It was gloriously sunny as we approached a Roma Gypsy camp in downtown Belgrade. Our minibus drove up a dirt track reaching the underside of a bridge that had survived the NATO bombings some seven years earlier. This was home to the angels with dirty faces - two acres of ramshackle living quarters, rubbish dumps, lines of dingy laundry and unfriendly dogs.
Yet today was special, as Christmas had come early for 300 wonderful, wonderful children! They all looked younger than they probably were but their dirty faces, complete with matted hair and runny noses were wreathed in smiles.
I took my bag of tricks from the van and started to entertain the crowds who had gathered for hours before our arrival. They cheered and laughed in all the right places and at the end of my show I explained how God loved them and thought they were very special. A mum holding a couple of children shouted back in very bad English, "Thank you very much" - the cheering reached a crescendo.
Now it was time for the presents...and cheers! Eventually over 300 precious children went back to their homes with shoe boxes.
There was a little girl Tanja who was the same age as my ten year old daughter back home. I was incredibly touched when she opened her box containing her only Christmas present this year.
She loved the pencil box, the doll and the plastic jewellery and paraded proudly through the muddy tracks in her dirty old shoes wearing her plastic bling! This is what Christmas is really all about.
For hundreds of children a little bit of heaven had come to earth that day.
By Steve Legg |