The Children of Skid Row

Matt 18:1010 "See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven."

I remember my first trip to Los Angeles' "Skid Row" years ago. I had a team of about twenty or so people with me from Texas me and we all wanted to see this place that we had heard of. It was about 2:00 AM when we broke loose from witnessing on Hollywood Blvd. and I loaded up the rental van with about 12-15 of our team members.

When I asks some "locals" the easiest way down to Skid Row, they immediately told me that it was not a good idea to go out there at night. They refused to even condsider going with us themselves and thought us crazy for even entertaining the idea.

Well, as you might guess, I more than "entertained" the idea, I took them down there where we had heard an estimated 25,000 people slept on the filthy streets of Los Angeles.

As we made our way into this darkened corridor of seedy motels, neon-flickering lights, padlocked business, and rat infested sidewalks--the first thing that caught our eye was a woman laying on a piece of cardboard with two small children held tightly under each arm--while 15 to 20 rats scurried within feet of them.

One of the passengers in my van said, "She doesn't HAVE to be out here in this." I quickly responded, "DO YOU THINK FOR ONE MINUTE THAT SHE WOULD BE OUT HERE WITH HER BABIES IF THERE WAS A SAFER PLACE FOR HER TO BE!"

This woman had "fallen through the cracks" of the system. Perhaps she had been the victim of domestic vilolence and had fled her home and ended up out there with the thousands of other "walking wounded" just trying to stay alive and keep her precious babies as safe as she possibly could.

When most think about "Skid Row" they think of middle-aged alcoholics or lazy drug addicts that have chosen this life. Seldom do people even imagine the thought that there are babies and toddlers who have taken their first steps down "Skid Row" or who have cut their first tooth on a dirty piece of something retrieved from the street or whose standard diet is not warm milk, but instead the luke warm last sip from a discarded soda can.

There are thousands of homeless children in cities across This Nation. One doesn't have to venture to the war ravaged villages of some third world nation to discover the swollen bellies of the malnourished---no, they are just outside of our front doors.

(Above) These are all pictures of some of the beautiful children that we were blessed to feed, love on and pray for at our recent "Skid Row" outreach in Los Angeles. Friends what we do in regards for ministry is not glamorous and does not promise our supporters a great financial windfall for contributing to it with their love offerings---but one thing is for sure---at the end of the day, we know that we have "Seen it like HE saw in and have did it like HE did it" to the very best of our limited abilities and resources.