Your Story

My usage of Kinyarwanda is ramping up a bit, as I’ve been teaching a group of boys (teenagers and early twenties) whom Network member Theoneste has rounded up from the street. He put 19 boys in a couple of rented rooms and brought them to study at his Catch-up School. He invited me to come weekly and teach them from the Bible, so I have been doing that for several weeks. They find benches from the neighbors for us to sit on outside one of the rooms where they live (sleep and cook), and the lesson is in full view of the sometimes interested neighbors who live in extremely shabby buildings all around a large open space. As I drive up, I try to avoid people’s laundry laid out on patches of grass, while a goat skitters out of the way, and a group of Batwa carry on with their pottery making in the hot sun. A bunch of half naked and very dirty children usually assemble and join the teaching time, settling very nicely at the edges of our space and quietly chatting or playing while I teach the boys.
I have been moved so much by these boys’ attentiveness and eagerness to learn, despite their ongoing need for the most basic necessities of life. I’m not sure if this ministry will be able to continue, however, unless some way can be found to help them become somewhat independent and able to support themselves. When they are really hungry, physically, it is difficult to concentrate on lessons. Theoneste has suggested that they might be able to start a little doughnut business, and I’ve asked him to give me a proposal about that. I hope it may be possible to find the small capital needed to start that up and keep it going until it can be profitable.