Africa Update 4 (pt 1 of a cool story)

This picture reminds me of so much. Check out the guy in the very front with his hands together. This story is especially about him.



While we were serving at the Dream Center, we had the awesome opportunity of ministering to "street kids". This particular set of guys were older and were in a trade school provided by the Dream Center. I got to hear some of their stories. Crazy. Most of their life stories were about a lot of drug dealing, crime and extreme poverty. And sex? The idea of not having sex until marriage was something very foreign to them...which made my bible study with them that much more complicated...and powerful.

One day we were assigned to have a purity talk with kids at the Dream Center. We were told that after our program (which consisted of skits, rapping, testimonies, etc.) we were going to break up into "small groups" and discuss purity. There were kids of all ages there. I was assigned to the older street kids. Their ages varied from late teens to late 20s. (Oh by the way, my small group ended up being over 50 guys!) Here's a pic of us...

Right before we had the small group time, we were able to minister to them through skits, testimonies and music. I did two rap songs. As we were headed outside to start our small group session, it became obvious that the guy with his hands folded was the class clown. I kind of lingered behind the group to pray up before getting into the teaching and discussion. When I got to the circle, this particular guy was sitting in the middle of the circle with his legs crossed and acting like he was teaching. He was speaking in KinyaRwandan so I didn't know what he was saying. Apparently it was funny because everyone was laughing. Then he threw in the word "Jesus" and everybody bust out laughing again. So basically he was impersonating what he thought I was going to sound and talk like. When he saw me outside of the circle he said in English, "Oh you want to sit down..." Then he started saying other stuff (not in English) and everyone started laughing again. This guy had a scar on his face and you could tell that he had been in a lot of trouble. One of the leaders there basically told him (not in English) that if he was going to continue to disrupt the talk then he would be asked to leave. Mind you, we haven't even gotten started yet lol! So now it was time for me to get into this purity talk...with street kids and a female translator.