"Everyone envies me because she already has so much hair and is so beautiful," says Crenguza about her baby. Just a few hours before the delivery, this mother was still in a sewerage hole sniffing lacquer in order to forget that the time of arrival was approaching. Crenguza has the fate of a street kid. The mother dead, the family broken up, the father a drinker. He sold the house. She came into an institution and ran away, blows and punishments accompanied her. She managed to make it to Bucharest on the train and to join the no-one's-children. For seven years, I fought to liberate this young girl from the darkness. Drugs and all of the dirtyness would not let go their hold on her. What power can save this girl?

I look at the tender little fingers of this child. She could have the power which we need now. Crenguza has been able to resist drugs since the birth of her child - nonetheless, already three months ago. She takes care of herself and the baby, even if some skills still need to be learned. Her deepest wish is this: "That no one can laugh at my child and say, 'You are a street child.' No one should be able to say to me, 'You gave birth to a child and then you gave it away.' Andrea should have a real family, she should be happy and never lonely."

Crenguza and little Andrea will be among the first residents of the Social Centre Lazarus. Both will help in the house and will have a job to do. When hundreds of people from the streets move in, we will need many hands. Most of all, we will need the hands of the child. They can protect us from the violence of the street, they can comfort the despairing, they can calm down those who are looking for a fight. Look at how much this child already has achieved for her mother - more than we with all of our strength in the years before! When I think about that, I lose my fear of the winter and the coming onslaught from the street into our new Social Centre with the name Lazarus: God helps. Christmas reveals for us the way in which God helps. With the tender hands of a child.

Dear friends, what the children give to us, I would like to pass on to you this Advent. May we pay more attention to that which is small and tender than to that which is powerful; may we pay more attention to those who need protection and to problem children. The joy of Christmas comes from them.

November 2002