returned to the States. When people ask about my experience, I share Enrique’s story, hoping they will understand that the pain of children is real. So often the comfort of living in the U.S. blocks our ability to empathize with the needy because we can’t imagine their suffering.
Whether I return to the orphanage or not, I will always be an advocate for children, for orphans. God calls us to take care of the orphans. When we see their eyes reflecting sorrow and their tiny feet stumbling through life, may we rise to action!
Stories and statistics of hurting children can break your heart.
What can YOU do?
- Pray for the children and the WEC teams out working with them.
- Sign up to receive the Rainbows of Hope monthly prayer ibulletin.
- Pray with a friend, your family, or a group.
- Share prayer points with your church.
- Be a prayer advocate for children at risk and in crisis. • Share this information with others.
- GO! Opportunities exist to serve with ROH for two weeks to a lifetime!
Lost Treasures
By a Worker in Eastern Europe
Every week I join a small team of local believers visiting an orphanage for teens. The youth tend to stand back, observing, calculating, waiting. Most often they display a rough outer crust that is hard to penetrate. Yet, their eyes reveal a longing for relationship, for a reason to hope. And hope belongs in them. There is One who sees, who has the power to heal and who desires to be a Father to them. A door into the life of one of the boys in my neighborhood opened unexpectedly the other day, and I was able to share with him about my desire to help children without fathers find a heavenly Father. He really appreciated that message and shared about the abandonment he has felt from his father, not seeing or hearing from him since he was two. His closest friend experienced similar abandonment leading to an unsatisfied father-hunger and deep hurt.
Pray that both of these boys would find hope in knowing that God can really be a Father to them. Pray for God to send laborers, people in whom He dwells, to bring His love and His message to these lost treasures. Without Him, they have a bleak outlook. Ill-prepared for life they are vulnerable to exploitation and hardship in a society that is often unmoved by their fate. But in God’s eyes they are treasures of immense value. He gave His life to make it possible for each of them to have a Father and be part of a family.
Orphans:
- in many countries are victims of discrimination, abuse, exploitation, and hopelessness
- may number over 100 million worldwide
- are precious to God (Psalm 68:5; Jeremiah 49:11; James 1:27)
- need our prayers, love, and action
- are in crisis situations because of HIV/AIDS
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Helpful Web sites related to helping Children in Crisis
> Crisis Care Training International
> UNICEF
> Viva Network
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