I have been very moved through our ministry at Kedesh for the past few weeks.
I absolutely love this place!
I have loved getting to know the boys that live here and they have blessed me in so many ways.
They are such gentlemen. There are between 20 and 30 growing, hungry adolescent boys waiting in line to eat at every meal but they always insist that we eat before them. Every night they watch a movie and eat popcorn and they give up all of their chairs so that we can sit down while they pull out a bucket to sit on. They even politely let me play baseball with them and don't get mad at me when I get all three of our outs.
The older boys who are 18 and leaving soon are role models for the 9 and 10 year olds. I was helping one of the older boys, who does a lot of carpentry work make a picnic table and I was so impressed with how he let the young boys try their luck at pounding in nails (let's face it… he even let me pound in the nails and I'm worse than the 10 year-old boys). He gently taught them how to do it and watched as they learned through hands-on experience… and when they messed it up, he pulled out the nail and let them try again without showing any frustration. The older boys play games with the younger ones and don't get upset or mad at them when they miss the ball. It's quite amazing actually.
They boys are hilarious. Just yesterday Kedesh was able to buy an oven and a new refrigerator through some grant money that they had been awarded and they had some big boxes left-over. I watched as all of the young boys laughed and played with the boxes for hours! They made houses and poked peek holes and rolled each other around inside the boxes. They were cracking me up. It was so much fun to see the joy that the boxes had brought them.
They boys here have touched my heart with their hospitality, maturity and humor. Kedesh is an amazing place and I would encourage anyone to come and experience it. Maybe the boys could touch your heart the way they have touched mine.
