Embracing the lost children of Romania
South African born Marshall McKenna displays singular courage. His honesty, compassion and commitment to turn dreams into reality are a rare combination. This civil engineer has chosen to live his life in service of street people (children mostly) in Bucharest, Romania where for the last several years he has been a daily presence volunteering on those depressing streets.
I’ve seen children run to him shouting his name, jump into his arms and tell him some important news. I’ve ridden in his battered orange VW and been surrounded at most traffic lights with children swarming the car, calling his name in unison, throwing at him a multitude of requests and cries for food and clothing. I’ve seen him chew sunflower seeds placed into his mouth by the grubbiest four-year-old hands, children who have no other way expressing their thanks for bread, soup and the cleaning of a wound on a filthy knee. I have seen them spit and cuss at him, reject his goodness only to return begging the following day that he bridge the gap between them and a hard place.
Marsh called in distress once. Street kids had raided his apartment leaving him nothing. Minutes into the call he resolved the losses with, “If I was here for things I would be somewhere else. I will forgive them. I will find them now tell them I forgive them.” Another time Marsh sounded a little down. Anxious. Pre-occupied. After questioning I discovered he’d been out casket shopping (he needed four). The state mortuary had refused burial preparations for four street children killed in an under street sewer fire. Marshall washed, dressed and prepared the bodies using hot water begged from a nearby convenience store then conducted the out door service attended by masses of children gathered to bid their friends farewell.
After almost four years of running a rescue center where hundreds of little boys and girls found a ready meal, a helping hand, a word of discipline or someone to bury the child who did not make it through the night, Marshall has quit the streets. No. It’s not back to Durban, South Africa (where he grew up) or Belfast, Ireland (where his dad was born). He’s far from burned-out from street work. He’s taken his work a step further. In June 2000 Marsh purchased a home and opened a rehabilitation center focused on persons over sixteen who desire life off the streets, sobriety and the development of a skill. Already Marshall and his team have admitted five students.
To his credit, most foreign missions, in my experience, turn the world they enter into Little Home. He has not done this. His team is fully Romanian and he is fluent in “street” Romanian (which turns few Romanian heads when he is in polite company). Further he has been able to resist the “missionary look,” the wounded, martyred gaze that doesn’t quite connect with “this” world. He’s not “putting up” with those who have chosen “lesser” paths. Best of all, he has a sense of humor that gets him through the myriad of difficulties he faces everyday.
Marshall McKenna has heeded the call of his heart. While the needs are many and the workers are few, nothing, thus far, has prevented him from developing his vision. I think he deserves all the help and support anyone can muster and so I invite you to get behind him. Empower him in any way you can as he embraces possibly the most rejected of all world’s children: the street kids of Romania. Here’s to you Marsh, and to every rejected and abandoned child in Bucharest and every other city around the world.
I’ve seen children run to him shouting his name, jump into his arms and tell him some important news. I’ve ridden in his battered orange VW and been surrounded at most traffic lights with children swarming the car, calling his name in unison, throwing at him a multitude of requests and cries for food and clothing. I’ve seen him chew sunflower seeds placed into his mouth by the grubbiest four-year-old hands, children who have no other way expressing their thanks for bread, soup and the cleaning of a wound on a filthy knee. I have seen them spit and cuss at him, reject his goodness only to return begging the following day that he bridge the gap between them and a hard place.
Marsh called in distress once. Street kids had raided his apartment leaving him nothing. Minutes into the call he resolved the losses with, “If I was here for things I would be somewhere else. I will forgive them. I will find them now tell them I forgive them.” Another time Marsh sounded a little down. Anxious. Pre-occupied. After questioning I discovered he’d been out casket shopping (he needed four). The state mortuary had refused burial preparations for four street children killed in an under street sewer fire. Marshall washed, dressed and prepared the bodies using hot water begged from a nearby convenience store then conducted the out door service attended by masses of children gathered to bid their friends farewell.
After almost four years of running a rescue center where hundreds of little boys and girls found a ready meal, a helping hand, a word of discipline or someone to bury the child who did not make it through the night, Marshall has quit the streets. No. It’s not back to Durban, South Africa (where he grew up) or Belfast, Ireland (where his dad was born). He’s far from burned-out from street work. He’s taken his work a step further. In June 2000 Marsh purchased a home and opened a rehabilitation center focused on persons over sixteen who desire life off the streets, sobriety and the development of a skill. Already Marshall and his team have admitted five students.
To his credit, most foreign missions, in my experience, turn the world they enter into Little Home. He has not done this. His team is fully Romanian and he is fluent in “street” Romanian (which turns few Romanian heads when he is in polite company). Further he has been able to resist the “missionary look,” the wounded, martyred gaze that doesn’t quite connect with “this” world. He’s not “putting up” with those who have chosen “lesser” paths. Best of all, he has a sense of humor that gets him through the myriad of difficulties he faces everyday.
Marshall McKenna has heeded the call of his heart. While the needs are many and the workers are few, nothing, thus far, has prevented him from developing his vision. I think he deserves all the help and support anyone can muster and so I invite you to get behind him. Empower him in any way you can as he embraces possibly the most rejected of all world’s children: the street kids of Romania. Here’s to you Marsh, and to every rejected and abandoned child in Bucharest and every other city around the world.
posted by Difficult Relationships at 7:23 AM
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