Night in the Life in Odessa

We took a bus downtown to just go for a walk and have a cup of coffee somewhere in a nice cafe.... It didnt turn out exactly the way we planned.
A boy about 9 years old poorly dressed was begging for money on the central street of Odessa. People were passing by not looking at him, like he didnt exist at all. We stopped to find out where he is from and why he is on the street. He is from a little village near Odessa, his mother is disabled, she stays at home in bed most of the time. This is what he said to us it seemed to be true because it turned out that Sergey visited that village often preaching in a little church there and knew the names of the streets and the boy said it all correct. He has been living on the street for 2 months only. He is already accepted into the street gang of the older boys. As we talked to him about the dangers of the street life he didnt want to hear anyhting. He likes it he said, it is new and interesting for him, he likes it better then going to school. No, he doesnt want us to visit his mother and help her. He likes it the way it is now. We talked to him about the drugs, he didnt try any yet,.....but he doubted it was that dangerous as we made it sound....little Dima has just started his life on the street and the sad thing is that if he had a father who cared and was an authority for him he wouldnt be there, two complete strangers are nobodies to him, he can ignore them easily....The only prayer for him is that Heavenly Father would speak strongly into his life as well as into the lives of other kids like him...

The interesting thing that we noticed was that the passing by people never looked at the begging kids until we would start talking to them they even stopped to listen to our conversation with them and some of those adult welldressed people would become angry about us talking to the street kids.....

The two other boys we met were sleeping at the city market in the big hardpaper boxes, begging for money during the day and sniffing glue in the night. Glue destroys the function resposible for peeing so they smell bad and they cannot walk properly. Day after day they live a life that destroys them. As Sergey talked to the boys, one of them said that he lived on the street for 8 years, another for 10 years. They never went to school and forgot how the apartment looks inside..... The thing was that when we asked them how we can help them they said that they dont need help, they like their lives and dont want to change anything. A big crowd of people gathered around as Sergey was talking to them. People were discussing why we talk to the kids. All the people disappeared as soon as we ended our talk....
As we were walking back home it started to rain,right at the pavement a drunk men was sleeping in the rain.
We tried to talk to him but he was asleep..We prayed for him and I felt like that man lying in the rain completely drunk symbolized the future of those kids who live their life on the street...Is there a better future for them?........