Sometimes you just have to brag a little...

Peter going to church
 

Peter carrying water




When we had first opened the home we filled it with younger boys between 8-13 years old. As most people know, it was a complete surprise, we had thought it was simply going to be a place for street children to sleep at night and through a crazy series of events, God turned it into a home. It was scary and exciting and such a joy to bring young children that I loved home, albeit pretty scary to become the mother and guardian of so many precious lives.

There were a few older boys that were regulars in our programs at the time however that although they were not in our home we still loved a lot. The slums are very dangerous at night to sleep in and so we allowed a few of these older boys to sleep in the compound of our home so that they would have a safe place to sleep. They were cold so we gave them blankets. The next night, it was kind of rainy so we let them sleep in the living room. We couldn't help ourselves and a  few days later they were sleeping in the beds and had officially been welcomed into the home.

 I had been nervous about bringing in older boys, feeling that it would be hard to manage them. However, God knew back then that we needed older boys in our home to level out the younger children and to help be good role models.  Who would have ever guessed that the tiniest boys in our home would be the biggest troublemakers! I don't know what we ever would have done without the steadiness of the older boys and their positive influence on the younger boys in our home. Peter, Sadic, Bashir, and William are some of the oldest kids in our home (they are between 16-18 years old) and the boys that have been the easiest!

Peter is the oldest boy in our home. He constantly has a deer in the headlights look. He is gentle and never, ever fights with the younger boys or bullies them around. He brings his bible to all the devotions at night and church on Sunday and loves hanging out with his friends. Peter wants to be a doctor and he studies, VERY hard in school. This last term Peter was at a new school and ranked FIRST out of his class of 75 students, =-) he has been extremely mature and we are just so proud of him. In the past Peter helped us translate for a dental team that came and to help with anything that needed, he also helped come to some of our street programs to do medical. He is now on his holiday from school and as a reward for doing so well lately we asked him if he would like to come to all of our street programs to do medical for the kids and help out with anything that we need. He has been coming to all of the street programs and has been so hard working and grown up. He comes in black slacks, a white button down shirt and tie. He looks and acts so professional,  many of the kids call him doctor.

I am so proud of Peter. I think back to when I knew him on the street and look at the young man that he is today. God is taking this kids so far.

1 Corinthians 1: 26-31 Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That's why we have the saying, "If you're going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God."

Our kids are just amazing and I cannot wait to see the men that God continues to raise them up into!