Something for Kate...

I had an interesting night tonight and thought that I would share it here. After church I went to Miccy D's (a.k.a Maccas - thanks Tarnia! :)) briefly with a few of the Bapo's crew, then had a lovely chat with Anita at her place and decided at 10pm that I would go home and have an early night as I have a cold and was feeling a little weary. As I was driving through the round about near the Douglas Foodworks store I noticed a young girl who was hitchhiking. Without even thinking I rolled down my window and asked if she would like a lift - the look of relief on her face was unmistakable. This girl looked about 15 years old, 16 tops.. who knows who might have picked her up. There was no reason why I couldn't pick her up, it's not like I had somewhere I needed to be, and it worried me that such a young girl was hitchhiking. So I got off the round about, pulled over and got out of the car to meet her. Her name was Kate. She didn't know the exact location of her friend's house that she wanted to be dropped at, but said that it was near Willows so I thought we'd give it a whirl. When I asked Kate why she needed a lift she said that her Mum had kicked her out of home again and left her with nowhere to go. Kate went on to say that her Mum has kicked her out of home a number of times, for a few different reasons. Conflict, fighting and lies were some of the reasons.. Kate's Mum doesn't trust her and this mistrust has been fueled by stories that some of Kate's housemates have told her. The last straw came when Kate's Mum discovered that Kate had been using acid. Kate doesn't go to school because her parents continually kick her out of home. Even though being kicked out of home makes going to school difficult from a practical standpoint - in terms of transport, money, etc.. I am not surprised that it has killed Kate's motivation to persevere with school. Kate doesn't have a job. She was supposed to have an interview at Miccy D's yesterday but didn't make it (she doesn't have transport or a phone). As we were driving (all we knew was that we were looking for Miles Avenue - anyone who knows what my sense of direction is like will understand that we may as well have been driving blind) I tried to keep the conversation going. We talked about things like music and what Kate does for fun. As we got closer to Willows it became clear that we would need to pull over and ask for directions. So we pulled into a servo and had a look at a map to see where we were going. Kate is a very pretty girl.. she was well dressed and had quite a lot of make up on. Actually if you had of lined us up and asked someone to tell you would had just been kicked out of home they probably would have pointed at me - Kate's hair was certainly much neater than mine. Once we had found the street that we were looking for (turned out to be in Kelso) we jumped into the car and continued on our way. As we were driving I asked Kate about the drugs that she takes. It seems that she takes them infrequently.. but the more she takes them the harder it is to resist. Kate said that she doesn't want to take drugs, but sometimes she just needs to escape for a few hours. She just needs to numb what she is feeling. Although after the high of the acid has worn off she just feels angry and depressed and the pain of her problems is just as acute. We talked for a bit longer and I asked if she had ever been to church. She had been to a couple of youth groups in the past yet was banned from one of them because she and her ex would frequently fight, and she stopped going to another because she didn't feel that the youth groups helped her issues. From here I was able to tell Kate that church itself doesn't fix problems, because only God can heal pain and provide a purpose for our lives. I talked with Kate about God (being careful not to ramble) and invited her along to church. When we arrived at her friend's house I wrote down my name and number on a scrap of paper using her eye liner pencil and urged her to call me, not just if she wants to go to church, but if she needs anything at all. Those who are reading who pray, please pray for Kate. Please pray for her safety - the friend that she is staying with has a stepfather who Kate is afraid of. Please pray that she will call me... she doesn't have a phone so I have no way of contacting her but I would really like to follow up with her if it is at all possible.
As I was driving home from dropping off Kate I couldn't stop thinking about her. Many of us find it so easy to forget about these children. The only thing motivating children such as these to keep fighting through life is an acute fear of death and the unknown. These children have no-one to love them, they do not know what it feels like to be safe because they have never experienced the stability of a loving family. What are we doing for these children? Well... we ridicule them for hanging out in shopping centres and car parks yet fail to see that these are probably the only places where they feel safe. We criticise their lack of respect and moral groundings yet fail to recognise that these virtues must be taught and modelled. We cannot expect a child to display behaviours that they have never seen for themselves. The only hope that a lot of these children have is the few hours of mind numbing relief they experience after taking some form of drug. The only thing keeping them from falling is the ability to forget. If this is the only thing that our youth have to hope for.. we're in big trouble.