1/16/2012, Craziest Day Yet

First off, let it be known.. I stink at updating this...

My day today started off as any other day here; waking up, getting ready, and then going to Agape. My street partner, Abel, came up and said "We have a team thats from Australia, going to the street with us today. Oh, and that means you need to watch out for everything, there are going to be lots of women in the group."

Not that white, "mzungu" women on the street is dangerous, it's just that they draw lots of attention.
After spending a few hours playing with the street boys and worshiping the Lord, we had a teaching time. We shared on my favorite verse:)  (comment if you know what it is;)) After getting back to Agape, I was told by some of the boys, that three of the other boys had jumped the fence. After confirming this with the "boss" Abel and I went back on the streets and down to the lake to try and find them.

Mzungu's normally dont walk anywhere near the lake. Just because there is no tourist attractions. So me being there always draws a bit of attention. Once down on the lakeside we spotted the three boys,  we started walking towards them. Once they saw us, they turned around and started speed walking the other way, so i took off at a jog towards them (about 130 yards behind them.) All of a sudden they started sprinting away.

Back step. A white dude by the lake, weird, a white dude jogging by the lake, even weirder, a white dude sprinting by lake after three street boys, never seen before.

So pretty soon all of the "Hotel" (restaurants) owners and customers are out looking at me. I'm still running at full speed after three boys who run like foxes. No joke, they are crazy fast, and can hide almost anywhere. But I'm taller then the kids, and have longer legs. So I catch up to one, the others split up. One running towards the snake infested bush, the other running towards the city.

So I just chilled with the one, after assuring him that I wasnt going to beat him, he came along to talk to Abel and I (oh btw, Abel had just been walking like nothing was wrong while i was running... ya...) As we walked back to Abel, all of the Hotel owners started freaking out. So we left that area. After sitting down with, guess who, Steven. Of course this kid was named after me... Even harder to see him out on the streets. We started talking and he said that he was not going back to Agape. The streets are his home and he likes the freedom of it. Soon the boy who had run to the bush came and all four of us kept talking.

Now 10 hours have past and it is night, and those three boys, Steven, Fred, and Franklin, are still out there somewhere. They chose the freedom of the streets, instead of the safe Agape campus.

But I am at peace that God has them in the palm of his hand, we did all that we could. But sometimes thats not enough. God is the one who has the final say, the final decision, the final word.
He will do what He wants no matter what we do. He has our days planned already, He knows everything that we will do today. Tomorrow. And the day after that.
The cool thing, no wait the AMAZING thing, is that He is still there for us, 24/7/365

HE LOVES US, He will always hold us in His hand. He will always be with us and never leave us.