There is Hope!

There is hope!  That is one of the favorite things the children shout during our children’s outreach.  If you would have asked me 4 months ago if there was hope for our children’s outreach in Wakisi, I would have answered you with a resounding “No!”  However, through God there is hope!

The children of the Wakisi village did not receive us as well as the previous village we had been working in for over a year.  They were unreceptive to us at first and they were very tough on our children.  They picked on Karson relentlessly, pulled Hadlee’s hair and even pulled a knife on Everett (that is a whole other story)

These days things are so much different!  As we pull into the village the kids start running beside the car calling for the kids by name and shouting “Do you love Jesus?”  What a difference a few months makes and what a difference God makes.  Slowly, slowly God has opened there hearts to us and more importantly opened their hearts to Him.

I want to share the story of Baswari.  He is a 13 year old boy who was not interested in us at all when we first came to the village.  He was mean to our kids, did not want to be around us and was way too cool for what we were doing in the outreach program.  Slowly, slowly his heart has opened. These days he is always in our circle for children’s outreach and is always singing along.

A really cool moment happened on Friday, we called him into the middle of the circle and asked him to tell us something  about Jesus.  His answer “Jesus came to earth in the form of a man, He died on a cross so that we could live.”  

Wow! There is hope!  God really is reaching these kids.  This week as we were circling the kids, Baswari and his buddies were nowhere to be seen.  We started the kids program anyway, just with a smaller circle.  As we began singing and shouting, there came an echo from the bushes down the path.  As we sang, the  echo  got louder.  I turned around and Baswari and about 5 of his buddies were literally marching down the path coming towards the circle. They joined us and as usual Baswari had a big smile on his face. You can see a video of him leading "I love you Jesus" here:  Video

It is days like this, it is kids like this that fill my heart and makes me realize there is hope!

Baswari and the boys marching towards the circle from the trail