My eyes strained to adjust to the dim light; I could hear the laughter of little children, and I thought to myself “how could they find joy here?” I was standing in the most hellish place imaginable. It was a rat infested “hotel”, that smelled of urine and filth. It would be unimaginable for anyone to live in this place but what broke my heart was the knowledge that over forty children lived in these conditions. They slept in a pile of blankets because there was no beds and they ran around naked or with just underwear because they had nothing else.
To say we were taken aback by “Hotel Hell” as my dad called it would be an understatement but as we walked in we were greeted by the joy of the children that live there. I could see four sets of little eyes looking at us from under their filthy blankets lying on the floor and all we had to say was “Hola” and these beautiful children came running to meet us. They jumped into our arms and they wouldn’t let us put them down for the rest of the night.
Even while sharing a devotion about Jesus with the kids and passing out sandwiches and hot chocolate to all the residents, we held as many of the kids in our arms as we could at once. Nic Arnold, one of our team, danced with the little girls until he could barely stand. By the end of the night our arms felt like they were going to fall off but all I could think was how grateful I was that for one night I could be Christ’s arms to those sweet little children. He was able to hold His babies through us and I would not trade that for anything in this world. I also realized you can find God anywhere! Even in unbelievably horrible situations, He is there!
I am reading the story of a missionary to children who has experienced the horrors of war in Africa, and her story so reminded me of the presence of God even in pain. I want to close with a quote from her book “The Color of Grace” that illustrates what we saw in these children.
[quote]“I remember two little girls I spotted in Congo. They were holding hands when our team drove past them. They were covered in dirt and wore tattered dresses, and their feet were bare. Behind them stood a massive volcano that had erupted six years earlier and destroyed 40 percent of their city of Goma. Less than twenty kilometers to their left, warring rebel groups were fighting and people were dying in the crossfire. And what were these little girls doing? They were dancing. They were laughing and singing and radiating joy. Why? Because they had no idea they weren’t supposed to dance. They did not know they were supposed to be sad or unhappy. God was living inside them, amid all the destruction, and He was beaming from the inside out.”[/quote]
My eyes strained to adjust to the dim light; I could hear the laughter of little children, and I thought to myself “how could they find joy here?” I was standing in the most hellish place imaginable. It was a rat infested “hotel”, that smelled of urine and filth. It would be unimaginable for anyone to live in this place but what broke my heart was the knowledge that over forty children lived in these conditions. They slept in a pile of blankets because there was no beds and they ran around naked or with just underwear because they had nothing else.