New Boys!

This past Wednesday we welcomed 2 new boys into my dorm!  There names are Alberto and Enrique.  They are 12 and 10.  Their mom passed away back in December or January and they were living in the house alone with neighbors giving them food.  Somehow the social agency became aware of them and brought the boys to us.  They have different fathers.  We've been in touch with Alberto's father and he wants nothing to do with his son.  We've yet to locate Enrique's father.  Neighbors told us there was an older sister who was married but no one knows where she lives.  

The boys  were so excited this past Thursday as i let them go through our dorm clothes boxes and pick out some shorts and tee shirts.  On Friday I took them to our clinic and had them all checked out and started on vitamins and iron tablets.  

Sadly, we hear stories like that of these boys all the time.  Sometimes I find myself not even thinking twice about them.  But then yesterday, I seemed to hear heartbreaking story after heartbreaking story and became a little overwhelmed by how hard life is for the people of Mozambique.  2 new boys whose mother passed away and the fathers don't want them, a 17 year old girl at the garbage dump grieving the loss of her baby, another woman at the dump worried about the health of her infant after having her 10 month old die of malnutrition last year, another children's center down the road where children are not well cared for yet social agencies continue to give them more children . . . the stories are never ending.  I pray my heart never becomes numb to the stories of these people because I know they break the heart of our Father.

And somehow I know that their is hope for these people . . . that our Father will bring redemption to this nation.  Seeing the joy on the faces of Alberto and Enrique reminds me of that.