Humour, humility and hope were in the air when Christian comedian and author Adrian Plass helped celebrate 15 years of the work of Toybox with children on the streets of Latin America. Ben Cantelon led a time of worship, with Ali Martin hosting the evening to great success.

Adrian, author of more than 20 books, and his wife, Bridget, spoke movingly of their visit to Bolivia in January when they saw at first hand the work Toybox does. “A child being ignored when he or she is suffering is very hard to come to terms with,” said Adrian on his blog at the time. “We went to a square where the homeless gather and it is one of the most horrific things I have ever seen. People are in a desperate state.” Bridget added: “Before, people we had seen had always had dignity, despite their plight. Here, almost all of that had gone. We have GOT to do something about it.”

The whole evening was a testimony to God’s leading and guiding over the life of Toybox and the firm and enduring commitment to the street children and children at risk in Latin America. Adrian made a comment about saying ‘yes’ to these children. Everything we do has its focus on this, transforming the realities of life for many children yesterday, today and many more in the future, in our vision to see a world where no child has to live on the street.

We can only stand in awe and wonder at what God has done through the work of Toybox over the last 15 years, and it is a real privilege to be a part of something so special.

Let’s think big, let’s dream the impossible, and wait with expectancy and faith as to what the next 15 years will bring…

In training for the marathon, so went for a run this morning. Even in a ‘good’ area like ours I noticed adults lying on the ground by the road, obviously drugged. It didn’t feel dangerous but just very sad. Later we visited some high risk areas in Managua. The original centre of the city that had been devastated by earthquakes had been abandoned and taken over by squatters. We drove round and saw a complete range of people from a shop keeper industriously putting up a new sign, to children happily riding a bike, a group of boys in a paddling pool in the middle of the street, to boys and teenagers drugged and just watching until they collapsed. We saw one girl of probably about 14 just walk down the street without any top on. Although prostitution is rife in the area she wasn’t touting for business but probably high on drugs; she just couldn’t care anymore about anything and had lost all sense of any self-worth.

Thursday 6 March

We spent some time with Sylvia, the outgoing director of El Castillo. Her commitment to the work has been amazing; she’s the sort of person you might not notice anything special about when you first meet her but to the more discerning the depth of strength of character and passion is very humbling.

We listened to a presentation on a new city-wide approach (Early Encounter project) for Guatemala City that we want to support. It started by giving an overview on the situation in the whole of Guatemala which was quite shocking given the wealth which sits like a veneer of shiny clean ice on top of a muddy rut. One in two children under 5 suffer from malnutrion – 12,000 died in 2003 from hunger; 60% of the population live under the poverty line; 10 children were killed by the police or army in 2007. The study carried out a workshop with ex-street children in a number of projects and it was interesting to hear what they wanted; in general their greatest wish was for their family situation to change and to be able to go back to their family.

Friday 7 March

At the office we had a meeting with the Board of El Castillo followed by a quick lunch and then a presentation by El Castillo on a new model for helping children. The plan is to remodel the work with the children so that the children are rescued from the streets at the very earliest point and returned to their families as soon as possible by working with the families immediately. The adage “a stitch in time saves nine” is definitely true with street children as it is so much harder the more entrenched they become; even a day can make a big difference at the beginning.

It was good to get to know Mario, the new director, and hear about his experiences in previous organisations. Relationships are really key to making our projects successful and this needs a lot of investment in time but makes all the difference.

Saturday 8 March

We left Guatemala with its huge volcanoes and ravines on an early flight at 6.30 and flew into Nicaragua. The landscape on the approach into Managua is flat but with isolated volcano-shaped hills sticking out, like salt cellars under a table cloth. The lake next to Managua is huge and I couldn’t see the other side of it, even from the plane. When we got out of the plane we could immediately feel the difference in climate; whereas Guatemala is fresh but warm, Managua is humid and hot. The first obvious difference is that you see a lot of horses and traps, even on the main road into the city. The second is that the housing is very low with corrugated iron roofs. We found out the reasons why; there was a big earthquake in 1972 when over 50,000 people died and destroyed the centre of the city.

We met Alberto for the first time who is leading the process of setting up a network in Nicaragua. He’s an interesting guy – a doctor by training he has spent years working in rural areas with a particular specialism in HIV-AIDS and sexual abuse. At the moment he is studying for a degree in systematic theology and had some very interesting ideas about the state of the church in Latin America.

The first item on the agenda was a meeting of a number of leaders from Christian ministries who are working with children. This was the first time they had been together in one room and the aim was to gauge the level of enthusiasm and commitment in setting up a network. Each person had an interesting story to tell. Some were from big western NGOs, some were from small NGOs relying on local income and some were just churches that realised that their Sunday School classes for children in their church was an insufficient response to the depth of need of children in their country. The level of enthusiasm was huge and Alberto is going to find it difficult to channel this – but what a great problem to have.

The context in Nicaragua is quite different from Guatemala; violence is a lot lower but sexual abuse is very bad with one child in three being sexually abused, which is a huge push factor of children on to the streets.

The project we saw was a mixture of residential care for girls suffering from sexual abuse and schooling for children in the community. They had a big plot of land, given by the local town council and were gradually building residential blocks using local volunteer help. When I asked what was their biggest challenge I was expecting to hear funding but the answer was supporting the staff and volunteers in such a difficult environment.

What was more amazing was one lady’s biggest encouragement; “When I spend time with the children I become more like a child and become closer to God’s kingdom”.