A Very Full Day

July 20

     Wow, in exactly one month I will be on a plane back to Texas. It’s hard to imagine what that’s going to be like, but I’m not going to get ahead of myself. In this type of ministry, it’s extremely important that we focus on the here and the now and take things one at a time as they come, otherwise it’s so easy to get overwhelmed and burnt out. That being said, we took our time with the things we had to do today.

     My day started out at 4 in the morning. I got up to help Evelin and some of the girls make tamales. I got to see the whole process from beginning to end, and that included eating them! Haha! I have photo documentation for evidence. I was lots of fun! Waking up at 4 in the morning wasn’t that bad either. I actually felt well rested.

     Part of the morning was also spent for bagging beans and rice for the food project. We went to a small village in the afternoon to distribute our first batch. Gracie knew of a family with a blind little boy, so she contacted his father and he took us to other needy families around the village including another family that had a little girl with down syndrome. We had a good time talking to the people in the village. The team seemed to enjoy it as well. A lot of families did not have any stable income. We were told that many people in the village have been out of work for quite a while now, so they were very blessed to receive what we had to offer.

     As soon as we finished distributing all the food, we had to rush back home because Gracie got a call from the fiscal saying that they were there at the mission with a one year old baby boy; so just like that, we had another little boy added to the group. Gracie didn’t know very much about his case but all she could tell us was that his father is into drugs and abuses him (as we could tell from the scars and cigarette burns on his body). The mother is no longer in the picture. We weren’t really sure how long we would be keeping him, but Jennifer enjoyed being his mommy for the night.

     After having dinner we gathered in the comodor for a special evening service. Gracie asked pastor Todd to share something with the group and we also had communion together and everyone got prayed over. I got pretty choked up as each of the girls and babies were prayed over as their stories played through my mind. I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on in their heads. I hope though that God somehow touched their hearts tonight, even if it was just for a brief moment.