Another lovely Sunday morning…I think this is one of my favourite times in the week…or atleast it has the potential to be if I actually can make them happen. My dad called me around 7am (which was great! It was fun to catch up and talk about his upcoming trip to Uganda). After talking to him I went back to bed for a bit to read, then I got up and made myself a lovely breakfast of frenchtoast and coffee! I headed out to the front porch with my bible and journal in hand to catch up on some journaling. It was the last page in the journal, so before writing I turned to the front to see what had been going on in my life when I first started writing in it. I knew that I had been about half way through my Africa trip when I started (I know, I’ve really slacked on the journal writing). But, this is what I read “Please continue to give me wisdom with the street kids. What else can I do for them LORD? My mind is picturing a big house with lots of boys moving about it. They have food, clothes, and shelter. Better yet they feel as if they belong to a family, our family. Is this crazy LORD?” This is word for word what I had written! And now look at where we are….God has blessed us with a house, and the boys have all of those things and more.
Over and over God continues to show me (and hopefully you) the power of prayer. This was a simple prayer that I had prayed January 18, 2009…and many times after, and not even 2 years later all of these things have come to be. I am overwhelmed with God’s greatness, and humbled to be used as a servant for Him.
Anyways, Steven called me at some point in the morning to tell me that he was coming to church with me, and then Robert showed up at my gate about 20 minutes before church. He came and sat on the porch with me as we waited for Steven and then we met David at church. I know I’ve said it before, but I love going to church with them! Although I have to say that the pastor spoke and used ATLEAST 15 different passages from through the bible, and looking up verses for 3 other people can get alittle distracting.
After church we headed to Sergio’s to see if Glen was there. It was his last day before he headed back to Canada, so we wanted to make sure that we got to say goodbye. He WAS there, and he headed to the boys house with us to have his final lunch. I guess Alex or Henry must have said something to the boys, because everyone was actually home. After lunch, we all said a goodbye to Glen. I was so proud of the boys, each of them said something that they remembered about his time there, and what they were thankful to him for. I don’t know how he managed to keep dry eyes, because I am quite sure that if that had been me, I would have been crying.
I had been promising Steven all week that I would go to Masese with him to meet some of his family. So after lunch and after Glen left I headed to Masese with most of the boys. Many of them have aunties or jaja’s or some sort of relative in Masese. Now I had heard how bad Masese is…and assumed since this is where many of the street kids come from it must be bad, but I was not prepared for how poor it was. There was garbage everywhere and mud huts seemed to be the norm. There were some cement buildings that were made into little one room apartments, one room/family…and more often than not, family included 5-10 children. Heartbreaking doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what it was like to see this. And not just heartbreaking, but also overwhelming…almost everyone I met needed money to pay their rent or to buy food for their family, or medicine for a sick child. While I loved being able to meet some of the boys relatives, it was hard to have to say no over and over. There is no possible way that we would be able to help every relative of the boys who needed help. Let me help you understand though…its not like they are asking for 100s of dollars…they are needing 10,000 shillings ($10) for a months rent…ahhh…that is NOTHING, and you just want to do it…but you can’t start…or you open things up to a whole bunch of trouble.
The Sanctuary is helping one girl, Mary, who lives with her family in Masese, and I was able to meet her mom and her 9 brothers and sisters. They asked for help with rent and I told them that I would think about it. Most of the boys had come with us because there was a big football game there..(this seems to be the highlight in the town). It was Patrick’s team vs. Moses team…and the prize? A live goat! Lol. We watched about half of the game, and then it was time for me to go. (Mostly because it was getting closer to being dark, and it wouldn’t be safe for me to be travelling after dark). I decided that I would help Mary’s family with December’s rent and then talk to Henry about the situation afterwards. Because we are housing the boys that we are helping, I thought that it was fair for us to help Mary with her housing as well (and Steven and Ambrose agreed). The journey back through town was a bit more interesting…people seemed to be getting more forward, and in the end Ambrose had to take my hand and lead me through the village. Again it just makes me so proud of the boys…they know when they need to step up and make sure that things are ok…I was never in any real danger, but it was nice to know that I was being taken care of.
Unfortunately because I have no camera at this point of time, I have no pictures to show you, but my plan is that once my dad gets here I will go back and try to show you life inside of Masese. I should make a comment here…seeing life in Masese makes me so thankful to have gotten involved in these boys lives. Before we had the place that they are living in now, the boys had all been living together in a small little room here. I thank God every day that they are no longer living in that situation, and even though there are so many people who need helping, I am glad to know that we are atleast making a difference in these boys lives, and maybe one day they can go back and help their people.
At home that night Siouxanne and I watched “Christmas Shoes”, which I’ve head ( and love) the song a million times..but I had never seen the movie....i might have shed a tear or two…:)
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