The blessings of a breakthrough!

Well.. it has been just over a week since I made a post.. Thought it was about time I sit down and write to you another one. It is Thursday morning... 8:14am. I usually wake up between 7 and 8 when I am here in the city and I just love the quiet time here in my room. I have recently purchased The Best of Passion CD and am really enjoying this time with the Father. 

So what have I been up to? Well, I have spent a lot of extra time out in the village, something I never really thought I would hear myself say! haha... but those little boys have become sooo precious to me, and I love it! I spent this past Friday-Tuesday out there with Caitlyn and the previous Saturday - Wednesday. You know... at first the village life was really rough for me.. all of the differences were considered bad in my mind. I didn't want to admit it, but it is true. But you know what? All of those once "bad" differences have simply become differences to me now. I don't mind at all bathing out of the basin now. I have come to really enjoy the quiet moments in candlelight.. I turn on my iPod with a quiet mix of worship music and just take my time. **Something funny to add... I'm actually using Uncle Peter's iPod because he takes mine to play Angry Birds while waiting for me to finish** So... all of these things that I thought were bad before have become just normal living out there. And why shouldn't I be able to get to that point? There are millions of people who have the normal life of living in the village.. I can do it too! 

So... onto the boys. I absolutely adore these boys so much. I have felt a little guilty for favoring the younger ones, but they are closer to the age of my previous students. I can hug and kiss them all I want! They kind of push away embarrassed the first few times.. but eventually a huge smile creeps onto their face and they burst out giggling from Auntie Lauren's kisses... it is absolutely precious to me.

I want to share with you one of the sweet moments I have had out at the village...

So serious when playing marbles with his buddies...

Ibra was a young boy that I noticed from my first visit out to Bombo. First of all, he is very small, but very tough looking. He was also very serious. During devotions he is serious... during singing he has his eyes tightly squeezed closed, his body swaying, and hands always lifted up towards Heaven... He is simply a very serious young man. I would try to joke with him to see him smile and "lighten up" a little, like a young boy should be, but it was always a struggle. Well, one of my responsibilities out at the land has been to get videos of all of the boys. We had taken Ibra's the first time around, but he was so serious and seemed so very unhappy about living in the home so I was asked to re-do his video. So, we redid his video on Abby's camera. However, Abby has somehow misplaced her connecting cable and we can't upload Ibra's second video. Sooooo, I had to tell him that we needed to shoot it again. The day we were trying to shoot his video a 3rd time, he seemed so upset again. Just unhappy, annoyed by the task, and somehow angry with me. 

Watching the boys play on the new basketball court..

I explained to him the importance of being happy in the video so that all of the people in America would see that he enjoys living in the homes. I also told him something my mom and I have discuseed before.. How we really do have control of our emotions. Mom and I have shared before that we could be in an argument when I was younger, but if the phone rang, it was very easy to answer the phone like absolutely nothing was bothering us. Ibra didn't seem to care. So I told him we could do it then, or he could choose to take some time to change his attitude and we would take it later on.

We finally finished the video, but because of his bad attitude and some previous events, he was asked to return some of his special gifts (candy, pencils, coloring books, toys, etc.) to Uncle Peter for a short time. He was very upset about this (as any child would be) and went to his room crying. 

Uncle Peter, the uncle of the younger boys home and my translator for important conversations and videos, and I began talking about the situation. I told him I felt like maybe Ibra was angry at me about something that I had said or done. He responded that Ibra has always done this. He gets angry and upset about something and just has this mood swing of being upset. We talked about the fact that there must be something more serious that is burdening this little boy's heart. Something he hasn't shared from his past, or something currently going on, but we had to figure out what it was to help him work through it so he doesn't always get in these horrible moods... he was deeply hurt and needs to heal.

He absolutely LOVES salsa!

I went and spent time with the other boys while Uncle Peter went to speak with Ibra in his room. About 10 minutes later Uncle Peter asked that I come and join them. He said that Ibra told him something he had never shared before. Ibra said that about once a week he begins thinking about things that happened to him when he was living with his parents. They would feed him poisoned food that would make him burn all on his insides. He was forced to eat it even though it was burning his mouth and all of the way down in his body. He said he thinks about it about once a week and it makes him sad. We had a looooong conversation about how Jesus doesn't want us to feel sad about things in our past. How he can feel thankful that he is living in a safe home now with people that love him and would never force him to eat poisoned food. We talked for about 15 or 20 minutes. He was crying off and on and just terribly sad.

At the end I asked him what he thought he could do each time he remembered and began feeling sad. He said that praying would help him. (by the way, he wants to be a pastor and a doctor when he grows up) We all agreed that next time he feels sad, he will approach an uncle, auntie, or even one of the older boys and ask them to pray for him to feel happy for where he is living now. I asked him if I could pray for him right there. And then I took a bold risk.. I asked if he would sit close to me and let me hold him as we pray.. This precious little boy that hardly ever smiled at me.. never responded to my hugs or anything.. and sure enough, he agreed!!! I took that little boy into my arms and hugged him as tightly as I could and prayed over him.

Enjoying some games together after our breakthrough..

And the most amazing things have happened since that day. Ibra smiles so much when I hug him... and I attack him with little kisses sometimes and he just giggles! At dinner one night he even sat next to me! (big improvement, no joke) He also held my hand.. he would squeeze it so tightly ever few minutes. And I don't know how many times I have heard him say "Auntie Lauren, come jump with me.. Auntie Lauren, come play with me. Auntie Lauren, come here!" Our relationship has been completely transformed! He responds to me so much now! It is absolutely incredible.

So.. that is just one of the little stories I wanted to share with you... It was such an encouragement to me and a blessing. I felt like this little boy was just so tough and I would be here for 3 months without ever feeling close to him... but I can't wait to hear him call out my name in his sweet voice this coming weekend! Enjoy some photos of this little man! and please continue to pray for him and the other boys that go through so much and are still working through everything in their past..

Such a sweet little guy!