The Wagon of Love – A living Gospel

My dear friends and helpers of this fundraising group of Keilor Downs you have entered into this story called the wagon
of love. The dogs bark at it but the wagon moves on …. Because it is the wagon of God.

This orphanage which you are helping has been going on for thirty four years, since 8 th December 1988. You jumped
on this wagon of love with others. God is guiding the wagon and so you are helping God.

Who is on this wagon? These are the preferred children of God. Boys and girls who nobody wants on account of their
condition. However, they are the treasure of the church as St. Lawrence the martyr called them.

Nobody loves them, but you do! They were abandoned but you care for them! The government is not interested,
their countrymen neither, their parents neither, just nobody … but you do! They live in a world of their own, plus they
passed through a trauma of not being loved. They were rejected by everyone. Most probably if we did not receive
them, they would have been killed or left to die, as was done with others having the same conditions. We, as
Christians, see Jesus in them.

The orphanage you are helping lives from month to month. Then something happens that moves the wagon forward.
It is really God’s way to touch hearts like yourselves.

At this moment we have around 30 children living at the orphanage. They have multiple extreme disabilities. Some
of them have grown up, but they are still there because they have nowhere to go. Some die at a very young age.
Those with microcephaly, spina bifida, cerebral palsy, the multiple body disorders, the ones who come super
undernourished to such a degree – these children die young. Most of them have both mental and physical disabilities;
severe cases are bound to a wheelchair until death.

Then there are the deaf and dumb children. These have an opportunity to live longer. Moreover, there are those
whom in Spanish are called dosificados – as if they are under the influence of drugs. They cannot talk, nor express
their feelings and live in a confined world of their own. Suffering in silence!

These conditions are addressed and some improve. Amazing to see some of them helping others at table, at the
workshops, in the garden, in the classes to learn – touches awareness, signs … etc. Each one has a story.

Where do these children come from? Mostly from the children’s court, where the judge sends them to us. Others are
left at the blind children school and nobody picks them up. Some are brought to the orphanage by people. Others
are sent from other institutions from all over Peru. A few are left at the door of the orphanage in shoeboxes. I
remember three of them called, Lucita, Betty and Mechita. Lucita, spina bifida, could you believe, she lived for 20
years in a wheelchair! Betty with microcephaly used to love dancing with me. Mechita, paralytic used to feel consoled
in holding my hand in hers. Both Mechita and Betty died suddenly. When they died, the director of the orphanage
Mary Luz and myself cried in the silence of our hearts.

Dear friends, the time will come when God will say to you enter into the Kingdom of God for what you have done to
my preferred ones, you have done to Me. I thank you all for your kindness and generosity on behalf of the children
and staff of the orphanage.

‘’O Holy Father Bless these Thy sons and daughters who in faith and love jumped onto the wagon of love. Keep on
sending burning arrows of love into the hearts of generous souls to keep this wagon moving forward. In the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen’’

Fr Manuel Adami