Nansik: The little fighter
About a year and a half ago, we started going into a filthy brothel, we call the blue place. We soon met several girls who were very pregnant and working as prostitutes there. We talked to the girls about Christ and encouraged them to leave the life of prostitution before their babies were born. They did not leave.We then tried to encourage the mothers to leave once their children were born. One mother did leave, but without her daughter, Nansik. As soon as we realized that Nansik’s mother had abandoned her, I asked the brothel owner, Mamma, if I could take the baby and care for it. Mamma asked me how much I was willing to pay for the child. I assured her that I wasn’t interested in buying a child, but I was interested in helping her and if ever she needed me to take the baby, I would be more than happy to do so.Over the next year, I had several conversations like this with Mamma and they all ended the same way with her saying, no. Many babies come and go in this brothel, but Mamma believes that Nansik is the daughter of her grandson, so she did not intend to let her go.I have often prayed for Nansik and I have often left heart broken as I have watched her lay of the floor, often in her own feces, and lay her head down on a filthy cement floor to fall asleep. Many times I wished that I could grab Nansik and take off running out of there, but I couldn’t.A few weeks ago, I went back into the blue brothel and this time I saw Nansik laying on the floor looking very ill. I spoke to Mamma through a translator and once again told her I could take the baby, and offered to take her to the hospital for treatment. I just assumed Mamma once again said no. Then when we left, my friend who was translating told me that Mamma said I could have the baby if I wanted! “What? Why didn’t you tell me?”, I blurted. My friend told me that she didn’t think I was serious! I of course was serious, so we went right back in.Mamma handed the baby off to me and told me to take it to America if I wanted to! We grabbed her and walked quickly in case Mamma changed her mind! As soon as we got out of there, we disposed of her filthy clothes, put a diaper on her (I think it is the first time she ever wore a diaper), gave her a quick sponge bath, and then took her to the hospital.Through all of this, she didn’t make a sound. Her eyes were glazed over and her head just hung limp. In my mind, I was thinking, “John is going to kill me! I just took home a brain dead baby that is never going to be able to care for herself!”John met me at the hospital where we found that she was very ill. She needed to be on IV antibiotics for pneumonia and we discovered that she was not brain dead, but drunk and severely malnourished.Amazingly, we have now had Nansik in our home for 4 weeks and she is doing incredibly well. The pneumonia is gone, she is gaining weight and trying to walk! She is about 16 months old, but she is probably at the developmental level of a 6-9 month old. She is picking up new skills every day and her favorite activity is eating!We have discovered that she has an awful temper! Even for that we are thankful. I am sure that if she wasn’t such a fighter, she would not be alive today. I am also sure that God has a plan for this little fighter!