Message from Rwanda: Hope for the Future

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Today we visited Hope For The Future. This home was recently opened by a benevolent local lawyer who has a heart for orphans. He hand selected the 24 boys who currently live here off the street because they had a desire to be educated. He hopes to build a school on adjoining acreage that he has already purchased. They are raising rabbits as a source for funds and food, which several take pride in. Their needs are great because these boys are in a very small 4 room mud house with some of the floors being dirt. There is a sanitary issue with this home. All of the boys either had blown out flip flops or bare feet. Living on the inside of this home is as dirty as living outside only you have a tin roof high over your head which provides shade and keeps most of the rain out (we could see the sunlight coming through many holes in the roof). The walls are thick and look strong, but they're not. Supposedly prayer is the only thing keeping the walls up. I did not see either a kitchen or a bathroom. There was no running water. A couple of the boys told us how they used to sleep in on the streets and how they did not know about God. Now they live in this home, go to public school and love Jesus. Several of the boys also explained the pain they felt when their parents died years ago.

On the drive to Hope for the Future: The land here is very green and beautiful. Everywhere you go, you are on a hill. The rolling landscape makes Kigali very pretty. Inside Hope for the Future: Schoolroom:

We gave all of the boys new soccer jerseys (hunter green) and three soccer balls. They had a field down the road that they took us to for a soccer match. We split them up evenly and split our males up evenly and made two teams. This game was not a match of orphans vs. missions team. Anyway, those boys are very good. They know the right strategy, skills, and the rules. There were corner kicks, off sides penalties, and out of bounds. The goals were simple makeshift wooden poles that held up well to the shots taken by the goalies. I have not run that much in years. We did not mean to end the game in a 6 to 6 tie, But when it was time to go, that is what the score happened to be. The game lasted over an hour. The females in our team gathered a dozen younger children from the neighborhood and taught them how to play duck duck goose. Apparently those little children caught on quick.

Soccer jerseys!

Hope for the Future guys in their soccer jerseys, before the match:

As a final thought about today's visit, I sat there in this boys home feeling like I was on the set of a movie about boys in a tough situation in a rural part of the world. It did not seem real, yet I knew it was. How must it feel to be a young boy and not have a mom and dad to hold you when you are hurt, sad, or sick? I ask myself that question as I looked into the eyes of these boys. I have so much to look forward to at the end of every day. They have nothing but a soft bed which is better than sleeping in a ditch with a cardboard box for a cover. If they need to go to the restroom at night, they can step into the dark and hurry (with no shoes on). I have so many quetions running through my mind about poverty, orphans, AIDS, the future and hope. The differences made by generous, loving human beings are small and many times unnoticeable to the world. However, those with nothing and very little hope do feel the love. I will talk more about this later.

Tomorrow I get to meet E, a boy our family sponsors through Compassion International. I have no idea what to expect. I only know that I will have the chance to ask questions and let him know that a family on the other side of the world cares about him and prays everyday that he is safe and that he knows in his heart that Jesus loves him.