This simple interaction made me smile all the way home. See, Mariel is our quietest, most timid child. She keeps to herself and doesn't interact very much with the other children. She has one of those sad faces that makes you just want to pick her up, love her and protect her from every possible hurt. It was precisely the reason we asked Cebu Missionary Foundation if we could enroll her in their nursery school program. We wanted her to be in a safe environment where she could learn to interact in a loving and nurturing place. I was so happy on the way home, that Wednesday afternoon, because I realized how much she had blossomed. When we arrived at school the next morning, Thursday, March 22nd, I walked past all of our mothers with very solemn faces. Nenita, was in a squatting position and crying. I patted her on the back and walked into our classroom where I asked Alaric what was wrong. I think my heart stopped beating when he said to me, "Mariel is missing. She was going by herself to Jimmy and Gina's Place (her caretakers) but she never made it. When Nenita got home from work at midnight she just assumed Mariel was with them, but when Nenita went this morning to get her she discovered she was missing!" I asked if she had been to the police yet and it broke my heart when she responded by saying no, because they would not care.
Our team quickly went into planning mode. Marz, Irish and I continued with the kindergarten class. Alaric prepared the Bill Glover Livelihood Project and Doug worked with Nenita to get pictures of Mariel and to take her to the police department. I was in shock when Doug returned with Nenita from the police department and reported just how little they really did care about this sweet child. They had written her name down in a notebook and did not even bother to take her picture. We realized we were not going to get any assistance from the police department. We sent out prayer requests to all of our local friends and was immediately contacted by a friend that works with the International Justice Mission, an organization that helps fight human trafficking. He immediately contacted the chief of police and soon afterwards we began getting more calls from local authorities. It seemed as if we were going to get the assistance we needed to find Mariel.
We spent the remainder of that day visiting the local DSWD offices and emergency rooms. Nenita also did a couple of radio interviews. We picked up our friend, Mike Bezner from the airport and headed back to meet a team to distribute posters.
The next five days were spent combing the streets and handing out flyers. We were so blessed with a team from the Cebu Missionary Foundation that came and led the searches. They made streamers for their vehicles and for ours. We interviewed people along the path she had taken. We were given many leads by many different sources. It was so frustrating and so heartbreaking. Looking for a five year old child on the crowded streets of Cebu was truly like looking for that proverbial needle in a haystack. Those five days were some of the longest, saddest days I have ever had. Nights were spent on my knees asking God to please bring her home and to keep her safe no matter where she was. It was also agonizing and frustrating to see how the local authorities did not care about this child. To them she was just one less child on the street that they had to worry about. The complete lack of communication between government agencies was also frustrating. Doug's ability to work with the police and DSWD without getting angry was a true blessing.
Sunday evening we spoke with several witnesses who said they saw her being taken into a black vehicle. Our worst fears had been confirmed, she wasn't roaming the streets lost, but she had been abducted. We took our leads to the police and they too went and interviewed the witnesses and also stated that they believed the witnesses and was going to release this new information to the other police departments and media.
Monday evening around 6:00PM we received a text saying that the child we were looking for was now in her office and could we please call. It was a DSWD social worker and she actually received 3 phone calls after that text, Doug, Alaric and a CMF team member. She confirmed to us that the child in her care was Mariel, that she was 5 years old, her mother was Nenita and she lived at the Plaza. I cannot tell you how much our hearts were leaping with joy. It was torturous that we were going to have to wait until 8:00AM the next morning to pick her up. It was another long night spent in prayer.
When we arrived at the DSWD office in Mandaue, not the two we had visited in Cebu, the security officers took our information and about 15 minutes later they brought out our sweet baby girl. It wasn't that joyous reunion you see on television, but Nenita was met with anger and fear. Poor little Mariel was so upset at having been apart from her mother so long and she was good at expressing her anger. She kicked, screamed and cried before she calmed down and clung to her mother. I think we all were in tears at that moment including some of the guards. During our interview with the social worker she said that Mariel had been discovered wondering the streets and crying when a police officer noticed her around 7:00PM Thursday evening and brought her to the Mandaue office, not the two offices we had been visiting everyday, including the main branch. She was discovered in another city about 5 miles from where she had gone missing. The social worker said she had tried to find Mariel's home with the information she had been given but that when they took her near Plaza she became confused. She said she saw a poster with Mariel's picture on it while she was attending mass on Monday morning and went back to her office to confirm the information with child and the poster and then texted us. She was not sure how Mariel got so far away from home. We signed the papers and Mariel was released to us. The social worker also wanted us to take a few more children. Had to laugh at that one seeing how we were having difficulty keeping up with the ones we had.
It took us several days to piece together Mariel's story, but from what we have learned she was not abducted as we thought. She was walking on that very busy street to her caretaker's place and was somehow picked up by a stranger and placed on a random jeepney, the public transportation system here in the Philippines. She rode the jeepney to the end of its route where she was made to get off. We do not know what happened during the time of when she got off and when she was found by the police officer. We do know that she was unharmed physically but very frightened.
We are so very thankful to God for bringing this baby home to her family. We know it could only have been God because there were so many odds against this child ever being found again. We also thank everyone for their outpouring of love and prayers. We could not have gotten through those horrendous, agonizing days without them. With that many prayers going up all over the world God could not help but answer in a powerful way and show his magnitude of love and mercy!
No comments:
Post a Comment