Tree Planted by the Water

HELLO! 

The past few days have been interesting. I met some “street kids” or in other words, homeless children. Some of their names are Jean Pierre, Sadid, and Emmanuel (Emmy), all about 9 to 11 years old. It broke my heart seeing them. It was interesting watching people interact with them and hearing their story. Everyone in the town seemed to know who they were, or what they were. Yet they seemingly did nothing about their condition. They are treated like thieves and outcasts. One boy only has a father, one has a mother that is “crazy” or absentminded, and another has only a mother and his father left for another family. Jean Pierre has some sort of skin infection or something I don’t know what it is. All of them are in serious poverty. The point I’m trying to get across is that this is real poverty and not just a “stubborn homeless” situation.
            I met another boy/guy named Jean Claude. He is 20 years old, one of ten children, and has one of the biggest hearts for the Lord that I have seen here in Rwanda. It’s so genuine! He and his older brother are the only two in his whole family that know the Lord and believe, which can be very difficult. Anyway, he came and spent time with me today. He went on to tell me that in 2010 he had a dream that Joe, Justin, and me came and preached and he was so excited because he felt it was truly from the Lord. He said that for so long the churches have not been preaching correctly about The Gospel and he was so glad we were here doing that. To say the least, he has a huge heart for the Word and a hunger for Christ. It’s inspiring. He eve said he wants to wash my clothes, just out of love. Crazy kid.
            Now to mesh it all together. Randomly while I was just sitting outside spending time speaking broken English and fragments of Kinyarwanda with Jean Claude, the street boys came to the gate (they speak no English, and have no education). So I went out and gave them hugs and greeted them. Jean Claude followed me out and then began loving on them and hugging them and smiling with them even more than me. I thought for sure he knew them but he said no he never met them but knew that they were homeless. That was so awesome to me because it showed me a real servant of God. For me, I’m here as a missionary to love on them and do those things but Jean Claude lives here and still he is going against the norm and loving them with so much intention. Jesus was shining through him and he didn’t even realize it. God works in EVERYTHING! So we invited them to church and they actually showed up! They even brought buddies. I really feel like God worked in them! After service I had the translator come speak with them, and I told them we are going to do all we can to help them but most of all we want to love them and have them worship with us. Then I prayed with them. They honestly are just needing love and I just want to give so much to them but I know I can't like God CAN! So I'm going to let Him! Praying for guidance with these kiddos.

I'm so energized by seeing God work! I will be learning a lot more about the Holy Spirit these next few days and I am so excited for what God is going to show me!

Inspiring Word: (Brought up by my teammate and roommate Joe Wishon)

"Do you love another because they deserve it or are you someone who loves? Do you forgive someone because they deserve it or are you one who forgives? Does God love because we deserve it or because God is love?"

Love you all! Thank you for the prayers!

Johnathan Romo

Romans 1:16

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water⁸  that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
Jeremiah 17:7-8