Emilton's Shoes

We did another home visit today for Emilton. We met with his mom and uncle, Justino. It was a long meeting with lots of talking in circles but the mom finally agreed to allow Emilton to live with Justino!!! Praise the Lord!!! She even gave us Emilton's official documents so that we can register him for school!

Next week, we will go to the school Emilton last attended and get his documents to register him in a new school near his grandfather's house. We'll buy Emilton new clothes, some blankets, and school supplies and then take him to his uncle's house in Thursday!!!

We had a hard time finding Emilton this morning to go on the home visit. Luis, my co-worker, was out in the city at 6:00 this morning looking for him. Emilton had not slept in his usual spot last night. By 9:30 we still hadn't found him so we decided to go ahead and go to his mom's house to speak to her and the uncle. As we were heading out of the city on the public bus I saw Emilton so we jumped off, got him, and jumped back on. He was hesitant to come with us because someone had stolen his flip flops the night before. Sounds like such a silly thing but for some reason shoes are very important to these boys. They will walk the streets barefoot all day but when it comes time to visit home, they have to have shoes on their feet. It reminds me of a study I did recently on the prodigal son. One of the gifts the father gave the son upon his return was a pair of shoes. Shoes speak so much of one's position in the family. Only a servant would be barefoot. I guess the same still applies today in Africa . . . a son wants to be seen as a son.

Thank you for your prayers for Emilton. I'll continue to keep you updated!

UPDATE: Emilton is now living at his uncle's house and has begun school! Praise the Lord that another precious boy is off the street!!!