Some days aren't so glorious...

"The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live." John 14:17-19

Yesterday was one tough day for Chris and I both. I will just be honest and tell you that our not all of our Saint boys are exactly Saints yet. That may surprise some of you. Hopefully not.

(Side Note: The next snail mail newsletter will go into detail about my favorite program we have with them. It is about some Mama’s in the US who love each of them as their own, interceding for them daily.)

Yesterday was difficult for us because we had to suspend one young man in the program who has been lying to us for over a year. He claimed that his mother was dead and his Father beat him, so he ran away and became a street boy. His mother showed up at the school one day wanting her son to come back home. It is a HUGE disrespect, especially here, to say that your mother is dead when she is alive. I explained to the young man that God designed family and we must follow God’s word completely. Plus, he even lied about his name. For the past year we have called him the name, first and second name, that he told us was his name. Now his mother revealed that his real name isn't even close. Our desire is to reunite the boys with their families IF it is safe to do so. The other boys in the group were also VERY disappointed that this boy who had been their brother for a year had lied to them as well and claimed his mother was dead. The other boys in the group have at least one parent that has died. A few of them being their mothers; they would give anything to have their mothers. So we are all frustrated at him to say the least. We told him he must go back home. He is in no danger living at home. He is suspended from the program for at least a month. Our team will visit, counsel and evaluate the family every 4-5 days.

Yesterday morning before we met with the mother and son, we arrived to find quiet boys with heads hanging. We look around and quickly realize there are 3 missing. The littlest one is very sick with Pneumonia. The other 2 have been struggling for quite some time. They struggle with their addictions to sniffing glue. I truly believe that they want to quit, but trying to live without it is a whole new life style and concept to them. We decided to sit as a family and discuss what it is we were not doing right. So Deo, Mama, Lillian (their oldest), Issa, Justin, Chris, me, and the other boys sat in a tight circle. Chris asked what the boys thought we could do better and what they thought wasn’t working for them. We talked about their addictions and how we could help them. There were some good suggestions on what to do next with these 2. CT conveyed the importance of why we ALL need to be extremely committed to pray for them. They boys said at lunchtime they really wanted to go find the 2 who had wandered off. When Chris asked why they wanted to find them and why we should pray for them- the next littlest fellow raised his hand saying “Because they are our brothers.” Choking back the tears and swallowing hard we nodded, hearts swelling up with pride. After talking for some time Chris explained that he and I have really wanted children for some time. He admitted getting very discouraged that he still didn’t have kids at 34 years old. And then God helped him realized that he was a Father and has each of them! He told them that he will never leave them and that he would protect them and provide for them. It was very apparent that the boys believed and understood that what Chris was saying was true. They had tears in their eyes and struggled to keep them from falling. Chris told him he would fight one particular battle on behalf of the other 2 boys that were back on the street yesterday. That is a battle with the main woman supplying the glue. She has been taken to the police, but unfortunately they just accept bribes from her allowing her to continue destroying the lives of countless boys. Thankfully we have friends in high places that the Lord is using in awesome ways. Chris assured them he would fight that battle because our boys are very scared of her. She has a lot of power in that area. I have concerns about the boys going to look for the others.

We ended with lots and lots of prayer and tears from just about everyone. We all agreed to go as a group to look for the 2 missing boys. CT had a meeting, so Justin, Thomas, Issa and I went with the boys.

We got in the car and us Wazungu sat in the back (Justin and I) in case we got into some sketchy areas. I can be a bit freakish at times I guess since I can't change the color of my skin no matter how hard I pray. Thomas drove. I asked the boys in the car to show me some places I had heard them talk about before. Like where they used to sleep, where they picked rotten fruit from when they didn’t have money, and where they used to pick cans for money. They showed me all of those… and more. I almost wished I hadn’t asked, but I felt like I needed a visual. I wanted some way to identify or visualize these places in my mind when they talked about them. I also wanted to understand as much as possible about where they had been and come from. When I was shown where they slept I could NOT believe it. It was practically in the sewage. When I questioned about sleeping in the sewage one said, “We put papers down.” As though that made it sanitary enough to sleep. As hard as it was to see and hear these things, I am glad I did because now I know where our boys have come from and where they don’t have to sleep anymore and that they don’t have to ear rotten foods any more.

Finally, we found one of the lost boys. I was so excited when I saw him, just to know he was okay. There, standing next to him, was a boy I recognized. He has such a beautiful smile. He left the program back in June to return to life on the streets. The glue won him over, but it was good to see him… and that smile. The door opened and in came out lost boy- reeking of glue and quite high. I put my hand on him and asked if he was okay. He nodded his head. I wanted to burst into tears. Even now, as I recount this, it is hard for me to adequately describe the feeling of picking up a hungry, addicted, high son up off slum streets.

We’d found this boy, once again. We drove onto a main road in the slum in desperate search of the other one. We were told he was swimming in Nairobi River. This river is full of filth, sewage, and trash. I’ve been told it’s black. But to a little street boy, it sounded like fun. We parked and stayed put while Issa and 2 of the others went to find him. Soon after we parked I see that same smiling boy come walking up. He had walked far it seemed. Maybe he knew shortcuts. I’m still not sure how he found us. He came up to Thomas’ window to ask us a question. He wanted to know why did we keep coming back to find these same 2 boys, but we never came after him. I explained that we have rules in the program and he continued breaking them, by bringing his glue to the class and never would get serious about wanting to stop. I told him he is welcome to come back if he REALLY wants help and REALLY doesn’t want to be a street boy. It was up to him to decide what kind of life he wanted. Now we just pray that the enemy doesn’t win him again. I remembered he had a really bad tooth that was infected and needed to be pulled. I asked how it was and he showed me saying it was still painful. I told him if he would come back I would take him to get it fixed.

Issa and the older boys came back empty handed. They couldn’t find our other lost one. I asked again, this morning. They still can’t find him.

I guess the whole “I’m happy you’re okay” feeling passed on the way back to Hope Center b/c I felt myself getting really angry with my addicted boy in the backseat. I told him how much I didn’t want him to be in the street. It felt like all my words of how I was feeling were so jumbled up. So I finally just said (probably forcefully) “Are you tired of us coming to find you? Do you want us to stop coming after you and give up on you?” He looked up, looked me straight in the eyes and said “no.”

These boys…

….oh these boys