Treasure -Innocent

Here's another one! I wrote this originally on April 10th in the year of our Lord 2010.

When I first met Innocent in 2008, he wasn’t Innocent. He was Ramadhani, or just Rama. If you ever come and visit us, have Lydia or Eli tell you the story about the transformation that the Lord has done in this boy’s life, its really one of my favorites. When Pastor Unity first brought him to us, he was rigid and mean from living on the streets. The other kids were terrified of him. Through a series of events involving prayer and discipline, Inno has made a complete one-eighty and is now an amazing young man of the Lord. When he got baptized he chose to have his name changed to Innocent to reflect what the Lord has done in his life. Ramadhani was his Muslim name, the name that was his on the street, his former life. However, Innocent is my son and he loves the Lord. On Friday, our older kids were fasting (they do that by their own volition from time to time) so at lunch time, Innocent just came into my office while I’m on the computer and lays on my concrete floor. That apparently is his place to be when he’s hungry. I love when him or any of my kids come to visit me in my office. One of my favorite things about Innocent is his sense of humor. He is so funny and some of my favorite times around TOA are joking around with him, Ema, Benny and Ray, as we laugh jumping between English and Swahili (even Spanish sometimes). He is ambitious to continue his education and learn English even though the cards have been stacked against him. He is almost fifteen years old, our oldest boy, and only in fifth grade. He didn’t start school at all until he came to TOA and it has resulted in him being very old for his grade. We’ve tried to get him to skip a grades, but the school system doesn’t really allow for that. In all of it though, we are confident that the Lord has big plans for this young man and he continues to be a wonderful blessing to us.