Who do they talk to?

"I believe the best service to the child is the service closest to the child, and children who are victims of neglect, abuse, or abandonment must not also be victims of bureaucracy. They deserve our devoted attention, not our divided attention."
Kenny Guinn

More then one in 6 children are abused in the UK at some point in their childhood according to an NSPCC report last year.  Whether a child will be abused is not based on their location or their standard of life, it can affect any child.  The only way to stop it is through adequate services and to abandon its secrecy.  I don't however believe our nannying culture is really helping.  We've reached a point where we're frightened to talk to kids for fear of being accused of bad intentions.  This leads to children not trusting anyone, at which point, who do they talk to?

That's where I believe Youth groups step in.  The Boys' Brigade for instance becomes a lifeline for a child.  As such we should strive to create an environment where children can trust the officers and leaders.  (Of course in a 'safe to grow' manner for the protection of those children and the leaders).  This leads to a position where the children in question feel safe enough to talk, even when real problems arise.  It also comes as a way to monitor changes in a child.  Often children who suffer abuse become withdrawn or their general disposition changes.  We should look for these changes, then act appropriately to find the reason.  This could be a child becoming quiet, or angering easily.  Like a trail of bread crumbs these children often leave clues even when they're too frightened to talk in the way of emotions and their actions.

If nothing else, the Boys' Brigade is a refuge, a meeting each week where life's problems can be forgotten for a short time, where friends and role models can be found in a fun and fulfilling environment.  Our work is as important as ever.

Exclusion

One of the fundamentals of the Boys' Brigade Youth club is to instill discipline in its members.
However officers appear to give up at points.  When they've been wound too far they begin to reach the point of excluding them.  Sadly sometimes they reach the point far too easily.
If I am ever forced to exclude a member i will consider myself to have failed.  It's against the original objective.  And yet when the question is brought up i must admit that i have cowered and not confronted the situation.
All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing.
So when one of the boys had been in trouble i found one of the officers telling the parents that he was on his last chance or he wouldn't be allowed to come.  I listened but didn't speak.  I still haven't brought up the subject despite the time i've had considering how to go about it.
It just worries me that some of these troublemakers are best off in a group like the Boys' Brigade which i have seen change people for the better over and over.  Some even come to find it their last refuge amongst problems going on elsewhere.  To put it simply, it's the troublemakers that need our help more then any other.
Our BB did once exclude a member for 2 weeks and they never came back.  But they had learnt a lot from the BB, they had even begun to change their ways, albeit not dramatically.
The kids they have problems with in one company are under 10!  An age where they can change so easily and have a long time yet to mature and become the good men the Boys' Brigade creates.  To quit so early on them would be very distressing.  I do hope they change their ways and look at creating a disciplined environment soon, in the mean time i will eventually work up the confidence to bring the case forward.

A giver or a Taker

Which are you?
The traveller i met still has more to say.  If you haven't read the first one go back to "the Traveller" but this post explains my outlooks changing.
The traveller was still sat opposite me as i made my way to CHICKS.  He'd told me his best and worst chances in life.  But then he began saying how he finds it difficult to take, not a euphemism but taking gifts or other things from people.  He much preferred giving, it was in his way of doing things.  He had told me of his philanthropy of the people he'd tried to help.
I finally decided to tell the truth.  I apologised and began to explain how i had been embarrassed to say that my true destination was a charity helping some of the most disadvantaged kids of Britain.
He accepted it quickly, he told me there was no need to be embarrassed about something so great.  How he could tell givers a mile off and that's why he'd talked to me in the first place.  So i went on to explain my first CHICKS camp, the kids and people I'd met and the difference in 6 days.  About everything, the way it was all changing my life and how good it was.
Then he asked me for a favour.  To explain what he'd learnt to those kids so as they keep on the right path.  That those kids, no matter how hard their lives are can get through them and become great.  They can do or be whatever they want to if they put the effort in and to never ever give up.
I ensured him i would do everything i could.
At that point the train pulled into the station and he said goodbye and disappeared into the town, I'll never see him again.  The near anonymous stranger, i knew his name but he could be anywhere living in the back corners meeting the shadows people try to ignore.  It was as though he'd been sent to find me, of all the people on that train, of all the trains he could have gotten on, he found the person who needed to hear what he had to say.  Then once we'd said what we needed to say he was gone.  Like the prophets of old exclaiming their message and disappearing.

The old work horses!

Heritage railway lines are now great attractions across the UK which are still expanding. But they take a lot of work!

