Good Mornings at Night

~"Good morning sir," a Rwandan man greeted me as I meandered my way through the bus park at night.~

I have been enjoying my time with the boys so incredibly much. Sometimes it feels like they serve me more than I serve them. I had been praying that God would open up an opportunity for me to serve them, and He did. The only time the staff are able to take the boys to play soccer is on Saturdays, which has been a bit of a disappointment for the boys. For the last three weeks I have been taking them to play soccer during the week, and I can see that through it I have developed a closer bond with the boys. It is encouraging to see that even though it is a simple way to serve the boys, it makes a big difference to them.

Before coming to Rwanda, two of the boys, Patrick and Muhawe, were struggling with learning any of the letters in the alphabet and the staff felt like there was nothing left that they could do. Although Muhawe is a complete goofball and a love machine, when I first came Patrick was very reserved and quite, and I couldn’t recall seeing him expressing joy. After working with Patrick for two weeks, we had a breakthrough and he learned the alphabet. Afterwards, I asked him to spell the word, “yego,” and he told me, “Sorry, but I don’t know how do write.” I told him to just try, and he excitedly discovered that he was able to spell it. He then began asking me to have him spell word after word. I could see the joy and confidence in him increasing after each word he wrote down. The next day, the second I entered the door a smiley Patrick eagerly ran up to me and gave me a huge greeting hug. This was the first time he had expressed excitment when I came. I brought a children’s book and told him that I was going to have him read a few words from it. His eyes wandered down in embarrassment as he told me, “I can’t. I don’t know how to read.” So I told him, “I know, but I want you to try.” To his surprise, he discovered that he could sound out the words and read them. Since this, I have seen Patrick regain his confidence and express joy. It has been very heartening to see this change in him. I am still working with Muhawe and praying that he also will have a breakthrough.

While in the Kimironko market buying fruit, Megan and I spotted Claude (the boy who ran away). When he saw us we could see that he was debating whether or not to run away from us. Thankfully his smarter side won the debate and he approached us. This is the first time he has let any of the HFL staff talk with him, which shows some relenting of his heart. We asked him how he was doing. He looked at us with his strung out eyes and told us he wasn’t doing well. That was as much as he would say. He soon beckoned three of his closest street friends (and former HFL boys) to come over. Two of them I had already seen this trip, Pascal and Umugisha, in the unfortunate event of when they visited the home and influenced Claude to leave. The third, Dakundimana, I had not seen since I was in Rwanda 2 years ago. He was one of the original boys we brought to the home, and had ran away and begged to come back one too many times. It made me want to break down and cry and scream in rage all the same time. To know that these boys have been so blinded to give up their opportunity of life so that they can have freedom and drugs breaks my heart and makes me furious. They have been on the streets for years, and this will be their lives. To see precious children on the path of destruction and not be able to do anything about it is hard to come to grips with. All I can do is pray that the Lord moves in each one of these boys hearts. Please join with me in that prayer.