Play For Hope

I prayed that God would reveal His will for me through the desires of my heart.  I love Africa, I love sports, I love helping people and I love kids.  It was not difficult for me to obey the Lord when this opportunity presented itself.  To me it was obvious what needed to be done and I was excited.  During the preparations I was completely at peace about the decision to travel with Olivia to Rwanda for 7 weeks to help develop a sports ministry program throughout Kigali.  Many thought I was taking a big risk, even putting my daughter in danger.  There are thousands of kids living in Rwanda, does that mean they are all in danger too?

Anyways, the long travels to get there were a bit lonely but we were so happy to finally arrive.  Rwanda is a beautiful country.  The city seems a little polluted but the country side boasts incredibly green terraced hillsides and enormous volcanoes toward the DRC (Congo).   The neat shape of banana plants are scattered everywhere.

Olivia and I jumped in to help with a soccer clinic the afternoon we arrived.  We learned the sites we would be hiking to for the next 6 weeks and we met the kids, many of whom would soon become our friends.  We adjusted quickly to being out all day in the African sun and the red dust.  Olivia learned how the other kids avoided becoming walking balls of dust by the end of the day.  The most difficult part was fitting in naps, but we managed in the car or during short lunch breaks.  We needed to be able to keep up with the 5 other young, recently graduated college students on our team.  We were in good shape going in to this, but I think most of us learned how much our bodies and minds could really handle.  Every time we thought we were exhausted, God gave us more strength.  If we reached a hill we thought we could not climb, the Lord helped us run up it.  Now I know that if there is something I think I can’t do, I’m not trusting in my God.   Myself, I can’t do much, but through me He has done so much.  (And in this case, it feels so good to be used.)

Yesterday (back in Oregon) I went for a run with Olivia in the jogging stroller despite the recent heat wave here.  Along the way we came upon a walker.  She was a little over weight and she carried a little cup (of coffee or water?).  I gave her the thumbs up to encourage her as we passed each other.  She stared hard at me and said, “I don’t know how you do that!”  I thought, really? I bet that lady could jog with a jogging stroller if she just believed that she could.  I have thought about this concept over and over, and finally I am writing about it…I wish I could write it how I was thinking it when I was running yesterday.  But the point is I don’t think people realize their potential and it makes me sad and a little disappointed.  I encourage everyone to do something that seems challenging…you will learn so much, about yourself and about faith.  God doesn’t ask his disciples to sit back and sip lattes in front of the tv and think about how they can’t run more than 10 steps.  He tells Peter to walk on water (Matt 14:29), what is He asking of you?  What ever it is, He will give you the strength and wisdom to do it.  Even when Peter’s faith wavered and he began to sink, Jesus immediately stretched out his hand to help him…he won’t let you drown either.  In Nike’s words, “Just Do It!” 

As disturbing as this may be, if you havent looked at this blog Ryan posted I think you should.  One day I asked if the kids who come to Africa New Life's feeding program on Mondays and Thursdays for a hot meal, would be willing to show us exactly where they are coming from.  What you see on Ryan's blog is just a tiny portion of the answer.  Some may say I shouldnt have asked, I believe it is important to really understand people and their lives if you want to know them or try to help them.
http://blackstarrphotography.blogspot.com/2009/07/sniffing-glue-to-get-by.html

Many kids feared taking me to the places where they sleep during the day because many times the police chase them during the night, beat them and round them up to take them to jail for being on the streets.  If they were to reveal their hiding places to me, others may see and could tell the police.  Some kids did walk me into the middle of a field of brambled bushes where they had a rolled up piece of card board to sleep on at night.  I was covered in ouchy prickers after and so were the kids, yet they hardly seemed to notice.  One boy had made friends with a house guard who tied a tarp for him to sleep in outside the house at night.  There were several boys, some not more than 5 years old who showed me how they had made their bed in a rain gutter.  If it rains they simply shift to somewhere else.  On one end of the gutter was some cardboard for sleeping on,  the other end was used as a toilet.  At first I wondered why they would defecate literally a few feet from where they sleep, but then I realized it is because of fear of being seen by the police (these rain gutters were covered) or losing their bearings in the black of night..they cannot wander very far if they need to go.  

