Our dream is to plant a thriving church that will be good news in this neighbourhood, a place where children can come and play, where families can come for a walk, and where people can get training for things that will be helpful to them.
This week a grandma came to talk to me, to ask for some money for her grandson. He has a broken leg. He needs a little money for food until he can walk again. And he is hiding for his life in another town. Our neighbors say gunmen are in our neighbourhood this week, looking for him. This story is complicated and sad. But it is even sadder for these grandparents. She ended up weeping as she talked to me, “I don’t want to have to ask you for money.” And this is true for almost everyone here. I always get the impression people would much sooner work for their money, and have true friendships as compared to giver/receiver friendships. But sometimes it just gets difficult. Her 18 year old grandson asked me to take him to the hospital several times over the last few weeks, for x-rays. His knee was swollen and I think it was weeks before he got a cast. His aunt, who is a single mom with five children, (and they all live with the grandparents again) always came with him to help with the registration and lineups. As I would drop them off I asked the sister, “How are you going to get home?” She would kind of look down, so I would discreetly give her about $10 for a taxi, because the hospital line-ups take hours. This happened twice. The third time, she would not take any money from me. “I have money today.” I recounted this story to the grandma, because this was about her daughter and grandson. I said, “I know you don’t want to ask if you don’t have to”. And they have not asked, in all these six years we have been neighbours. It is really hard to be poor.
Many of our leaders received help when they were in need, and now they want to help others. May God continue to transform lives, and empower and motivate them to help others along the way.
Thank you, so much, to everyone who helps this work. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your encouragement and friendship.
