“We welcome you! We welcome you!”
That’s how the song went. From a distance we could see hundreds of children dancing. Then we noticed two lines. They had made the lines so our vehicles could drive through them as they were singing to us. I have never seen a group of children like these. They were waving their arms. They were stomping their feet. They were singing to the top of their lungs. I have never seen such gyrations as they paraded around the ground. This was Eruli 2.
They had a new building. I have no idea how they built it. Somehow with leftover money which I can’t imagine happening with the small amount we send, they had constructed a church building that they were using for a school. All eight grades were meeting in this one room. They were sitting on logs. Although it was a small room, it was not really a small school. There were over 300 students there. And they were happy.
When I left them a year ago, they were meeting on the ground. They had no food. They had hardly any water. They seemed to be so unhealthy that I wondered how many would still be there when I returned.
But we sponsored these children through CRF. And they had learned thankfulness. It seems like they sang for hours original songs all about how thankful they were for their sponsors.
These children were all victims of the most cruel war I have ever heard of. It was the tribal war on Mt. Elgon. Most of these children had witnessed the massacre of their parents. Many had seen their parents cut up with machetes. How do you deal with this? Their resilience is beyond my comprehension. And they knew that the only hope they had came from some godly sponsors of CRF. And wow, did they ever know how to give thanks.
I talk about hope a lot. I wear the color of hope. On Mt. Elgon, I heard these words—“With hope there is happiness. Without hope there is no happiness. We are happy. We have hope.”
Thanks to all the people who bring hope to some of the most needy children in the world.