 I have been nursing a variety of wounds at the feeding program site.  Though I am not a nurse, I thank God that he has been using me to help many of these kids.  I could not believe the healing that I saw just a week after I began cleaning wounds.  This one little guy, Didie, had terrible wounds that were badly infected all over his legs.  They were crusted, infected, and my goodness it took me a while to even find the original cut underneath the infection and caked dirt.  This poor guy was in so much pain and he just looked sooo sad.  I started caring for their cuts because of this boy, I could not bear to not even try to help him.  I started collecting bandaids and cleaning wipes from the various guest houses here (shhhh).  The first week I came to deal with the wounds Didie's legs were basically one big bandaid with some neosporin underneath.  I was able to tend to many other kids' ailments, but mostly their external wounds.  When I returned after a weekI could hardly believe my eyes, I believe for sure the Lord has performed a miracle.  Didie showed me his legs and all I saw was a few splotches of pinker skin against his dark skin, but his wounds were completely healed.  He was smiling and giving me the thumbs up letting me know he was no longer in pain.  I tell you there is no way an anti-infection wipe, neosporin and a bandaid (which probably fell off after 1 day) healed those wounds...it had to be a power much larger.  I checked up on several of the other kids I had "band-aided" as well and they had been healed just as Didie.  At first I started treating the wounds simply because I couldnt stand not to do SOMETHING, and though I had hope that whatever I did would help, there was still the hovering thought that it may be pointless because the woulds were too deep and too infected for neosporin and bandaids especially considering the rough environment and lifestyles of these kids.  But when I saw the results after just one week I was astounded.  And with praise for God's healing power I have been able to continue nursing the kids each week and I have so enjoyed being used in this way.  Many kids have been relieved of their pains and their new found smiles make my heart leap with joy.

Since Ira left it has been a struggle not to let all the emotions become overwhelming.  But I think sometimes being vulnerable presents opportunity for finding meaning and reflecting on experiences.  I look back over the last few weeks here and it has been chaotic, challenging, heartbreaking, strenuous, and hopeful.  Many times I have been amazed at how much the human body can actually handle.  I see this among the people here and also in myself.  Many of the kids we work with have very little to eat and i hardly ever see them drink (when I am thirsting after only a half hour in the sun!).  Somehow the kids find the energy to get to the field (a considerable walk for many) and then they are excited and energetic throughout the drills!  Thankfully the last two weeks we have been able to provide food and water for some groups of kids who are desperately in need.  For me, I never considered carrying Olivia on 3 mile walks over steep hills in the hot african sun a possibility...but i can tell you i have been given the strength to do it more than a few times here.  Some days consist of waking around 6am to hand wash laundry, I wake Olivia to eat breakfast around 7:30, we head out at about 8.  After driving between 15-45 minutes we hike for anywhere from one hill to 3 miles to our first clinic site.  We meet with the kids and run warm ups (though God knows we are already warm ;) and drills for one and a half to two hours, then we gather for singing, dancing, skits, and Jesus sharing for another half hour.  We hike back to the car, maybe return home for lunch, maybe eat sandwhiches we pack in the morning on our way to the next site.  We drive or walk to the afternoon site by about 3pm and start warmups (we are definately warm by now!) and drills for theses kids.  After the last of drill rotations and sometimes scrimages we hang out with the kids, chatting, playing, praying and just loving on them until the sun begins to go down.  We return home by foot or car, have dinner and debrief, discussing details for the next day.  By the time I get Olivia in the bath and read bed time stories, I all but fall asleep next to her before I get up and make other preparations for the following day.  Despite how we may be feeling physically, we have learned that we have to bring a lot of energy to each site since our energy sets the tone for the whole clinic.  We have all different age groups and in order to keep everyones attention we have to stay up-beat and have several back-up ideas for entertaining!  My favorite this week was having kids who are waiting in line at different stations to repeat patterns of high knees, butt kicks, clapping and whatever else I could think of...the kids kept busy and had a blast!

Looking forward...we have 3 more jam-packed weeks!  I cant wait to return to the kids we see every week and meet many more new ones as we begin new clinics at different sites each week.  Every afternoon mon-sat we go to the same site (each week).  Tues and thurs mornings we meet with an incredible group of street boys who have totally stolen my heart.  MOnday mornings we play with street kids who are fed by Africa New Lifeon mondays and thursdays.  My heart breaks for these kids every time we go here, the kids literally live in a dump up the street from where we meet them.  They sing so joyfully and we get to dance with them and hang out with them all morning, but when I have to watch them walk back up the hill to the dump, my heart cries for them, I want to gather them all up like a hen gathers her chicks and take them all home, snuggle them in a warm nest of blankets after bathing them in a warm bath and dressing them in untattered clothes...feed them some african version of chicken noodle soup (comfort food...you get the point) and tuck each one in kissing his forehead before he drifts off into an undisturbed sleep.  These kids desperately need love and caring for...

Wed, Friday and Sat mornings we go to various other orphan or street children programs which deserve more detail when it is not 4am.

Thank you for all your prayers and votes on ideablob.com...keep it up!!! :)