Remember the Kids from Last Sunday?

Remember the kids that we gave a ride to church last week?  Well, by Tues... they called and asked if i would meet them at their school.  It was a about a mile walk... (Bruce had the car).... but when I got there they weren't there.  I called them and they said.. oh no... we want you to come to our village!  So, i walked on down the road another 1/8 of a mile or so and was greeted with open arms and open hearts.

This is William and Synthia in Synthia's house. ( pronounced santia)
He is 13.  She is 12.  This is the little girl that prayed so beautifully.
They both speak English and they both love the Lord! 

This is Patrick... He is 11 and doesn't know much of what we say
but he is always close.

Denise is about 10 and is literally right next to me all
the time..at church and here, too! 

 Patrick, Synthia, me and Denise at the entrance to her house.
William insisted on pictures!

Then he had Synthia take one of him with us.

 These two are simply edible!  I just want to eat them up!  They are so cute!
 The one on the right is
Synthia's little brother. I don't know the little girl. 

 More of the kids in the village (of about 5 houses).

Then we went to William's house to meet his GREAT grandma..
She is about 85...and in great health.  William lives with his grandparents and great
grandma since neither of his parents are living. 

 The lady on the far left is William's Grandma!
Grampa is a pastor in a small country church... but William
prefers to come to Christ's Church where he has been coming
for over 4 years.
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In Kigali.... people interchange their r's and l's so folks say
"Kigari" for instance.... So I asked William what he wanted to be when he grew up and he said very proudly, "a pirate"!  I said, a what?  Like the guys who steal stuff from other boats?
He said.. "OH NO.. i want to be a pirate.... you know, the one who flys the airplanes."
It was only then that i remembered about the r's and l's and we had a good laugh.
I actually think he will be a pastor!  ( no r's or l's)!!!

Yes, I know this picture is fuzzy but they were just so cute.
They just wandered in while we were all talking... or attempting to talk to each other.
And when their Mom called and told them to come home..They just started
crying... I guess they wanted to stay. 

Now the cool thing is before we left William's house the kids said.. We have to pray!
And then we had a prayer and blessing from two of the children..  So dear!  Trust and obey for there's no other way....  They live this!

The older kids wanted to walk me home.  I wasn't sure about this idea on many levels.
But the hardest part was Synthia's little brother didn't want her to leave. So i just held him a little bit and he calmed down...Couple more minutes and he would have been asleep! ha!

It took us about 40 minutes to walk home and i didn't know what the kids would think when we got to our house.  I told them we were just renting this house and it was quite a bit bigger than our house in the US.  They didn't care... We had so much fun talking and then we had drinks when we got to our house and or course, William asked Innocent to take a picture of us.  

 I'm the one without the tan!  They went home after a bit but NOT
before we all circled up and prayed again.
I have a vague recollection of Dad, Claude and/or the pastors doing this at our house when we would would be parting ways with friends or family.
   It brought back lots of memories.

The sad news of the day is that Synthian is going back to boarding school
and will be gone for 3 months.  We met her mom when we drove the kids home from church this morning... and her mom asked if we would like to go with her to see her at school when she can have visitors.  I'm so glad!  This is a dear young girl.  I don't know which baby she picked up to comfort! 

This is the street that turns into the village.
 Synthia's house is the pink one.

 This is William's grandparent's home!

The sermon today was on HOPE!  Looking at some of the situations here, Hope is not the
first word that enters my mind or heart.   But then, when you talk to people... they see and have so much hope for the future.  It makes me feel ashamed at some of things i complain about.  These children are so happy and content in the Lord and all the blessings He has given them.   I hope to discover what is underneath all that
Hope.. There are lots of layers here in people's hearts and minds and I pray that i will be able to know someone well enough that they can articulate their hope to me--when they appear to be in a hopeless situation.

I know their hope is in the Lord and i know they trust Him with their future... but I still wonder if there is more.... something deeper.  Or is it pure and simple trust in their Savior and His love for them?  I suspect it might be just that....

Please remember them in your thoughts and prayers!

love you all,
margie