How do kids without hope get hope?

I had a surprise for church yesterday. A friend of ours worked for 2 years to get a childrens choir to come to their church to perform for their normal Sunday service. Half listening to my wife, I left for church thinking I was seeing a boys choir from Brooklyn sing a couple of hymns. The one benefit of not listening very well is that sometimes the surprise is really, really great.

What I received as a gift yesterday was 45 minutes with 12 orphans from Uganda who sang, danced, and witnessed to me about how excited they were about life. They were residents in a village called Watoto that was started by two missionaries to care for children who had lost BOTH parents to AIDS or war. Their faith and witness left my eyes moist and my spirit lifted for most of the day.

Here are some facts they shared that made me stop -
In 2003 and estimated 12.3% of all children in sub-Saharan Africa were orphans.
In 2006, 2.9 million people died from AIDS. 2.1 million were in sub-Saharan Africa.
. . . . . . you probably don't need anymore, I didn't.

So what does this say to me. Well, one of the chapters in my book is "What Is Your ROCK". New Dads need to figure this out - and old Dads need to keep figuring this out. What I do know is that these 8 - 12 year old kids knew it - Jesus. Over and over again they talked of hope when many of us in the US look at them and wonder how they could have hope after all they have been through. It was cool - they were inspirational. If you ever get a chance to see the Watoto kids do it - they will change you.