One day four young men came to Aviv Center for the first time. They looked very self-confident and even cocky and declined the invitation to go to a rehab center.

One of our volunteers, Leonid, still gave them his telephone number and urged them: “If one day you grow tired of this life and want to change it, please call us. The Lord will not leave you.”

In response, one of the guys said before leaving: “I think this day will come pretty soon…”

“When I heard that, - says Leonid, - I understood that behind this pride and cockiness their souls are actually crying for help. May the Lord keep them and help them turn to Himself and receive salvation!”

We all have known this girl for a long time. As a rule, Camilla comes to Aviv Center in inadequate state: agitated and irritated, as if still in the middle of the quarrels and offences that fill her tough life on the street. When the Center’s volunteers try to invite her to rest and eat, she snaps at them, twists their words and runs away.

But today... Busy with the distribution of the meals, the volunteers suddenly saw Camilla right in front of the table. She was holding a large flowerpot with an indoor flower that looked like a vine.

- Here, take it, I have saved it - from there!

She was pointing at the gloomy place, not far from the Center, where brothels are located; the girls earn there money for their next dose...

The flower remains on our table. It is already watered and placed closer to the window. Dried leaves and stems are cut off. And then our girl comes back, grabs a meal and runs away. I had to catch up with her to say:

- Your flower will be taken to one of our rehab centers!

And then she turned around and in her quick and abrupt manner, smiling, said:

- Call it "Camilla"!

Please pray that just as this “saved” flower, Camilla herself will leave the streets and be saved!

A large young lady was moving right towards us down the street.

This was Lola. She was dressed strangely, wearing her underwear on top of everything else. While we were distributing food and drinks, she started pouring water all over herself from large bottles, taking a "shower" and changing clothes. Our volunteers exchanged glances, but in this world, where everything is upside down, you can see anything… Coming even closer to our food distribution table, Lola started brushing her teeth. At this point, the senior volunteer of the team urged her to "respect the place" where we serve. Crossing the road, she got into a skirmish with another addicted girl. On the street, quarrels and fights begin so quickly that we often ask each other, wondering: "Why did they start all that?" Soon the second girl had an abrasion on her arm; it's good that there was no bleeding, so we approached her and treated her hand with iodine. Again and again Lola come up to us, then ran across the road, shouting something to someone, shaking her fists...

In the morning we agreed that we would offer and distribute some bijouterie we had brought with us. Girls are always happy to receive such gifts and love to adorn themselves. Volodya, one of the volunteers, handed Lola a necklace, choosing the most stylish one. At first she got embarrassed, then put the necklace on and started looking at herself in Aviv Center’s window like in a mirror. Having received our sincere compliment, she suddenly changed. The aggression seemed to evaporate and Lola began talking about her mother. Maybe she should go back to her? “Yes, of course!” - our volunteers reply. Lola added something quietly, bitterly regretting her "dirty life"...

And we could see once again: kindness still works and leads to wonderful results!

By Nina, volunteer from Ashdod

This picture was taken beside the overnight shelter that is situated not far from Aviv Center. Our volunteers from Jerusalem, who visit this shelter regularly, have told us that both during the strict quarantine and the last weeks of gradual return to normal life, many addicts from here decided to start rehabilitation. Many of them are still in the rehab, doing quite well.

This Monday two more addicts from the shelter went to Jerusalem rehab. For the first one, Alexander, it took some time to get ready, and the volunteers were helping him make this important step, while he was throwing his cigarettes and, perhaps, some more dangerous stuff into the trash can near the shelter.

“You know our rules, don’t you?” - quietly, friendly, but firmly asked our volunteer, Sasha.

The guy nodded. It was touching to see that before getting into the car he handed the food box he had received from us over to a guy who was still sitting on the pavement near the trash can.

The second person, Max, left the shelter and came almost running to the car, ready to go. In each of our two cars there was one empty seat and now they were both occupied by our brand-new rehabilitants! “Let them occupy all the seats but the driver’s!” says Igor, another volunteer, ”We’ll get home somehow”.

Today both guys are in Jerusalem rehab. The first days are very difficult, especially for Alexander. Please pray for them!