Subunye Dan

This month has gone by way too fast! It was filled with so many wonderful and hard things.

So first of all the month began with one of our sons, Subunye Dan, running away after a Monday night devotion. He has been here at New Hope for the past five years, he is 12. I would have to say that he imobies the 'orphan heart'. When we first became a part of the family he would just stare at me with an expressionless face, was very cold to touch or even to the exchange of a simple greeting. Then he ran away just a few days later but was found in the streets of a nearby town. After a few weeks of working with the children in the garden, playing game with them, just showing love to them, and sharing God's Word with them Subunye began to warm up to me. In fact, he shared a piece of his jackfruit with me and would often come to greet me with a hug and a smile. Then there would be times where he would be very cold and nothing I did could get him to warm up to me. On one occasion I came to work with the children in the garden after school and they were eating jackfruit. Subunye had about half a jackfruit to himself, another boy had the other half. Three little girls, his sisters, asked him for a piece of his fruit but he snarled at them and hit them away. The other boy immediately took his jackfruit and cut it into equal parts for each to have. At that moment I could tell Subunye has some deep wounds from living life on the streets of Kampala for so long beginning as a 4 year old. I'm sure there is more to his story but here is what Subunye told me himself. Subunye hit the streets at the ripe young age of 4, sometime after his mother died. Perhaps he got lost one day and never found his home. He doesn't quite remember. All he knows is that he took to living on the streets which untold injustices happened to him. Until one day God brought him to New Hope Uganda when he was becoming too much a problem to police. It is extremely difficult for a street kid to come back to living in a family after being so used to a survival 'me' centered life. Much counseling, time, and love has been poured into Subunye by many people. However, Subunye kept hitting the streets when he would get in trouble for stealing or not doing his work, etc. This month alone he ran away twice which basically became the last straw. New Hope does not keep kids here against their will so they became destined to discover his relatives. This week they took Subunye to Kampala to drive him around where some of his relatives could possibly live. On the last leg of the trip Subunye saw a Petroil station he recognized and a street. They pulled up to the gas station and three men sitting on a bench outside the station recognized Subunye but by another name and he remembered them. Then they called another man over and this man was none other than the best friend of Subunye's dad! Yeah, that's right, Subunye's dad is still alive and is a believer! The man took them to Subunye's Auntie and the next day he was reunited with his dad, who is remarried. WOW! I am blown away by this story every time I think about it. It reminds me of one of those old Disney movies like Fivel or something. I love and miss Subunye and I will never forget the bond we had and how he showed me around the forest here at New Hope, showed me all about the oxen, and many other things. But overall I am greatly pleased that he is back with his dad and in a family. It won't be easy for him at all to readjust to living in his family. So please pray for him, pray that God would redeem this boy for His Glory.