I am writing this from the U.S. while Bill is in Yemen working alongside national colleagues to set up emergency health clinics in six refugee (IDP) camps. He will return to the U.S. in time for the World Mission Conference in Green Lake, WI (first week of July) after which we will spend a month speaking at churches, visiting family, and picking up supplies… with plans to be back in Goma (Dem Rep of Congo) by mid-August.
In Goma, preparations are ongoing to increase the ministry to homeless, vulnerable children from only Saturdays to full time. Builders are finishing the construction of a new two- story building for that purpose, and there is a wonderful team of 30 young people being trained for the tasks ahead. One who has offered to contribute is a young man named Isaac Here is his story.
Isaac was abandoned by his family at the age of 10 and grew up on the streets of Goma. He lived from meal to meal, slept wherever he could find shelter, and begged, stole, and bartered to stay alive.
             Isaac (left) in earlier years and later as a teenager having grown up on the street with some of his friends (in the red shirt)  

Life was both dangerous and hard on the streets. In fact, he told me that most of the friends in the picture above who he used to hang out with are no longer alive. Isaac eventually found his way to HEAL Africa. He heard the word of God, started to attend regularly, believed his life was worth something, was baptized, then found a job and turned his life around. Fast forward several years later is when I met him, now married with two children.
In February of this year, their house caught fire; there were no firetrucks or water hoses to extinguish the flames and within an hour it burned to the ground. Our church at HEAL Africa took up a collection to help them build a new house out of wood and tin sheets on the empty lot where their previous home had stood.
I saw him one day after church and asked him how it was going.

“The house is up”, he said, “but there was not enough money left to buy a door”. Here in Goma where there is much insecurity and armed robberies, a strong door is a necessity. His wife was home alone with two small children when Isaac was at work, and fearful. I asked him how much a door cost… when I gave him $30, the price of a door, he jumped up and down in excitement and rushed out of my office, shouting over his shoulder, “I am going to buy it now! My wife will be so happy!!”

When he learned of our work with street children, Isaac wanted to pitch in, believing God would want him to touch lives of children on the street, as had happened to him.
In Goma, a pair of shoes for a homeless child or a wooden door to give a family security are so much appreciated! Your gifts make that possible. Thank you from so many whose lives you have touched.
Defend the cause of the weak and the fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. Psalm 82:2-4