Play For Hope

Quite possibly the most important day of our trip...

Typically on Tuesday mornings we work with about 20 street kids and

play football (soccer) for two hours followed by some praise and worship

and a message from the Bible.  But today the program was different.  No

football; instead we spent the morning visiting the home of five of the kids.

We were told right before we left that we would have to walk over an hour 

and a half to get to the residence of each of the five kids we were gonna visit.

So we decided to truly experience their life by making the same long walk that

they make twice a week to come play with us.  Man, the walk through the

outskirts of Kigali was beautiful! Rwanda is very beautiful and I stopped a few

times just to take photos of the scenery.

Eventually, we got to each of the five boys we chose to visit.  To my surprise, 

they each had a home; I was under the impression that they had no home. 

I found out later that these were the only five kids that had any type of home,

the rest of the them actually live out on the streets but we weren't taken to 

those spots.  Furthermore, the boys don't stay in these houses daily. 

Some days they are out all day working and trying to get food and therfore

sleep wherever.    The walls of the houses were made of clay and there

didn't seem to be more than one or two rooms per house.  They each

shared their life story and it was moving to hear of the struggles they face

just to eat on a daily basis.  Two of them were 19 and lived by themselves while

another 19 year old lived with his grandmother because she is sick.  Side note: 

the grandmother was startled when we came because she never receives visitors

and definitely not white visitors!  

Today, these kids became more than just guys we play sports with and share 

God to.  They became real people with real stories and real struggles.  however,

each shared how sports have given them hope.  One of the kids was 14 and

lived with both parents (another surprise).  The family is very poor as the dad 

explained and life is very hard.  However, when he found out for the first time

today that when his son was gone for so long on Tuesday and Thursdays he was

gone playing football he was very pleased and thankful that there was a program

where his son could interact with other kids and be physically active.

Play For Hope is doing exactly what it's name suggests.  We are truly given hope

to a multitude of people and by the grace of God people in America will have

a soft heart for these kids and support our ministry in tne future.