Uganda 2010: The Congolese Boys (Dove Voice Band)

The last few days have been overwhelming, but in a very good way. Have you ever experienced something and known you will never be the same? I will try to describe some of what the last few days have held, though I don’t think I could ever adequately put words to all we have seen.

On Monday night our team was blessed with a singing group of 16 boys, ages 13-18, from the Congo. Many of these boys are orphans or refugees and each one of them have amazing testimonies of how God has saved them from addiction, homelessness, hunger, depression, ect. In the words of Robert, a local believer here, “Often those who have a passionate love for Jesus have experienced a great healing from Jesus”. We shared a meal with the group and then enjoyed a performance of singing and dancing. When you look in these boys eyes, see their smiles and watch how they sing to their Maker, their passion and love for Jesus is impossible to miss. By the end of the evening the Congo boys had all of us muzungos (white people) singing and dancing (further proof that white men can’t dance ;). We danced and sang in the front yard of the compound well into the evening hours. Eventually the lawn was flooded with neighbors and children, wanting to participate in all the commotion. It was a blast! We drowned out the Islamic “call to prayer” with our praise songs to Jesus. Before going home, the leader of the group mentioned he had not had coffee in over two years. That did it… We invited the group to an American cooked breakfast, complete with pancakes and syrup, eggs and coffee. When the boys came the next morning we blessed them with a soccer ball, frisbees (which they had never seen before) and one of our team T-shirts for each of them. I have never seen a single person so blessed by the gift of a new T-shirt. The boys kept the tags on the shirts as proof that they were brand new. They handled them as though they were glass and pressed their noses to them to inhale the “new t-shirt” smell. Before the boys left they gathered around us and sang a song in their own language, acapella. I remember thinking “This is the most beautiful thing I have ever heard”. Angels surely were rejoicing with us as the presence of God distinctly filled the room. I will never forget these boys and I think they would say the same of us. I was shocked at how much hope our team brought to this group by not really doing anything, but just by being there, by letting them know they are not forgotten.

That was Monday night. More stories to follow from the rest of the week… Thank you for your prayers. Be blessed!