Sewage House
This month we are working at a boy’s home outside
Maputo. We live in a house with our
contact and her family while the boys live in another house at the other side
of our compound.
The other day Kyle and I took a walk around our compound. We wanted to walk down the road to see all the
tadpoles still living in the puddles after our 4 day monsoon. We looked at them and saved a few that were
in a puddle that was about to dry up.
Then we decided to go look at the house where the boys live. Some of our team had been in there before but
we hadn’t. We were shocked at what we
saw. I couldn’t believe people were
living in a place like that. The boys’
rooms surround a courtyard which was bubbling up with sewage. The septic tank over flowed from all the rain
so there was a stream of bubbling sewage even though it was a week later. The smell made us want to throw up. The walls were covered in black gunk and
mold. Our hearts were broken for the
boys. If their house was back in America
it would have been condemned and demolished without a doubt. In our western minds we didn’t want them to
live like this and we wanted to make it better for them. With all the free time we have in the
mornings this month we were excited we found something to do during the day
when we aren’t teaching classes. We went
back to our house and talked to Josh about what we saw (from another team we
are living with this month) and we all decided we wanted to change their
house. That night at team time we told
the girls about their house and showed them some of the pictures. We decided that we needed to pray for a
miracle- for God to bring us gallons of paint, loads of concrete to build them
a path above the sewage, and whatever else they needed to make the house nicer
for them. We prayed and decided that the
next morning we would go to their house and see what we could do to fix it up
and pray to see what was needed.
We spent about twenty minutes walking around their house
praying for God to show us what they needed to make the house better. After walking around praying we met outside
to talk about where we felt like God was leading us to serve these boys- and we
were all pretty shocked at his answer. We
all started sharing what God was telling us and each time it was the same-
“They are fine”
“They have what they need, they have me”.
“Build them up”
“Pray for them”
“All they need is me”
As much as we wanted to help their living situation they had
all they needed. They are where God wants them to be and with everything they need. For our remaining time here,
God wants us to focus on empowering the boys.
He wants us to educate them and empower them to be men, men who will act
in boldness. Men who will end corruption
in their country. Men who will fight
AIDS by taking a stand. Men who are
willing to shake and reshape their culture.
Men who will lead their generation into greatness. Men who will be examples for future generations
and all of Africa. Men who are going to
become strong and empowered men of God.
