Iradukunda!!! 

Iradukunda, the street boy loved by God

While travelling the regions of East Africa this past month preaching the gospel in schools, churches, and open air markets, I was taken to a town in the northwestern corner of Rwanda near Lake Kivu. I was to preach in a church for a Pastor David Hategekimana. After the service was finished, I walked with others back to a nearby bus stop to make our way back to Kigali. It was the late afternoon. While I sat waiting, two young boys walked up and began to watch me as I ate a piece of roasted corn. I was enjoying the corn to the extent that it took a few minutes for me to notice these two street boys. They were raggedly dressed with holes in their shirts and pants. They were both bare-footed and dirty from head to toe. I asked both of them through my nearby translator if they might like a piece of my corn. They quickly agreed. I broke my corn into three pieces and these two boys, most likely ten or eleven years of age, began to devour their own. Sitting in front of the store, I asked if my partner, Adewale, might sing some songs using his guitar to the crowd that was beginning to gather. As he sang the group of young men and boys huddled around. After a couple of songs, I took my Bible and shared the gospel story of grace and love. A little less than thirty of these, including my newly-found street boys, prayed the sinners prayer and trusted Christ as their Savior.



Adewale Sings in Storefront

The crowd dispersed and the the two boys continued standing nearby. I asked the one more destitute-looking, "What is your name?". He replied,  "Iradukunda". I then inquired of his parents. With somewhat of a hesitation in his voice he answered, "My mother has died and my father drove me out of his house once he remarried". "Then where do you sleep at night?", I asked this poor boy. He turned and pointed over the street and described to my translator some outdoor place that he and the other boy used for a shelter. My heart sank as I thought of this homeless child and the hardships that he faced in his day-to-day survival in this East African town. Iradukunda was not alone in his plight of child homelessness. Over 100 million children live on the streets of the world. According to UNICEF, 10 million of these live in Africa.

Iradukunda had now accepted Christ as his Savior. I took him into the small shop which we had sat in front, and bought him a muffin. He sat and ate his muffin quietly. My translator, Rama, asked another older boy some lengthy questions and then gave him some money. The older boy summoned Iradukunda and both left together. I asked Rama where the boys had gone. He stated that older boy was currently working at a car wash, and he had agreed to pay the boy 100 Rwanda Franc or about 15 cents for him to take Iradukunda there and wash his dirty body. I never saw the boys again. Iradukunda had been ushered away for a cleaning of his body. He had earlier received a cleaning of the soul after hearing the gospel.
I boarded a bus with the other men and headed for Kigali. As I sat in the rear of the bus next to Rama I asked, "So what is the meaning of the name 'Iradukunda'?". He replied that it meant "He (God) loves us". As I rode back home that evening I thought of the love of God for all the homeless children of Africa. I thought of His never-ending compassion for those that are rejected by their own. I arrived back at my place of rest. As I closed my eyes on a soft bed after a warm shower I thought of this abandoned boy that I had met along Lake Kivu. I thought of Iradukunda.