The Seed Sown


Streetchildren eating at Agape Children's Centre
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am Reuben Sathiyaraj, a native Indian residing in Bangalore, South India, and pastor of Agape Bible Fellowship. Thank you for taking time to read about our ministry to street children and ragpickers.

It all began on the night of Christmas Eve 1987. I was living near the Christian printing works where I was working with a Christian mission. I decided to check that everything was locked up and secure for the night. When I arrived, the door was open and someone had already broken in. I caught a small ragpicker boy, red-handed, filling his bag with printing materials worth over one thousand rupees. When he saw me he tried to escape. I was very angry and caught hold of him. He struggled, but I soon overpowered him, trapping him under my leg on the floor. He pleaded for mercy, so I warned him, and let him go.

Later that evening as I sat in prayer, I felt very restless and troubled. The face of the small boy kept appearing before me and hundreds of questions streamed through my mind. Why should such a small boy steal on Christmas Eve? Shouldn't he be home with his family? Where was his family? Did he even have a family? All these questions, but what were the answers?

The street child ever present,
The street child ever there,
Do we look and never see?
Or do we show we care?

This was the first time I had really searched my mind about such children, and I realized that stealing was a last resort for survival, not for the pleasures in life. That night the Lord gave me a vision and commitment for street children and ragpickers. I had no definite plan of action, but my attitude and that of my family changed towards these outcasts of society. We now looked on them with compassion and tried to empathize with them, giving them food and our time, listening to their worries, fears and dreams. They were people just like you and me. We had no choice where we were born.