I work from time to time on Llangollen railway in North Wales. The brunt of the work is done by volunteers from various backgrounds, whether engineering or admin. Of course the people heading up the heavy work such as the lines themselves are professionals from companies like network rail who choose to help in their spare time. Their enthusiasm for railways is never ending.
They're currently building the Betton grange 6880 locomotive in the engine shed at Llangollen and it's an impressive statement of engineering. The extension frame has been machined down by a face mill and the entire engine is taking shape with assembly starting to take place. It just shows how much it is progressing and the work going into it is of such a high level. Although a far cry from the days of the Swindon works buildings thousands of steam engines in what was the largest works in the world at the time.
But the engineering that went into these machines in the first place is so intricate and yet of such a massive scale. Not to mention that these companies were doing such innovation and building so much, but from records they hardly turned a profit.
However heritage lines are all over the place and are doing well as tourist attractions.  The line at llangollen draws a good crowd into town to ride allong through some beautiful valleys.  Headed up by steam engines chuffing steadily allong.  It may be a long way from the speeds they used to do being limited to just 25 mph but offers a look back in history to a time of manufacturing power in Great Britain.

The Traveller

I got on a train bound for the southwest for another CHICKS (country holiday for inner city kids) week which would be no ordinary ride.  In fact as train rides go it was my favourite.  Not particularly exciting, just different.
To begin i decided to talk to some people, not sure why but i did, i knew i'd get bored otherwise.  So I attempted to talk to the person sitting next to me, an old guy and his friend, i got nothing back.  Well until 2 minutes before i had to get off and he suddenly had all the questions in the world.  Great timing.
So i boarded my second train, i had a booked seat somewhere and struggled through the carriages with a bag and guitar, never an easy feat.  But when I got to my coach just outside the near silent seating area was a small, bench seated section separated by a door from the main coach.  A solitary hole, it suited me perfectly and meant i could sit with all my things.  So i sat there reading my new scientist and drinking ribena, two things that don't really fit but nonetheless i was pretty satisfied.  Until he turned up!
A man with a massive rucksack who looked like some sort of hobo clambered into my section sitting opposite me.  So much for being solitary.
"How long has this section been here?" he asked.
"Sorry, what?"
"How long have they had this bit on the train?"  he said once more in shorter simpler words.  A trainspotting hobo?  I know a lot about trains but this is a difficult question.
"Well, erm, i really don't know."  Not much else of an answer really.  He went on to explain how he also liked this section of the train before introducing himself.  We talked, more he talked and i listened best i could whilst the wind whipped through the door next to me.  He had had quite a life really and he gave me his autobiography right there.  From Being in the army, to working freelance for alsorts of companies across the world.  He told me how his daughter tried to enrage him by coming out as gay.  It was the way that she'd said it more then anything, but he just accepted it, explaining that he has no problems with gay people, even his best friend was gay.  Which apparently annoyed her.  She wanted a retort.
The half way point and he offered me a beer.  I respectfully declined, turning up to a childrens camp drunk is generally not a good thing to do.  He ask me what it is i do and where i was headed.  I explained my university course and made up something about visiting a friend in Exeter, i just wasn't that comfortable telling him what i was actually doing there.
Then he started to explain his getup.  Although he still had a lump of money in the bank he goes from place to place sleeping out meeting some of the worst off people.  I think he finds it hard to stick in one place.  But he told me about the most recent person he'd befriended, a big issue salesmen.  The last couple weeks he'd slept allongside him in the small big issue shelter.  The salesmen had found himself without a job, a house and stripped of his money left out in the cold.  He'd suffered a lot but hadn't turned to drugs of alcoholism, he was trying to start a new with the help of the big issue.
The traveller explained what he'd seen of him and upon leaving he left a present, his waterproof gear, army North Face overtrousers, an expensive and useful present that he left secretly in the shelter to be found by the salesman.  Who then attempted to give it back before being told it was his to keep.
The traveller told me how he gives what little he has to help these people although he would soon be heading back to work to rekindle his bank account.  An anonymous philanthropist had sat down before me.
His best friend had passed away in the last few years.  As he'd sat at his side for months through kimo, through his pain.  Cancer had set upon him when his life had just been turned around.  The traveller told of the drug addicted wreck of a man who he'd dragged up from rock bottom, been the friend to push him away from the drugs, into a good job, life had finally begun to look good.  To have an illness like that set in and take him away was like a mockery.  They'd gone through alsorts of treatment before he gave up the ghost.  Perhaps that's just it, when we find out how great life is and start living it right God considers us worthy of his Kingdom and takes us before our time.